Printer not working after Win 10 upgrade plus malware removal

Hi jcompguy and welcome to Tenforums.

That's a problem, yes, and you've tried just about everything I would have tried.

Have you run the Utility-Diagnostic Tool (just below the driver/software download) here?
HP Software and Driver Downloads for HP Printers, Laptops, Desktops and More | HP® Customer Support


If the printer works with other machines, then it's definitely that computer. Perhaps you could run sfc /scannow to make sure all system files are intact?

Also, before doing a clean install, I always try a repair install using an in-place upgrade. That just might do the trick.

Hope that helps!

jcompguy said:

Hello, I've just about given up trying to fix this and am ready to reinstall the OS, but maybe someone here knows what's wrong and how to fix it. The computer was upgraded to Windows 10 and had some minor malware that was removed. After the clean up the printer no longer works (I'm not sure if it was working before the clean up since it wasn't tested). The computer has no other problems or errors in the event log.


The printer is an HP OfficeJet 8500 A909g. The OS is Win 10 x64.


Symptoms:

-The printer is detected in devices and printers
-The scanner actually works
-It will print an internal test page of some kind from the HP Solution Center, but not the Windows test page or anything else.
-The same problems happen with both network and USB installs
-When printing a text document it says "The handle is invalid." with a yellow triangle and exclamation mark.
-When printing a Word Document it says "We couldn't print because there doesn't seem to be a printer installed :-(" with a yellow triangle and exclamation mark and a "show help >>" button.
-Opening the printer properties from devices and printers gives the following error with a red X before the properties windows opens: "C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE Function address 0x3f416fda caused a protection fault. (exception code 0xc0000005) Some or all property page(s) may not be displayed."

Attempted repairs so far:

-Uninstalled the printer and reinstalled with both USB and network options.
-Uninstalled the printer, ran Ccleaner, deleted all HP printer related folders, and reinstalled with newest drivers from HP.
-Power cycled the printer, also unplugged and pushed the power button. The printer works on another computer.
-Rebooted the computer multiple times, and did full shutdowns (shutdown /s /t 0)
-Created a new local admin profile

I'm out of ideas and can't find any fixes online, so any help will be appreciated. I'd rather not reinstall the OS at this point since work was already put into removing the malware, and there's a bunch of programs with custom settings on there.

Thank you.

Welcome to TenForums, JCompGuy.

First, a couple of questions: Are you using Windows 10 RTM or are you on the Windows Insider Program? If you're on the Windows Insider Program, which Build are you using?

I have an HP Officejet 7610 Wide Format printer with basically the same problems you're having. Which is neither here nor there, because if one of us finds a solution, I'm pretty sure both of us will. :)

Why? Because in my search for a solution, it seems that almost universally, HP printers are on strike against Windows 10. I provided feedback to the Windows Insider Program and saw myriads of HP problems with HP printers.

Like you, I've installed, uninstalled, reinstalled, etc. to no avail.
-- The printer is there in Settings, but says "Driver is Unavailable". It's not there when I want to print, though.
-- If and when it decides to work (not in Build 14279), it won't print 11x17 documents.
-- As Simrick suggested, I have already run HP's troubleshooter and was told there were no problems to report.
-- I haven't tried it on another OS simply because I don't have Windows 7 or 8 installed anywhere.
-- I will try it on my Windows 10 RTM (November Update) to see if it works there.
-- Like yours, though, I'm pretty sure it'll work on another OS; Windows 10 is most likely the culprit.

I'm off to the HP Forums to see if there's something there that may help.

Mark Phelps said:

I have the same printer and it works fine under Win10 64-bit -- AFTER I completely removed it and reinstalled using the HP Win10 Full Feature Software package.

Oh, and to remove the old stuff, I had to insert the original CD that came with the printer. Spent hours trying other typical stuff, and only using the original CD worked.

Which printer, Mark? The HP OfficeJet 8500 A909g or the HP Officejet 7610 Wide Format?

Because if it's the 7610, I may be out of luck. So far, I can't find the CD. Of course, it'll show up six months down the road.

Berton said:

I just happened to be 'playing' on HP's site and got this link for you:
HP Software and Driver Downloads for HP Printers, Laptops, Desktops and More | HP® Customer Support

I'd download the file OJ7610_971-2.exe to use for installing.

Been there, got that, Berton. None of which has worked so far. In the Forums section, a link was given to "firmware update" but it didn't work . . . got an error.

I'm now toying with reinstalling Windows 10 Insider Build 14279.

Mark Phelps said:

I have the same printer and it works fine under Win10 64-bit -- AFTER I completely removed it and reinstalled using the HP Win10 Full Feature Software package.

Oh, and to remove the old stuff, I had to insert the original CD that came with the printer. Spent hours trying other typical stuff, and only using the original CD worked.

Thanks, Mark . . . after fiddling around for an hour or so hunting for a CD/DVD that may no longer exist (why is it that although I file my disks religiously, they disappear when I need them most?), I decided to do a clean install of Build 14279.

So, after some six hours of messing with this blasted computer and Murphy, Outlook 2016 (32 bit installed by accimident), kept hanging. I almost did another clean installation, but at the last minute decided to uninstall O365 32 bit and reinstall O365 64 bit. After hours of trying to get Outlook to work, with the reinstall, things seem to be finally working correctly. And yeah, I'm holding my breath. So far, so good . . .

Since with the clean install, there were no printers installed, I went back to HP and got the full installation package and just let it loose. Within a few minutes, the printer was once more installed, so I grabbed an 11x17 spreadsheet and told it to print. Lo and behold! it said, "OK, I can do that."

I'm now going to go to Windows 10 Feedback and to HP Forums to let both companies know what they've done! I'm quite sure neither company is smart enough to have done this all by itself!

What a pain @Wynona. Glad you got it working though!