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How to Get Away with the Issue ‘HP Printer Driver is Unavailable’?

By admin July 13, 2020

A driver is considered to be the most important part of any electronic device like PC, printer or laptop. No printer can work properly in the absence of a driver. Even if the drivers installed are outdated or corrupted, then also the printing device may stop working. Another error is when you see a status that ‘printer driver is unavailable’ especially with HP printers on Windows 10. This error can arise with any model of the HP printer such as Officejet, Envy series, etc.

Here are the solutions that you can try to fix the error HP printer driver is unavailable for Windows 10:

Reinstall the Printer

You can try solving the problem by uninstalling the printer, all the related software and then install it again. While uninstalling the printer and connecting it back again, it may install the default driver automatically.

  1. Press Windows key and R together, type ‘control’ in the dialogue box and press Enter. In the control panel, select the option ‘Large icons’ for ‘View by’ and click on ‘Devices and Printers’.
  2. You will see the list of all the available printers, right-click on your HP printer and select ‘Remove device’.
  3. Again, press Windows + R and type ‘devmgmt.msc’. Go to the heading ‘Print queues’, right-click on your printer and select the option ‘Uninstall device’.
  4. Press Windows + R key, write ‘appwiz.cpl’ in the dialogue box and press ‘Enter’. You will see all the applications, just right-click on your printer and select ‘Uninstall’.
  5. Now, detach your printer from the computer if it is connected via a USB connection or detach it from the router if connected wirelessly. Switch off all your devices like computer, printer, and router and plug out the power cord as well.
  6. Wait for around 10 minutes and to install the HP printer, attach everything back, start all the modules. Connect the printer to your computer using a USB cable, let it detect and install the required drivers.
  7. Go back to the control panel, right-click on your device and choose the option ‘Set as default printer’. Try to print a test page and check if the issue gets resolved.

Reinstall the Printer Driver

Another possible cause for facing the error ‘Driver unavailable for HP printer’ can be a corrupt or mismatched driver. To fix this, you just need to uninstall the driver you have and install the latest and correct driver for your printer using the steps listed below:

  1. Press the Windows Key and R together to start the ‘Run’ box.
  2. In the dialogue box, write devmgmt.msc and press ‘Enter’.
  3. Now, look for the printer and right-click on it, select the ‘Uninstall device’ option from the given options.
  4. Once again click on the ‘Uninstall’ option to confirm it.
  5. Visit the official link of HP Official Software and Driver Downloads to get the up-to-date software and driver installed for your HP printer.
  6. On the current page, you will see some options below ‘Let’s identify your product, click on Printer, enter your printer model name or number, and press ‘Submit’.
  7. You can also change the operating system if required. Click on the option ‘Change’, select the required version, and then again click Change.
  8. Now, under the Driver section, click on ‘Download’ to get the full software package or click Basic Drivers to see other options.
  9. Now, restart your computer and try printing a document to check if the error has been resolved. If it does not, you can continue with the next method.

Install the Windows updates

The Windows you use must have all the latest updates installed in order to make the printer run smoothly. In the absence of latest updates, you will definitely see the message HP printer driver is unavailable Windows 10. Here are the steps you need to apply to install all the available updates for Windows and bring the printer back to normal functionality:

For Windows 10.

For Windows 10 users these steps will be useful to install the updates:

  1. Click on the Start menu and enter ‘update’. Thereafter, click on the ‘Check for updates’ option.
  2. Click on the ‘Check for updates’ option and once you do that, Windows will start installing the updates automatically.
  3. Once it completes the installation of all the updates, restart your computer and try to check if your printer works by printing a file.

For Windows 7 users

For Windows 7 users these steps will be useful to install the updates:

  1. Click on the ‘Start’ menu and enter ‘update’ in the search box and click on the option ‘Check for updates’ option.
  2. Then click on the option ‘Install updates’ and when the installation process is over, restart your system and check if your printer works.

These were some of the useful methods that you can use to get rid of the error ‘HP printer driver is unavailable’.

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