HP Envy 7640 won't print

SciPunk

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Hi folks... I'm giving a ton of details here. Thanks to anybody who reads it all.

A neighbor asked me to help fix her printer. She said it worked fine when her friend set it up, then "the internet went out" and she could never print again.

PC is an IBM Thinkpad laptop still running WinXP. (nice touchscreen... very responsive. Connected to the internet with no problems. PC seems fine.)

Printer is HP Envy 7640. (about 3 months old)

Pulled up her router in the browser. It showed the printer was connected via wireless at 192.168.1.4.

I used the front panel of the printer to pull up the wireless configuration menu, and hit print. 3 pages of info came out... so PRINTER WORKS.
The wireless IP address and router name confirmed what what the router already told me.
It also showed this printer has its own WiFi network... it acts as a hotspot so you don't even have to go through a router.

From command prompt on PC I could ping the printer at 192.168.1.4.

Went into Windows Devices and Printers. Saw this printer was on there twice, but decided to add from scratch. When adding a network printer, her printer advertised itself and let me select it. I double checked the port... it was the correct IP address for the printer.

HERE's where I think the problem lies... next it asks to select which printer from the big list of printers. (I guess that's where we're selecting a driver.) I scroll down to the HP section, and top of the list it says "FAX HP Envy 7640". (maybe a few more words, but it started with the word FAX and had her exact printer in the name.) I looked down the list, this was the only one that came close... and that's pretty damn close... so that's what I chose.

Windows asked if I wanted to keep the driver (recommended), so I said yes.

But PRINT TEST PAGE didn't go through... it went into the queue, waited, then disappeared from the queue. But no printing.

I connected her PC to the printers own WiFi Network, bypassing the router. Now we're on the 192.168.133.xx network. No internet access anymore, but I could ping the printer. Added the printer again, same as above... it advertised itself, I selected it, I got the big list of printers, picked "FAX HP Envy 7640", and told it to keep the driver.

Same thing... PRINT TEST PAGE sends a job into the queue, then it disappears... nothing prints.

Sooo... printer can print, networks seem to work, I can ping, printer even advertises itself... but print job doesn't print.

Why does the printer show up in the list with the word "FAX" as the first word? Is this the wrong driver?? It seems to me the printer should show up as "HP Envy 7640" not "FAX HP Envy 7640".

Any suggestions ??
 

SciPunk

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Thanks ss202sl. I figured that would be it.
It was actually Win7, if anybody is interested.
But let me take this time to say how much I HATE Hewlett Packard. I will never willingly buy a printer from them.

I downloaded the "basic driver", not the entire suite. Apparently HP and I have different ideas about what a basic driver is. Following their onscreen instructions, they started by installing some sort of background monitoring system which required a licence agreement. Then they brought up a GUI asking me if I wished to install a printer. This page included a color picture of people enjoying HP products... apparently for my viewing pleasure.

After selecting the printer I was presented with a screen that asked me if I was using the printer for personal use or business... and asked me for my FREAKING ZIP CODE. I couldn't skip this page, it was not optional.

Then it asked for info about how I wanted to handle FAXing. But this page was behind another status bar window... so I had to click past the "3 steps left before printer is installed" window just to skip over the FAX info window. When all was said and done, there was a "finished installation" window floating, but no "ok" button... had to click the X in the upper right to put that away. (Nice and clean HP). Then I was hit with a page in the browser to register and sign up for ink replacements and other purchases.

OK, so finally I checked Devices and Printers and there were FOUR printers installed. I just wanted the wireless printer, but there was a FAX and a wired (ok, fair enough)... AND a 7000 series Laser Printer. Huh? What?? There is no laser printer here.

I deleted the printers that I didn't want... and they came back. I can't even delete them.

Uh, HP... you know Windows (the most popular OS in the world) has a feature where you say "add a printer" and then click the "find drivers" button, right?!? How about you get a team of your engineers together and MAKE IT WORK !!!!
 

someam

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Hi SciPunk,

Try this link for the HP Envy 7640e-all-in-one

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-ENVY-7640-e-All-in-One-Printer-series/6617267/model/6617268/drivers?cc=us&lang=en

Click tab ‘Software & Drivers’ and then you can select your ‘operating system’ submit and follow the other steps.
Hopefully this has been helpful.

Cheers,

Cheron Z.
Executive Customer Relations
Hewlett-Packard Company
PSGSocialmedia@hp.com