Getting a PhotoSmart C5580 to work with a Bluetooth connection in Windows 8

[dorian78]

I've had a PhotoSmart C5580 for several years.  It worked great with my old laptop running Windows 7, both with USB and Bluetooth.  My new laptop has Windows 8 64-bit, and the USB connection works fine, but I can't get the Bluetooth connection to work for the life of me.  The old laptop needed a USB Bluetooth adaptor, but the new laptop theoretically has Bluetooth built in. 

I'm fairly tech savvy, and have searched through various online help documents and tried the HP Install Wizard, but they mostly talk about USB and Wireless and not about Bluetooth.  The control panel has both the USB and BT printers installed.  The BT is currently marked as the default printer.  The BT menu on the printer is marked to be visible, and the BT options on the computer seem fine too, as the computer totally sees the BT printer.  The Windows 8 list of devices (both BT and otherwise) currently lists both the USB printer, which it says is disconnected cause the USB cable is indeed disconnected, and the BT printer, which it says nothing about.

Every time I remove the BT printer and re-add it, the HP full software/driver installs itself again, and says it's successful (even though the software and driver for the USB connection are already installed and working fine). 

The only problem is that the HP Solution Center says that the BT printer is disconnected.  It really tells me nothing more than that.  It's the same message my old laptop would give me if I didn't have the USB Bluetooth adapter plugged in, but here the BT is built-in, and the computer says it's on and working fine.  So I'm a bit stumped at this point.  Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

[AlwaysNeon]

First, Dorian, did you upgrade to Win8 or did it come pre-loaded on your PC? Secondly, are you installing from the driver download available through HP? If you are installing from the original CD, I would recommend uninstalling the software (and temporarily unplugging the USB cord) and following the link below to the full-feature software:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=mp-109095-1&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en...

Just to let you know, but BT is a technology that has dropped in increasingly in the last few years with many tech manufacturers discontinuing support for the underused technology. I will have to independent testing with my own system and see if I am able to get it to work here. 

Keep me posted! 

[dorian78]

The new computer came pre-loaded with Windows 8.  The CD wouldn't install on the new computer, as it said it was incompatible with Windows 8, so I downloaded the software/driver from the HP website.  If BT is simply no longer supported, then so be it.  It seemed like a very specific issue that was happening.  I'm more than happy to connect via WiFi, but I don't believe that the C5580 is WiFi-capable.  Let me know what you discover, and thanks for taking the time to look into it!

[AlwaysNeon]

Unfortunately, this printer comes from the hazy time when tech developers were trying to find the best way of connecting devices to a personal network. Since BT is a peer-to-peer communication type it just was not as reliable as wireless, which is why it has dropped off in use. Because of this the technology is severely limited in what it can accomplish over the connection. 

What are the specific functionalities that are not currently functional? If you search through Metro you should be able to find "Printer Toolbox" and this may also give you a few more features. 

In general, I think that BT should work for normal printing requests, however, if you want to scan or perform more of the diagnostics I would recommend connecting the printer directly to the computer with the USB for those jobs. 

Keep me posted! 

[dorian78]

Scanning and the like never worked over BT, so I'm not concerned about that.  Basic printing is all I was wanting to do.  I'll check your suggestion when I can find time this week and let you know what I can.  Thanks.

[dorian78]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by searching "Metro."  Opening up HP Solution Center, I see a Printer Toolbox option.  It opens an interface with several choices about checking ink levels and printing diagnostic/test pages.  None of those actions work - they all give the error message that the computer is unable to establish two-way communication with the printer. 

In the end, I have full usage of everything over the USB connection and no functionality over the BT connection.  All I really ever had over BT was basic wireless printing, and that's all I was hoping to have, as it's inconvenient to move the laptop in and hook up the USB every time I want to print.  Any other suggestions would be great, but it sounds like I may just have to wait until my printer dies and I finally get one with actual wireless networking.

[dorian78]

Well, one final update.  It appears that the problem has somehow solved itself, or more likey it never really was a problem.  Trying to print via the bluetooth connection via a program like Word seems to be working just fine.  I discovered this when I clicked print when I thought the USB cable was connected and it wasn't actually.  The Solution Center still says the BT connection is not working properly, but it seems it's just confused.  As long as my programs are printing (and they might have been all along and I never even tried cause it said it wasn't set up right), I'm a happy camper.  Thanks for trying to look into finding a solution, and I'm sorry that it turned out to most likely just be an error in the software recognizing that everything was actually setup properly.  I look forward to getting several more years' use out of my printer.

[AlwaysNeon · Accepted solution]

I am grateful to hear this and I am going to pass that along to our engineers so they won't worry. I hadn't even really thought about that, but if you leave the USB cord plugged it it will disable the BT adapter in the machine - which would cause BT prints to fail but not USB prints. 

Have a wonderful day! 

[dorian78]

Well, it was always the case that the BT wouldn't work when the USB was plugged in.  Even in Windows 7, I'm pretty sure that's how it was designed.  I just never thought to actually test the BT connection because the Solution Center said it wasn't working, even though it apparently was working just fine.  Hopefully you and the engineer team can now have a quick reply to anyone else who runs into the problem in the future.  Thanks again!