scanner doesn't work; printer does not always work

[bweeks1]

Hp Office Jet Pro 8710

I have had the printer for a year.  Have had problems printing; printing was always delayed.  Sometimes, it would take 5 hours before the document was actually printed. Just recently, I downloaded and installed Readiris, Easy Start, Easy Smart. I also updated my software. Am using a 6-year old MacBook Air. At first, printer worked immediately after hitting "print."  Now it will not print at all.

Have not been able to get the scanner to work. Message reads " printer status unavailable."

[asmita6658]

Hi @bweeks1

Welcome to the HP Support Community. I'd be happy to assist you with the printing issue. 

Let's try the below steps to see if that helps -

1.) Remove All Barriers: Certain building materials can get in the way of weaker signals like Bluetooth. Metal, bulletproof glass, concrete, and plaster are particularly bad, and marble, plaster and brick aren’t great easy. So if you’re really struggling with interference, your first step should be to move your Bluetooth devices away from these materials. That means no brick walls between you and your devices, and definitely no metal desks!

2.) Change Router Channel: If you have an Apple router and you’re constantly getting interference with your WiFi, try rebooting it. Upon restart, the station will search for a new channel. Specifically, a different channel than the one your Bluetooth devices is using to communicate. If you don’t have an Apple router, you may need to instead go into your router settings and try changing the channel manually. Experiment with different channels to see which one works best.

3.) Move Closer to Your Router: If you often find that you’re getting interference when talking on a wireless headset while on a WiFi call (you’ll know because you’ll hear static), try moving closer to your router. This will give you a more robust WiFi connection, so the Bluetooth frequency can’t overpower it.

4.) Get Away From Microwaves and Fluorescent Lighting: Both emit frequencies of 2.4GHz, and moving away from them will distance you from the source.

I'd like to know the following to isolate the issue further-

1.) Are the printer and Mac connected to the same network?

2.) Is your router dual-band enabled i.e., both 2.4GHz and 5GHz? If yes, make sure the dual band has different SSIDs for 2.4G and 5G networks.

3.) What is the distance between the router and the printer?

4.) Is there an antivirus software installed on your Mac?

5.) Could you perform a ping test using the Mac Network Utility and let me know the results? Use the printer IP address to perform a ping test, the printer IP can be located by selecting the wireless icon on the printer display.

The wireless status menu on your Mac should also give us quite a lot of information that would help us identify the issue. You can press and hold option-click the WiFi icon and then use shift-command-5 to take the screenshot. Press the space bar when the icon turns into a camera. Share the ping test results and the screenshot with us.

Also, check with your Internet service provider if your router is able to forward 'Bonjour packets'.  Bonjour locates devices such as printers, other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a local network using multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) service records. The software comes built-in with Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems. 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Have a great day! 

[bweeks1]

Thank you so much for the detailed information.  Last night I switched off the printer and my laptop.  This morning I was able to print.  I had done this after the download and the installation.  For now, the printer is working.  I hope I am not jinxing myself and tomorrow nothing works again. 

However, I still cannot get the scanner to work. I have installed Easy Scan on my laptop.  Once I click on the icon, I select the printer.  From then on the loading wheel turns and turns.  It does not let me select the scan job type.

I have also tried to initiate the scan job from the printer, however, it tells me that i need to install the scanning software.

I am not sure what my next step is.

Thanks for your help.

[asmita6658]

@bweeks1

Thanks for replying. Please try these steps -

Update the Mac using these steps - How to update the software on your Mac

Update the printer's firmware - HP Printers - Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware

Update HP Easy Scan using these steps - 

1.) Open Finder , select Applications, and then look for HP Easy Scan.

2.) Open HP Easy Scan. On the upper bar, click HP Easy Scan, and then click Check for Updates. Download any available updates, and then reopen the app.

Let me know. 

[bweeks1]

Asmita,

thanks for your patience and sorry about the delay.

1. I had already updated the Mac software.

2. I tried to download the Firmware update; However, I got through the download, and then clicked on Firmware Updater after choosing the Model name, then I hit continue and the following message popped up:"  Something seems to be wrong with your device.  Device is in error state and cannot be reflashed because of this. Resolve the problem and try again."

3. I also checked the Printer update status.  printer is updated.

Thanks for your help.

[asmita6658]

@bweeks1

Have you tried scanning either from Image Capture or HP Smart app? 

[bweeks1]

If I go to HP Smart, it says "printer status unknown." and the loading wheel doesn't stop turning.

If I go to Image capture, I click on the printer model, and then it says "waiting for scanner" for the longest time before I have an option to hit scan.   After I hit scan the message " scanning document scan 4"  showed up.  The wheel again wouldn't stop turning and still hasn't.  It did sound like the printer was scanning a page that I placed on the glass. 

[asmita6658]

@bweeks1

Does the copy works?

[bweeks1]

Yes, that seems to be working at the moment.

[asmita6658]

@bweeks1

Please try adding the printer using AirPrint - 

1.) Click the Apple menu, click System Preferences, and then click Print & Scan or Printers & Scanners.

2.) Check if your printer name displays in the Printers list, If your printer is listed, click the printer name, click the minus sign to delete the printer.

3.) If you see multiple printer queues for the same printer, remove all extra printers by selecting them one at a time, and then clicking the minus button at the bottom of the list.

4.) Click the plus sign click Add Printer or Scanner, click the printer name.

NOTE: Make sure that the printer Kind is Bonjour or Bonjour Multifunction, or USB.

5.) Click the Use or Print Using menu, select AirPrint in the pop-up menu. Then click Add. Select AirPrint from the Use menu

6.) Try to print.

Let me know.