How to remove phantom printer

[Caesar1948]

I've been trying to wirelessly install a B210a on a home network. I've finally given up on that effort, for reasons that I won't go into in this thread. I decided to revert to a USB connection. First, a little background.

This printer has been in use in this household for about 3 years. A person who had just a little knowledge about such things carried out the installation, and he never got the wireless connection set up. Now that person is out of the picture, and I've come in to handle the household IT chores.

My first step was to uninstall the printer and start fresh.  Before I proceeded, I noticed there seemed to be two instances of the B210a on the system, but in devices and printers one of the icons was grayed out. I deleted both. I also deleted all the HP printer software from Programs.

Now I've reinstalled the printer with a USB connection. I found it odd that the printer installed as "HP PhotoSmart Plus B210 Series (Copy 1)," but I let that slide. I opened a Word document for a test run. In the Print dialog, I was surprised to again see two listings of the same printer! The extra printer appears with exactly the same name, minus the "(Copy 1)" stuff. To add to the confusion, it also displayed a message: "Error—Delete: 3 documents waiting."

Huh? What's going on here? How do I delete those three documents, and how do I get rid of the phantom printer?

[MarcelusWallace · Accepted solution]

Hello, and welcome to the HP Community @Caesar1948,

I understand you are having some trouble installing your HP Photosmart Plus. I will be happy to help.

To resolve the error message "Error—Delete: 3 documents waiting", below, I have posted a link to a document that offers some troubleshooting solutions to this issue. 

HP Printers - Print Jobs Stuck in Print Queue (Windows)

As for the "phantom printer", check out the link below. This document offers instructions on how to uninstall the printer software, and remove the printer from the devices list.

HP Printers - Uninstalling the Printer Software (Windows)

Please try out all of the steps, in order and get back to me with the results. If this helps show appreciation for my reply by hitting the “thumbs up” below, or click the "Accept as Solution" button if I have helped you reach a solution.

I hope this helps, and have a great day.

[Caesar1948]

Good evening, Mr. Wallace—

I'm grateful for your thorough and very clear response. I regret that I'm now away from the location where this problem occurred, and I cannot try the answers you provided just yet. However, I'll return to the home in about two weeks, and I will try your recommendations and let you know how things go.

I hope you won't mind if I impose further. This second situation involves the same printer, and I feel the two problems are very closely related. I spent two days trying to fix a problem where the family could not get their B210a to connect wirelessly. I explained the situation in some detail in the other thread. Would you mind looking over that discussion and offering whatever solution you can. Thank you!

[MarcelusWallace]

Hi @Caesar1948,

After looking at your other issue with connecting your printer wirelessly, I did find a couple links that offer some troubleshooting solutions to this issue. Please try out all of the steps, in order and get back to me with the results.

HP Printers - Printer Not Found During Network Driver Setup (Windows)

HP Printers - Printer Does Not Maintain Wireless Connection

If this helps show appreciation for my reply by hitting the “thumbs up” below, or click the "Accept as Solution" button if I have helped you reach a solution.

I hope this helps, and have a great day.

[Caesar1948]

Again, I thank you very much for your generous help. I have one more question: How do I reset the printer to its like-new factory defaults? I found a thread in this community that seemed to answer the question, but the issue in that thread was that the user's printer heads needed to be realigned. The answer involved starting the printer, then pulling the power cord from the back of the printer, and THEN unplugging the cord from the wall for at least 15 seconds. (I waited till the green power indicator on the brick faded to black.) I don't feel that the steps I took really took the printer back to its fresh-out-of-the-box condition.

My gut tells me that's one step I should take before I'll ever solve the problem. FWIW, the owner is not one to keep such things as installation disks or even user manuals. I know—I can get that software online, and I have done so.

[MarcelusWallace]

Hi @Caesar1948,

Here are the steps to restore factory defaults on the HP Photosmart Plus B210a.

Setup Menu (Picture of a wrench in the top right corner of touchscreen) > Tools > Restore factory defaults

I hope this helps, and have a great day.

[Caesar3]

Thank you very much. I'll get back to let you know how things go—coupla weeks.

[Caesar1948]

My dear Mr. Wallace:

It gives me great pleasure to report that your suggestion did the trick! Just moments ago, I finally cleared those documents that were stuck in the print queue. I shut down both the printer and the computer. Then I restarted everything, reopened a Word document, and started a print job. Bottom line: I printed the document wirelessly! Yes! Those steps seem to have fixed the problem of not being able to print via WiFi. Many thanks!

Now, one more observation: The Print dialog in MS-Word still shows two instances of what appear to be the same printer., but with just slightly different nomenclature--

1. HP Photosmart Plus B210 series (Copy 1)--status: Offline.

2. HQ31B0F4 (HP Photosmart Plus B210 series--status: Ready. [This is the one I used to successfully print wirelessly.]

Both items appear in Devices and Printers. #1 shows "Status: Offline / Status: Not connected."

My intuition tells me I can and should simply delete #1, but I don't want to stir up trouble, if you get my meaning. Shall I proceed and delete it?

My next trick: Get this printer set up to work with another Windows 10 laptop that my granddaughter uses. Wish me luck!

[MarcelusWallace]

Hi @Caesar1948,

Everything should be fine if you delete the printer #1 that shows "Status: Offline / Status: Not connected."

Best of luck with getting the Windows 10 laptop set up with the printer. If you have any issues feel free to ask any questions, and I will do my best to help.