Officejet Pro 8720 receives print jobs but doesn't print

[EllenH05]

I have an Officejet pro 8720 that I've been using daily since I bought it in 2018. Today, I printed a few emails & invoices as I always do. Suddenly the printer stopped working. The printer was visible on the network and HP smart app sends the print jobs to the printer. The printer then receives the job as you can hear it start to activate, however the print job 'fizzles out' somehow. I get an error message saying it can't print from Outlook (even though I had just been printing emails just fine and I had not made any changes to printer, computer or network). And the printer then only prints the topline from the email and then spits out blank pages till i cancel the print job both on my computer & on the printer.  I rebooted both computer and printer several times to no avail.

When looking in the support archive, I found several others with a similar issue and they were advised to uninstall & reinstall the printer. So, I uninstalled the printer following the steps given and removed the drivers.  I made sure my Windows was up to date before attempting the reinstall. When I then tried to add the printer again through HP Smart, that's when the misery continued. HP Smart added the printer and told me printer was 'Ready' with a nice green check mark and an overview of my cartridge levels. I was so excited. However, my computer did not see the printer in the list of available printers. When trying to print documents, printer is also not there. When trying to print through HP Smart, it said there was a problem with the installation and to install the driver. So, clicked that and it spins forever saying 'Installing printer'. It then tells me there's a problem with the installation and to manually add the printer. Tried doing that through the Add Printer in the Printers & Scanners section, but without result. It will add it, I will see it in the list, but as soon as I try to print, it disappears off the list and I can't print. When I retry to add it, it will then say 'Status unavailable'.

So I manually downloaded the basic driver from the HP website and this got my printer re-installed at last. However, it still will NOT print and does the same thing as above. It receives the job, starts to activate, then 'pauses' and spits out blank pages and giving me an error saying it can't print. Print job is visible in the queue and the printer will continue to try & print it till I canx it, but it only spits out blank pages.  

This printer is only a few years old and has worked brilliantly till today when it stopped working out of the blue. What is the fix to get my printer working again? I rely on it heavily and am at a loss at what to try, after already spending hours on trying to get it back up and running. 

[KrazyToad]

@EllenH05

Welcome to HP Support Community

I would like to help

Do you experience the same issue when making Photocopies?

Please uninstall the printer driver from root level and download the full feature software

1.) In Windows, search for and open Programs and features

2.) Select your HP Printer

3.) Select Uninstall

4.) In Windows, search for and open Devices and printers

5.) In the Devices and Printers windows look for your HP printer. If you see it listed right-click on it and choose ‘Delete’ or ‘Remove Device’

6.) Open up the run command with the “Windows key + R” key combo.

7.) Type printui.exe /s and click Ok. (Note: there is a space in between “printui.exe” and “/s”)

8.) Click on the “Drivers” tab

9.) Look for HP Printer driver. If you see it Click on it and click Remove at the bottom

10.) Select Ok

11.) Select Apply and Ok on the Print Server Properties windows

12.) Close Devices and Printers

13.) Restart the computer and download the full feature software Link: https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software13/printers/OJ8720/OJ8720_Full_WebPack_40.12.1161_1.exe and follow the onscreen instructions

Thank you

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[EllenH05]

Hi KrazyToad, 

Thanks so much for your response. I did all the steps you listed when I uninstalled & reinstalled as I mentioned in my post. They did nothing to fix the issue. 😞

However, the next day I noticed that the wifi in my house was very glitchy. So, rebooted my modem & wireless router. And lo and behold, printer started printing again too. Felt a bit sheepish. But have been back up & running & printing every since. 

Thanks for trying to help, much appreciated! 

[KrazyToad]

I'm glad you got this sorted out

Drop us a message anytime you need help

If the information I've provided was helpful, give us some reinforcement by clicking the "Solution Accepted" on this Post and it will also help other community members with similar issue.