Infuriating problem. HP officejet pro 8730 "driver unavailable"

TonyTurbo78 · 10 Oct 2019 at 15:56

Hi guys, I'm exhausted on this one.

Same printer has been connected and working fine via wifi for months, this morning it's not printing, nothing changed. When I go to printers and scanners I can see the printer model but next to it it just says "driver unavailable". I've uninstalled all drivers and software, removed printer and installed the latest driver. It finds the printer absolutely fine when it searches for printer to install on network but after taking an age continuing with the install process, it says unable to install printer on network.

When I run the HPSmart app I can see the printer is clearly connected to the network but where it says printer installed it says no. If I then go back and look at my printers and faxes, it shows the printer as "driver unavailable" again. When I click on manage, it seems to be only picking it up as a scanner imaging device and no way of setting as default printer as it shows it as a scanner.

I've spent 5 hours today trying to get it working but still no joy. Any ideas? I've exhausted Google searches and spent ages on hp site but still no good.

MrRockliffe · 10 Oct 2019 at 16:01

I’ve had this exact issue - and while this won’t be the answer you want, it was the only thing that worked. PC just borked itself one day

I had to re install windows

TonyTurbo78 · 10 Oct 2019 at 17:58

MrRockliffe said:
I’ve had this exact issue - and while this won’t be the answer you want, it was the only thing that worked. PC just borked itself one day

I had to re install windows

Oh no, don’t say that. Did you try fixing the OS? Is it a bad Windows update or something

MrRockliffe · 10 Oct 2019 at 18:32

TonyTurbo78 said:
Oh no, don’t say that. Did you try fixing the OS? Is it a bad Windows update or something

I tried a number of things, but perhaps you may be luckier

I would suggest trying the following (if you haven't done so already):

Resetting network settings
Resetting the device firmware/driver
Try in safe mode
Restore to a known working version/date

It was a little while ago that it happened, so I can't remember any more than that unfortunately :/

Never figure out why it did it, but it was with an HP Officejet too, though a 4630

Best of luck trying to sort

morbid42 · 10 Oct 2019 at 18:46

Restat print spooler?

TonyTurbo78 · 10 Oct 2019 at 18:57

morbid42 said:
Restat print spooler?

Yep done that.

Uninstalled all HP software and drivers, removed Printer from system, checked windows 10 all updated, reinstalled latest drivers and tried to install both on wireless and local with USB. When running the HPsmart app everything looks fine, the print and scan fix wizard doesn’t see any issue yet in Windows printers & scanners it just shows it as a scanner and fax, shows driver is unavailable and no way of setting as default because it doesn’t see it as a printer.