HP Officejet prints everything in black and white from Windows: works fine from mobile & via HPemail

[londoner123]

At home with only a wired Windows 10 PC and the HP Offciejet 3831 wireless printer.

My tricolor 302XL cartridge ran out of ink so I replaced it. Sadly don't remember if it ever printed colour before I noticed something blakc and white that I had intended to print in colour. 

Printing a photo from my mobile works fine - colourful. Also tried sending a file I called:

sz180303PrinterTarget.pdf

to the printer's email address - works fine too.

Problem:everything printed 'normally' from the PC inc via Photoshop and directly from Chrome comes out in black and white only.  No colour.

So printing 

sz180303PrinterTarget.pdf

 from Windows 10, Chrome launches it's printing dialog and I see the doc in colour, but the printer prints B&W, even though 'colour' is selected in the print dialog drop-down. 

Here is a link to the actual PDF I used: sz180303PrinterTarget.pdf

Switched off the printer and uninstalled the HP software and drivers.

W10 Device Manager showed no trace after the uninstall.

Waited ten mins then switched the printer and PC back on again, re-downloaded the full HP Suite for the 3830 series.  Installed everything and ran the HP Print and Scan Doctor.

No difference, still black and white only.

Uninstalled everything again, switched off the printer and PC again,  rebooted, re-installed everything - no difference. 

Connected to the wifi my mobile prints the hp.com webpage correctly in colour, the PC prints the same hp.com website screen in black and white.

When selected at the printer or via the Windows HP Software or HPConnected.com website, the printer demo page is in full colour. The print quality report shows the printer colour cartridge is nearly full and that both are 'genuine'.

The Windows 10 Printer Test page prints in Black and White.

I have tried pausing the print queue to examine what is sent to it - there I can see, just below 'Layout' that the pdf is intended to print in colour. Prints in B&W though.

I then reprinted it, choose 'black and white' from the Chrome PDF print dialog - sure enough, the job sent to the print queue has the 'Black and White' radio button preselected. Prints in B&W.

So it really looks as if the printer firmware (at the latest level) is differentiating between jobs sent from my phone or via HP's email Cloud Print facility - they all print fine.  Jobs sent from the Windows print queue only print in B&W. Does HP have something against the W10 print spooler?

Help!

[Jeet_singh · Accepted solution]

@londoner123,

Thanks for engaging in HP support Forums! This is a wonderful location to converse with the community, get assistance and find tips! I understand you are having issues while printing from your HP OfficeJet printer. Don't worry as I have a few suggestions which should help you resolve this issue.

To provide you with an accurate solution, I'll need a few more details:

Have you recently made any changes on the printer before the issue started?

Are you able to make a copy from the printer?

Let's try these steps here: This basically looks like a driver issue, let's first try to do a clean install of the printer issue, If the issue persists, I would suggest the next option would be to install the printer using Windows built-in drivers as this should do the trick.

Perform a Hard reset on the printer and make sure that the printer is connected directly to the wall outlet and not to the surge protector.

With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer and also unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.

Remove USB cable, if present.

Wait for 2-3 minutes, press and hold the power button on your printer for about 30 seconds to remove any additional charge.

Now plug back the power cable straight to a wall outlet without any surge protector or an extension cord and then plug back the power cord to the printer.

Turn on the printer and wait till warm-up period finishes and the printer is idle.

Let’s first try and make a “photocopy” to determine whether the issue is with the printer or not. Place a document on the scanner glass and choose “Copy” option. If the printer is making a good copy, then the printer hardware is fine.

First, unplug the USB cable from the printer if present.

Go to Control panel – Programs and feature – Select all the HP Officejet printer entries and uninstall them.

Now go to Control panel – Devices and printer – Select all the printer entries and remove the device.

Press the "windows key" + "r" to get the "Run" window open - Type "printui.exe /s" (There is a space between .exe & /) and press enter.

Under print server properties, go to drivers - remove any entry there as well.

Again, go to the Run window, type – “c:/programdata” – Go to Hewlett Packard folder, remove any printer related folders & files.

Restart your computer.

Now click on this link: http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software13/COL61240/mp-147826-1/OJ3830_Full_WebPack_1119.exe to download and install the full feature software.

Connect the USB cable if prompted and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Once done, restart the computer and then try to print and check if that works.

If the issue persists, Uninstall the printer software and install the printer with windows built in drivers.

Watch this YouTube video to uninstall the printer software.

You can also refer this document for more steps.

Install the printer with windows builtin driver.

You can refer this YouTube video to install the printer.

For more steps refer this HP Document, follow from the Step no. 3

Once you install the printer, change the bellow settings to print in color.

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.

Please let me know if this resolves the issue, or if you require further assistance!

Eagerly waiting for your response!

I hope you have a good day ahead,

And Feel free to ask your queries as this forum has some of the best people in the world available and ready to help.

Regards,

[londoner123]

Thanks Jeet, your support worked and it's fixed - thanks!

The printer worked fine as a colour copier. The thing you suggested that I hadn't done was to remove the drivers via:

printui.exe /s

Then a reinstall of the full HP package. Now printing in colour.

Whatever they're paying you, it's not enough 🙂

[Jeet_singh]

@londoner123,

Thank you for the update,
I appreciate your time and efforts, 

I'm glad I could contribute towards resolving the issue and finding the solution you were looking for.
Thanks for taking the time to let the community know about the solution.

You've been great to work with and it has been a genuine pleasure interacting with you.
I hope both you and your product works great and remain healthy for a long time 😉 

Take care now and do have a fabulous week ahead. 🙂
Regards,