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

[rebarter]

HP Recommended Solution: Black or Color Ink Not Printing

I can only print in B & W on my HP Envy 5540. This is a new problem, no problem printing in colour previously. All FAQ suggestions followed and Print Doctor could not fix the problem either. Can anyone help please.

[8lives]

Did you try all the steps the this HP support doc?

Did you try a new color cartridge?

[rebarter]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I tried all the steps and the ink cartridges are fine. The alignment page prints in colour but ordinary prints are only

in B & W. 

[8lives]

Have you tried to reinstall the driver software?

Is your warranty still valid?

[Saints76]

I'm experiencing exact same problems as reported on 06/07/17. I too have not changed cartridges lately, obtain my cartridges direct from HP, therefore my only conclusion is a recent update is the cause of the fault. My operating system is Windows 10 via a Surface Pro.

Has anyone found the solution?

[8lives]

@Saints76, are you able to copy in color?

[Misterjess]

Yes I am able to copy in colour

[8lives]

@Misterjess, contact HP support at this link: http://support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp

[AlanP2]

Same problem here and it started after I used the HP Print and Scan Doctor to solve a different problem: it updated my HP Printer Assistant software and since then I cannot print in colour. 

I have checked through the help pages in HP support and the section on checking printer settings in Windows 10 looks like it is for Windows 8 and I do not see the options that the help article says I should, ie the print in greyscale setting.

We have a second laptop still using a previous version of the HP Printer Assistant software and it prints fine in colour and black and white.

If I uninstall all the HP software and use generic Windows drivers then I can print in colour and black and white with no problem, but of course I cannot use any of the scan facilities.

Thus I conclude that this is a problem with the HP software which I hope they will resolve quickly!

[AlanP2]

Further to my comments earlier today, I have managed to find the previous version of HP Printer Assistant software (the one that came when we purchased the printer) and installed this and I can now print in colour and black and white with no problems.

Interestingly I also note that following the instructions for checking printer settings (step 5 for Windows 10 in https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-envy-5540-all-in-one-printer-series/5447939/document/c047152... ) the entry for Print in Greyscale is now visible and shows as Off as it should apparently for colour printing.  This option is not present when using the latest software as mentioned previously.

It seems, then, that the newer version of the software has set this option to printing in greyscale (presumably the High Quality Greyscale mentioned in the article) and then somehow hidden it so that it cannot be changed?

One further comment: I used HP Print and Scan doctor on the previous version as it often crashed using the Scan function and that is when the software was updated.  So, the printer software has dubious stability, it seems.