HP printer problem

[pat in boulder]

My HP 4050 printer (which worked fine in Windows 7 for the past 3 1/2 years) is installed and listed in the Windows printers page but will not receive files. The printer has a USB connection. Invoking 'print' in Word (or a test page) sends a file to the print queue but it does not get sent to the printer. Any ideas?

 

[Trouble]

Hello pat in boulder.
My suggestion would be to go to
Control Panel - Devices and Printers - Right click the problem printer and select "remove device"
Unplug whichever end of the USB cord is handiest to get to.
Reboot your computer
give it a minute or two and plug the USB cable back into wherever you unplugged it from.
See if that resolves the problem.
According to HP's site http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=57832&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=4158
That printer will or should use the Universal Print Driver and that will likely install automatically.
You may have to actually go into Control Panel, Programs and Features and remove the older software package associated with that printer (if any) to make sure it is not causing some conflict behind the scenes.

 

[pat in boulder]

thanks for these suggestions. I took both steps (unplugged usb and rebooted computer and when that did not resolve the problem I installed that universal print driver from the HP website on the link you sent. In both cases I received a message "the printer is in an error state" and text is sent to the queue but does not reach the printer to print.

 

[Trouble]

Clear the print queue.
Stop and start the printer spooler (services.msc)
Delete the printer remove from device and printers.
Unplug USB
Uninstall any hp software associated with that printer.
Reboot
Plug the printer back in and don't do anything, other that wait a few minutes.
Check windows updates after that

 

[theresa from DE]

I had the same problem with my HP laserjet 4050 after upgrading to Windows 10. It would randomly print an error page PCL XL error, when printing certain files, especially PDF files. I updated the drivers and seems to be working fine now. Hope this helps.

 

[Joann]

Needing updated drivers is often the culprit. Although sometimes a manufacturer won't improve the drivers for a new operating system seeing that as a opportunity to sell new printers - anyone here remember the Vista problems? I believe HP was one of the bigger offenders back then.