Lots of trouble with Envy 4520

[russell15324]

1. when trying to connect printer (for instance, when disconnecting and reconnnecting while troubleshooting), sometimes printer not found. have to restart.

2. once printer connected, sometimes it randomly goes offline and randomly comes back.

3. when online, sometimes scanner just stops working. says "overview scan timed out" or similar.

Have already installed all updates to computer, and restarted printer, and restarted router. Already installed HP Printer Drivers v3.1 for OS X. Am I missing something obvious? If the answer is just to keep uninstalling and reinstalling and rebooting differnet junk until it works, I'm just returning htis printer immediately and never buying an hp device again. It's such a horrible experience dealing with this thing.

[MarcelusWallace]

Hello, and welcome to the HP Community @russell15324,

I understand you are experiencing some connection issues with your HP ENVY 4520. I will be happy to help.

Below, I have posted a link to a document that offers 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 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.

[russell15324]

Under step two, the link you gave says to click a button that isn't there on the website.

"In the Questions or keywords search box, type Network Configuration Page, and then press Enter."

There is no "questions or keywords" box and no link to a network configuration page. So there goes that.

Why is there not simply a driver you can install for this printer that handles all of this including diagnostics?

[russell15324]

For anyone else seeing this page, the network configuration page info is here: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04707093

[russell15324]

So it got me to this point: "If the network name on the printout is the correct name of your wireless network, but your printer drops its connection to the network during communication issues, continue to the next solution to reconnect the printer to your wireless network."

I already disconnected and reconnected the printer from the wireless network. 

[MarcelusWallace]

Hi @russell15324,

Thank you for getting back to me.

Even if you have tried a step previously, I still recommend trying all of the steps in the document in order to ensure you have exhausted all troubleshooting options.  Skipping steps may result in unsuccessful troubleshooting.

 I hope this helps, and have a great day.

[russell15324 · Accepted solution]

That's ridiculous. That was the only step in the document, everything was about how to get to that step.

I just want to share the fact that I now also tried on a windows computer. Same inability to connect. Even the HP software suite for windows said it couldn't find the printer, of all ironies.

Thanks to the terrible product quality and "turn it off and on again" style of support I just returned the printer, and am shopping for a new one from a different brand, with a determination never to buy from HP again.

That's the solution, unfortunately. Return your product and buy a Dell or Epson.