HP OJ Pro 8500 a909g and Solution Center

[CiaoBella]

(I was invited to offer my expertise, but I need HP's on this issue.)  I am also fairly certain that I am in the wrong forum.   Fuller explanation at the bottom. 

Re: Win10 -Version 1607, build 14393.321 /HP OJ Pro 8500 a909g (not used wirelessly) /Solution Center (and more).   ASUS laptop, always wired and stationary, connected by USB to printer.  This printer is compatible with Win10.

It's excellent advice.  I'll give you background and hopefully everything you need the first time.

My background is that I am much more advanced than a beginner but I have no formal computer science training.   I screw up the language sometimes (file and folder), but I have a good grasp of the issues and can usually fix my own problems.

I have an OJ Pro 8500 that I bought new two years ago,  It's my second.  A year ago, I was operating Win7.  Through my laptop, I would send instructions to Solution Center (SC) to make copies, send faxes, and print whatever docs I need for a particular project.  On a regular basis - I have had this home office for seven years - if I got a Microsoft (MS) update, I could count on it to break the SC and wait for the subsequent update to undo the damage.  A one month on/one month off situation for as long as I can remember. 

Last November (2015), I lost the ability for my computer to communicate with my printer.  I imagine that MS was beginning to prepare its users for Windows10, so the updates were screwing w/my HP.  No matter what I did, I was unsuccessful in reestablishing a link, no matter how many times I uninstalled and reinstalled the software.   In January (2016), I hired a tech.  We spent over twenty hours using remote access.  One of the reasons I hired him was to fix my printer.   After he insisted that I update to Win 10, in order for me to be as up to date as possible, we did.   I severed my relationship with the tech and I never had my printer fixed, in addition to other Win10 quirks of varying degrees of annoyance or inconvenience.  

MS Cumulative Updates in April caused problems, which were easily (enough) fixed by uninstalling the update.  May 14 Cumulative Updates were a disaster.  I had two BSODs a day for twenty-one days.  I spent three weeks on the MS Forum with no concrete advice or suggestions.   I troubleshooted in every way that I could, I learned new tricks, and I sent dozens of logs and results.  Roll forward to June.  I sent the same logs to a wonderful tech elsewhere.  After more advice, different troubleshooting, and other suggestions, we determined the only way to resolve the BSODs was to reinstall Win10.  I then spent 35 days working on my computer.   I can't tell you how many times I reinstalled or upgraded (again) to Win10, because I had countless issues with multiple corrupted OS.  I am sure that I installed or upgraded (when re-installations failed to download or fully install)  Win10 two dozen times,.   I am equally certain that I did the same with the HP driver.  Forty-eight installations is approximately forty-eight days.

On top of all that fun and time, my external HD was partially corrupted.  (I say partially because the Seagate tech agreed that if I had hundreds of intact document and photo files/folders of varying kinds and dates (.txt, videos, .pdf, .jpg., VSS, etc.) on my drive, it was pretty unusual to lose only my recent .PST files, which I backed up daily and of which I took a weekly image.   I run a business - my data changes daily so backups and security are paramount. 

The next chapter was rebuilding my computer - my Outlook database was basically useless, except for ten years of incoming emails only.   I restored to March 2010, which was better than nothing. 

Back to HP agian.  installed the full driver again.  (And again and again and again, and again.)  I could send an online document to my printer, but I couldn't see the text.   I could make copies, but they were too faint to read.  Then they were coming out in BLUE, only.   My fax was working (800- CALL HP TEST), but I couldn't see the print.  Troubleshooting indicated full toner and printheads.  It could only be an issue with ongoing MS updates, which happens a great deal when you reinstall Office and Outlook or upgrade from Win7 - 10.   Forget about using Solution Center, I couldn't manually operate the printer fully, either.  

In September, I got everything working.  Solution Center was once again communicating with my computer; finally there were no issues.  After ten months, I finally had a copacetic system.  Skip ahead a couple of weeks and I screwed up by using CCleaner and removed a registry item that the printer needed.  I merged the key back into the registry, but I was still getting HP errors.  However, Solution Center would open somehow and I could operate the printer, in spite of the errors.   Support at CCleaner suggested that I reinstall the HP driver, so that was my last project.

(October 11th.)  Oddly enough, coincidentally, by some misalignment of the earth, moon, the sun, and the stars, the very day that I decided to completely uninstall and reinstall the HP OJ 8500 full driver was the same Toxic Tuesday that MS decided to install a whopping number of Outlook and Win10 UPDATES.   Being the stalwart, self-sufficient woman that I am, I ran through two attempts to install the driver, to be met with "FATAL Installation Errors."  When near the end and you must restart the computer - that's when the updates were installed.  I don't know when I figured it out, but it was too late anyway.  Then I saw a security warning about zero-day viruses.  True or not, I didn't want my computer compromised. 

I even foolishly tried a week later to reinstall the driver.  I still have a Fatal Installation Error, and when HP prints up the solution and sends HP the report, it lists my computer as having Win 8, which is totally inaccurate and can't possibly help you fix problems.

In my eleventh month of struggling, I have learned to blame everything quirky and odd on Microsoft corrupted updates. This has been the worst-written, the most poorly rolled out, and the most not-ready for wide release OS I have used since the turn of the century.  (But I digress..)

As Solution Center is an invaluable tool for my home office, I do not give up easily.  At this point, MS has no answers.  They told me to talk to you.  I imagine that since you don't share technical data, when MS decides to make an improvement or an "improvement," it may break people's computers in many different ways - and when it affects HP devices, that becomes your problem.  Am I right?

Over the past ten years, I went from a novice to an intermediate plus self-taught (and helped greatly by others who share their expertise willingly and generously) technical person, capable of fixing my own damned computer and small electronic devices.  I seriously avoid that which I have no knowledge or expertise or consider it beyond my scope.,  I am patient to a point, and then I throw my hands up in utter surrender.

I bought backup toner and I have my old HP in storage should I need parts.  I don't want a new printer; I want a flawlessly working printer.  I am exhausted. 

I truly believe the onus is on you,   This is likely not the correct forum, but as an HP Partner, I am taking advantage of the tiny advantage I may have over somebody who is not.

One other thing which makes me crazy:  I ran three different uninstall programs in addition to the built-in HP uninstaller.  Each program left something behind, yet none were able to completely uninstall every last bit of bloatware that you insist on loading into your software.  How do I COMPLETELY uninstall any HP remnants and WHY do you insist on doing this?

Thank you. 

[Kevin_Paul]

CiaoBella,

Your questions pertain to HP products, and this particular community is now focused on Hewlett Packard Enterprise devices/services.

The community for HP can be found @ http://h30434.www3.hp.com/