HP Envy 5530 will not copy or scan

[DavidMKline]

We have been able to use all functions successfully for several years. Now scanning and copying do not work.  Pressing the print button, the printer hangs while displaying "Printing 1/1." When opening the scanner, message is "Overview scan failed to complete."

I have tried solution seen in another thread: 

1) Take out the cartridges.

2) Unplug the power cord from the printer & wall.

3) Wait for 30 seconds. 

4) Plug the power cord back into the printer and wall, ensure the printer is plugged into the wall & not to a surge protector.

5) Insert the cartridges back into the printer.

Please advise how I can proceed. The printer is out of warranty.

Thanks

[DavidMKline]

OK, solved. But not by anything I've seen in these forums. And believe me, I've looked.

In a thread on another web site, a user posted that in frustration, he raised one end of the printer 6 inches up from the desk and dropped it, repeating on the other end. The scanner and copier came back to life. A couple of users posted that to their disbelief, it worked for them, too. It also worked for me. I suggest that HP add this to their stock of knowledge, if only as a last-resort--something to try if the printer does not move the light across the scan bed in response to the print button.

I should have remembered that I learned this about electromechanical gadgets back in the 1970s. One remote job entry site I used included punch card readers and an impact printer. It was run by one guy dressed in suit and tie, soft-spoken and polite. One day the line printer stopped working. "Oh this again," he said, walking right up to it and kicking the side of it with his well-polished shoe. Shocking. Completely out of character. And effective.  The printer started right up again. Sometimes they need a good swift kick.