ENVY 5541 auto duplex and colour stopped

[RonRon911]

Model No 5541.  

Hi, I'm desperate for some help, please.  My printer is important for supporting my children's schooling at home right now during COVID, so I'd welcome your help.

Last week, my printer stopped auto duplex printing and also reverted to B/W printing.  I've uninstalled the drivers from root (as per other forums), and no change.  The test page prints B/W, though the Status report includes colour! (it also says the duplexer is installed).

I've used the HP Scan Doctor and tools, but no errors identified.  I've tried to print with the HP Smart App on PC, and even after setting the colour option on PDF, it prints to monochrome and defaults to monochrome in the settings.

It seems to my untrained eye this is a compatibility issue between HP and Win10.  The printer itself has clearly been capable of printing auto duplex and colour until recently.  Interestingly, the properties boxes have changed from two weeks ago, and default to an old style I remember from Win 7 days as opposed to the modern properties box.

I'd welcome your thoughts please, on how best to move forward.

Thanks for your help.

[sandytechy20]

@RonRon911

Welcome to HP support community.

Update the printer firmware

Follow the steps mentioned in this HP document to update firmware:- Click here

Enable the Auto duplexing:-

1. Go to Control panel – Devices and printers.
2. Right-click on HP Envy 5541 and select “Printing preferences”.
3. Under the Paper/Quality or Layout tab, select the 2-sided / duplex printing option.
4. Apply and save the settings. Now try to print.

Enable the color printing option:-

1. Open Devices and Printers by clicking the Start button , and then, on the Start menu, clicking Devices and Printers.
2. Right-click the printer that you want to use, and then click Printing preferences.
3. Make your choices, and then click OK.
4. Under option Print color select color , then the OK button.

Let me know how it goes.

To thank me for my efforts to help you, please mark my post as an accepted solution so that it benefits several others.

Cheers.

[RonRon911]

Hi Sandy,

Thanks for your reply.  Re the duplexing, I am able to follow the steps you suggested but the duplex still asks for a manual feed, rather than auto printing on both sides.  This functionality seems to have disappeared.  It feels like the printer software doesn't recognise it is an auto-duplex device.  So, this is the same as it was.

Regarding colour, I changed the colour ink cartridge to see if that helped.  The aligning page printed in colour, which was great.  I made a copy of the aligning page from the printer directly, and that was fine too.  However, when I printed any other document from the PC, it was black and white.  I am able to print in colour from my phone, so definitely a software issue!  There are no options in normal or advanced settings for colour.  Again, it is as if the software doesn't recognise the printer is colour.

I ran Firmware checks, and it says everything is up-to-date, as expected.  I had previously uninstalled all the drivers.

Unfortunately, still only manual duplex and no colour from the PC.  So something weird happening between Win10, HP software, and the printer.  I would still welcome your further thoughts.

Thanks for your help.

[sandytechy20]

@RonRon911

This might require one on one interaction to fix the issue.

I request you to talk to HP support.

They might have multiple options to help you with this.

1. Click on this link - https://support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp?openCLC=true
2. Select the country.
3. Enter the serial of your device.
4. Select the country from the drop-down.
5. Click on "Show Options".
6. Fill the web-form. A case number and phone number will now populate for you.

I hope that helps.

To thank me for my efforts to help you, please mark my post as an accepted solution so that it benefits several others.

Cheers.