HP Envy 5540 no longer has a colour print option on Windows 10

[K-Edin]

It is ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING that Hewlett Packard have failed to find a proper solution for this repeated problem, impacting users of their printer with most widely used PC software Windows 10.   FIX This has been reported now for over 2 years and still happening.  I have lost the colour print option AGAIN - the third time in 2 years.  FIX THIS PLEASE HP !!!!!!!!!

End users in 2020 should not be required to do regedit and things to get a printer to print in colour.  And we should not be forced to go back and find a CD install disk to install original HP software that worked.  The current versions downloadable online should have fixed this.

Lost the will to live with this and tempted to go buy a different make of printer.  Shockingly AWFUL customer service.

[K-Edin]

OK, having got my rant off my chest - and the colour print option having failed for the third time, I again went through all the online HP diagnostics to no avail.  I bit the bullet and bought online support (see below) and spoke to a very helpful ACTUAL HUMAN on the HP Help Desk (or actually a Third Party help desk, but seemed to work).  And I HAVE COLOUR PRINTING !  Yipee.

First the good news - apparently if you have an HP Instant Ink account you are entitled to FREE support by a human - so use this, or if not got an account get one perhaps.

As you can imagine, the HP Support guy was not at all surprised by this issue - must be very common (so WHY haven't you fixed it HP ???)

In case of use this is what he did in my case:

 1) Firstly changed the printer Network options to use a Fixed IP address - used the same one I had, but set to always keep this (somewhere in Control Panel / Devices but wasn't taking notes at thisstage)

 2)  Then deleted the printer in Control Panel / Devices and Printers

 3) Then re-added the printer - but apparently importantly, chose to Add Manually using TCP / IP Address 

              - avoided using Autodetect but instead manually put in the IP address set in step 1 - eg 192.nnn.n.nn

              - manually selected the printer type

               - importantly when it now came up with the option selected replace current driver

               - selected Do NOT Share Printer 

Having done this the colour print option magically reappeared

So still NIL POINTS to HP for (a) not fixing the root problem and (b) useless online diagnostics and "chat tool" which achieved nothing at all for this basic issue.  But top marks to the one human being who answered the support call.

[PitRejection]

 Thanks - I'll give this a go. I'm on instant ink and have wasted about 8 pages trying to get this going, so I'll try and get those back. Any ideas how to get hold of the instant ink support actual person?

[pavo57]

I installed from the disc and also unchecked updates and did not use the internet service

Now when opening printer preferences/paper quality there is the selection for black and white or colour the two buttons which were previously missing

[KrazyToad]

@pavo57

I have gone through your Post and would like to help
 

I suggest you uninstall the printer driver from root level and download the full feature software

1.) In Windows, search for and open Programs and features 
2.) Select your HP Printer 
3.) Select Uninstall 
4.) In Windows, search for and open Devices and printers 
5.) In the Devices and Printers windows look for your HP printer. If you see it listed right-click on it and choose ‘Delete’ or ‘Remove Device’ 
6.) Open up the run command with the “Windows key + R” key combo.
7.) Type printui.exe /s and click Ok. (Note: there is a space in between “printui.exe” and “/s”) 
8.) Click on the “Drivers” tab 
9.) Look for HP Printer driver. If you see it Click on it and click Remove at the bottom 
10.) Select Ok 
11.) Select Apply and Ok on the Print Server Properties windows 
12.) Close Devices and Printers
13.) Restart the computer and download the Full Feature Software from Here and follow the onscreen Instructions

Keep me posted how it goes

If the information I've provided was helpful, give us some reinforcement by clicking the "Solution Accepted" on this Post and it will also help other community members with similar issue.
 

[rowenas]

Thanks so much for posting this Xela698 - it worked for me too!

After hours and hours of trying so many things....thanks so much for sharing 🙂 

[teiafra]

I have the same issue with a new PC and is absolutely unacceptable that after almost 2 years it was not yet fixed.

All the proposed solutions are workaround to overcome the lazyness of HP to solve and release a decent driver.

I'm also an HP InstantInk subscriber: without the possibility to print with colors with this PC, this subscription became totally unsuseful.

Do you want to commit to release a new driver, please???

[teiafra]

THANKS, this was the easiest and cleanest workaround that helped me to solve it.

I do not understand why this solution, official from HP although temporary until a good driver is available, is so hidden into the forum.

Thanks a lot again

[seeard]

This did the trick - thanks very much!