Best driver for HP2800dtn under Win 10 64bit

[NEprinter]

I am using HP's UPD 6 to run my HP2800dtn.  This provides adequate B&W printing but will not do colour printing.  The printer is working fine based on internally-generated disgnostic and test printouts--plenty of well regulated colour in test prints.  But nothing from my PC, suggesting a driver issue.  Where do I find a good driver?  Can I use a driver for a different printer to run my 2800dtn?

[Bob_Headrick]

There is a driver supplied through Windows Update that may be a better match for your HP Business Inkjet 2800 for Windows 10.  Do the following: go to the Devices and Printers folder, right click on the Business Inkjet 2800 printer, Printer Properties, Advanced, New Driver, Next, Windows Update, (wait a few minutes for the list to repopulate), select HP (not Hewlett-Packard or Hewlett Packard) for the manufacturer, select the HP Business Inkjet 2800 PCL 5, Next, Finish, Apply, OK.

[NEprinter]

As the original post stated my printer was using HP's universal Driver 6; your suggestion invokes UPD 5.  I went thru your steps and found

1. No "Apply" command

2. The process complained that my machine did not have UPD5 aboard so I went thru the process a second time and apparently it now swapped out my UPD 6 for UPD 5.

Now the printer won't print anything, B&^W or colour, if I present it with an image.  It does do B&W ie text. The options to rotate and scale are also missing from the dialog string ie I say "print" and it does whatever it wants.

Using UPD 6 I at least had some control over size and orientation which is better than what I now have. Do you have other thoughts>?  MY previous printer was a BIJ 1000 which did a really good job on everything until it went nuts.  I bought two of these huge 2800 machines  and cannibalized one to get one working copy with good heads and ink lines and would like to be able to use it to the fullest...... 

[Bob_Headrick]

The "Apply" box should be available after you click Finish when changing the driver in the Advanced tab.  Is your driver now listed as the HP Business Inkjet 2800 PCL 5?

I do not have a Business Inkjet 2800 to test, but I tried the above driver on my networked Officejet 276dw and tried printing an image (the one above, printing from Paint) and it worked fine. There were also options for paper size (in the Paper/Quality tab) and orientation (in the Finishing tab).

[NEprinter]

"Apply" is greyed out.  The printer is using the UPD5, apparently, although it once again complained that the driver was not installed on this machine.  Did not print a test page properly (does with UPD6); jammed.

[NEprinter]

OBvious driver issue since printer produces well printed "Configuration Page" and other such from internal menus in the printer. 

Any other ideas?

[Bob_Headrick]

Did you use the previous method to select the Business Inkjet 2800 driver?  You may need to be logged in as an administrator.

[NEprinter]

Yes I used your method to install the driver.  Yes, as far as I know (I thoroughly dislike Win10) I am signed in as Administrator.  At least when the machine shuts itself down for some unknown reason I sign in again on reboot with Administrator password. But this machine has a mind of its own and not a very good one.

I am thinking of using the original software CD for the 2800 as an experiemnt. OR the same CD but for the BIJ 1000 which always worked fine.  The issue, I think, is Win 10.

At this point I have "Removed" the version of 2800stn from the Printers folder using the Remove Printer function and started over again.  There is an icon for the printer but right-clicking on it does not produce the required screens for checking the driver etc. IT appears to not be recognized and/or to have failed to recognize the driver . Multiple reboots do not help. 

[NEprinter]

The HP Install CD wants me to "Add a Printer" using the O/S.  This brings up a window in which the O/S "searches" for a device but doesn't find any.  Obvious problem. The Windows process for adding a printer offers no solution---how do I get the O/S to see my 2800dtn? Somehow there is an icon in the printers folder which is plainly labelled HP Business InkJet 2800 but it has no functionality and I don't know how it got there after I removed the previous version.

[NEprinter · Accepted solution]

Printer is running now, printing in colour, through the Device Manager  instead of Printers and Devices, which does not seem to function properly in Win 10 (which I do not like; Win7 was considerably friendlier and better).  Device Manager was able to find the printer and also the PCL5 driver and entangled the two together so I have reasonably good printer functionality.