One question to maybe get a start on gnarly HP8710 printer issue

Three days ago my husband’s printer stopped relating to any of its printing functions except printing a test page from the printer console. We had done nothing to the system and it had printed earlier that day.

He has an ASUS N56J running a rather aged Intel i7 . The OS has been easily updated over the years from W7 to W8 to 8.1 to 10.

Printer is HP 8710 connected via USB.

I have done a lot of things to try to get it to print from Word or to print a screen image, but right now I want to focus on one thing.

Devices and Printers shows only one HP8710 and it is checked as the default printer.

If I ask to print a document from Word 2013, Word identifies the installed printer as the 8710. When I click Print, the printer apparently does not receive the document.

I As usual when this happens, I find it in the print queue. What is new is that the print queue lists two HP Office Jet Pro 8710’s with (copy 1) listed first, and the default 8710 as the other selection from the drop-down list. I find the document in the queue for the “real” printer, the 8710 and not the 8710 (copy 1).

If I go back to Word, it says there are documents in the queue, but declines to print them.

The question is, does it matter that there are two printers listed in the print queue box, and if so how do I remove the (copy 1) one?

This is just one move in the process of diagnosing the issue, but do not know whether this matters.

In my process so far, I have removed the older ways of relating to this printer, such as the Print and Scan Doctor and have installed HP Smart. I used both of these programs to try to diagnose and repair the process.

Thank you.

Judy Myers

Thank you Berton. I have appreciated your help in the past and again this time.

The whole process of getting here has been a long three days, and I didn't want to drop it all in one post. Part of it is that I did delete files in the print spooler. Also, the HP instructions say to unplug and re-plug the printer, and when I plugged it in again it printed the first two things my husband had tried to print before this odyssey started -- that was after the queue and the print spooler were empty. That file was a pdf he received as email.

I agree with you that these printers do not function well on USB. However, on wireless they pester you all the time about signing up for instant ink and our not-very-smart tv looks for programming on them.

What seems to me to be different this time is that 1) he had printed that same day, and that 2) over the years the HP troubleshooters/installers have resolved the issues.

If the second copy of the printer that shows up in the print queue is not a problem I'll probably just take the system to the shop.

I have an HP8720 and do not expect to buy another HP printer.

Thank you Berton and Steve C. I will do the things both of you recommended when I try again. I will report on the result.

Berton, I do have a mix of USB 2 and 3 ports on this old computer, and will plug in to a USB 2 and put a sticker on the computer so I always use the same one.

Steve C, I will start by reinstalling the driver, which I have not done before, and will reinstall the newest software.

It may be a day or so. We are preparing for hard freeze here and power has been particularly unstable even when not stressed...Texas.

Berton said:

It's -13° now [1:33PM], may get down to -26° tonight, all the way up to +2° by Monday and maybe +28° on Tuesday.

You definitely win. In grade school one of my friends was a few days late getting back from Christmas in Buffalo. She said when they opened the front door it was a solid wall of snow and if they went to the second floor the snow was almost up to the window. That was probably in 1949 or 50.