My HP Envy 5540 will only print in black and white.

[Saints76]

Thanks for your input AlanP2, much appreciated. I guess we'll just have to wait for the update then?

Any HP techies monitoring this forum, please advise what HP are doing about this issue!!!!

[MikeMulberry]

Exact same problem here, thanks for sharing your discovery that you could revert to previous version of HP Printer Assistant Software. 

How did you manage to revert back?

Thanks!

[MikeMulberry]

I found the below related posting elsewhere in this forum with an apparent solution!

 I haven't time at the moment to verify but want to pass along to you others asap:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Inkjet-Printing/HP-ENVY-5540-won-t-print-in-color/td-p/6113984/page/3

Scroll down to the posting dated:

07-09-2017 04:04 PM

I still have one week to return this product to BestBuy and if this can't be resolved, it's going back.

[AlanP2]

Hello MikeMulberry.  Fortunately, as I bought the printer last year I still had the software that came with it, file EN5540_72, so I could uninstall the updated software (uninstall all the HP programs in the Program list in Control Panel) and install the earlier version.  I also unticked the 'software auto update' during installation so that it would not update to the latest version without my say so.

I have had a look through the other postings on this issue that you mentioned (thanks) and see that they also point out the lack of the the Print in Greyscale option.  The solution suggested by the HP Support Agent seems very involved.  I am convinced that it is a software bug in the latest version of their software: to my mind the only satisfactory solution is for HP to fix the bug rather than for us to go around searching for and deleting various files and messing with registries.

I also note the comments on the difficulties in getting HP support.  When I tried to contact them directly via their web help request page they were more interested in the status of my printer warranty than in helping me solve the problem.  As this is a software update issue then warranty should not come into it.

I hope HP are listening!

[MikeMulberry]

Thanks AlanP2!

Yes, there is a disk that came with the printer but I got it working by following the instructions on the other thread in this forum (I mentioned in my previous here yesterday). So the software from the website seems to have fixed the problem.

 I'm not going to celebrate quite yet as I didn't see any place to untick the "software auto update" option anywhere in my installatino process. But hopefully it will keep working and I won't have to go back and reinstall every day!

I also want to expand a bit on my specific setup and what I did. 

I have two win 10 computers (a desktop and a surface3 tablet) and they are connected through wifi network router to the printer. So I believe that this problem (of only printing in B/W) may have happened only after I began using the second computer through the network. So what I did today was to follow the instructions for uninstalling and reinstalling the printer software (from the hp website) ON BOTH computers. First the desktop, then after verifying that it was working properly (i.e. printing in color through network). Then I wnt to the tablet and uninstalled and reinstalled from the hp website onto the tablet. And upon completion, the tablet printed color properly. And I went back and verified that the desktop was still printing in color. 

So all is good for now, I'll come back and post if this fix fails to endure but I wanted to get this info out to you.

Regards and good luck!

[MikeMulberry]

As luck would have it, my hope was shortlived.  

Within two hours the problem has returned on both desktop and tablet! That is to say that they won't print in color and there is no place to deselect gray-scale.

Any additional time invested will go into packing this puppy up and returning it to BestBuy and shopping for another machine and it won't be an HP machine.

[AlanP2]

Sorry to hear this, MikeMulberry.  I had hoped that they had fixed the bug after you reported some success but on checking the software available for download it is still the version that causes the problems, ie file EN5540_Full_WebPack_1119.exe.  Pity, as it is actually quite a nice printer but if the software does not work properly then it is next to useless!

Now you mention it, I do not remember an option for stopping auto software update when installing the newer software, but it is there when installing the older version: another issue to be resolved it seems.

Like you, we have two laptops on our home network and it was because one laptop still had the older software and still printed in colour that I first suspected that the software upgrade was the problem rather than the printer itself. 

I will stick with the printer for now as it works ok on the old software but I certainly would not recommend this machine and would be wary of other HP products, mainly because it seems so difficult to get problems resolved.

Good luck with your search for a new printer!

[MikeMulberry]

Thanks AlanP2,

After going back to the drawing board and researching with ConsumerReports ratings and Amazon ratings including every single negative one-star review and every Question/Answered for the top two picks, I chose the Epson XP-640 and it installed flawlessly and is still working splendidly after 48 hours. It makes a perfect complement for our old, faithful HP 1020 B/W laser printer. 

Hope my (our) negative experience with the HP Envy 5540 isn't reflective of HP in general.

By the way, Best Buy's return process was superb. Basically no questions asked, credited my credit card account and I was done. There pricing was only $5 over Amazon's and I was sure glad I didn't have to fuss with repacking the printer for return. Maybe there's hope for brick and mortar stores!

Cheers and thanks again for your help.

[AlanP2]

Great to hear all has turned out well, MikeMulberry.

Thanks for positive and helpful discussions and as you say, good bricks and mortar stores are still the best for many things despite the internet!

[Snakes1000]

I have precisely the same, new, problem.  On the "Printer Preferences" or "Printer Properties" splash screen the Paper Quality tab has no option below the Quality Settings options of Draft, Normal and Best for the usual "Black & White" OR "Color".

when it should have, and used to have, this option (taken from an image online)

Has anyone else solved this issue?