HP OfficeJet Pro 6969 wakes up middle of night and PRINTS PAGES OF STUFF

[cdmckeon]

My wakes up by itself, and prints pages of configuration data and quick start guides. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. This wastes the ink I pay monthly for, not to mention MY paper. How do I entirely stop this outrage? The printer is wirelessly connected to my windows 7 64bit computer and plugged directly into the wall. Thank you.

[sabretooth04]

Do you have a router?  Are you using Wireless Direct?

[cdmckeon]

I am using a router to connect to the internet. What's wireless direct? I'm wirelessly connected to my computer...whatever the machine does out of the box. I purchased the monthly ink option, so the printer presumably communicates with HP periodically to update HP on my ink usage so they know when to send more ink.

And BTW, this is a new behaviour over the last month or so, not since I installed the printer.

[sabretooth04]

Well printers just don't print Quick Start Guides by themselves.   Make sure Wireless direct is disabled in the printer.  Don't know what that is?  Use Google or read your User Guide.

Someone in your house or someone knows your SSID password to your network.   Change your SSID network name and password.   As far as the config sheet printer, reset your printer back to Factory Defaults.   Set it up again.  Now try.

[cdmckeon]

Well, mine did. If I disable wireless direct, will I be able to print wirelessly? What I've read seems to indicate that I'd have to use a cable. 

I live in the country. There's nobody in range. In any case, why would they print quick starts or configuration pages? 

I couldn't find online how to disable wireless direct for this specific printer.  The instructions I found didn't match up with the menu options on my 6968 unit. 

[sabretooth04]

Downloading the User Guide it says...

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-officejet-pro-6960-all-in-one-printer-series/8289579/manuals

To turn on Wi-Fi Direct
1. From the printer control panel, touch or swipe down the tab at the top of the screen to open the
Dashboard, and then touch (Wi-Fi Direct).
2. Touch ( Settings ).
3. If the display shows that Wi-Fi Direct is Off ,

Make sure it is off.

Assuming you have done everything else, turn off all computers/tables/phones at night.   See what happens.  If the Quick Start guide prints, your network may be hacked or you have pending documents somewhere.

[cdmckeon]

Wi-fi direct is indeed OFF. It shows 0 of 5 devices. My kids are away for a couple weeks. When they're back I'll check to see if that 0 becomes a higher number. My computer is usually asleep all night (being a laptop). My kids computers and tablets are asleep overnight, too (not switched off, tho). 

I'm not sure what phones, tablets or computers in the household have to do with this. Are you saying that my computer or some other device is somehow causing quick start or config pages to print randomly late at night (like, 2am)? It makes no sense a person is actually doing it thru hacking into my network. Unless it's some byproduct of something else being done unrelated to printing. I mean, I'm IN the country. It's rural here. Not many houses or networks around and certainly no strangers lurking, they'd be spotted instantly.

Anyway, this is indeed a random problem...it doesn't happen every night, just randomly every once in awhile. 3 times so far in the last maybe 2 mos. I do appreciate your help. Thanks.

[sabretooth04]

Well let's make sure.   Completely deinstall and remove the printer and all software.

Reset the printer back to Factory Defaults.  Reset the printer back to Network Defaults.

Reinstall the printer from scratch.