There can be several situations where you may get stuck while installing your HP printer. If you are encountering an error message like “unable to install printer and operation could not be completed”, it implies there is something that is not letting you install the printer or its driver. The error mainly occurs when you have reinstalled Windows or have upgraded your device to Windows 10. So if the HP printer installation failed after updating to Windows 10, you can easily fix it by applying the solutions provided in this guide.
Moreover, certain printer codes like 0x00000bc4, 0x000006be, 0x0000007a, 0x00000709 may arise when you try to install your HP printer or its drivers. So if you aren’t able to install HP printer or drivers on Windows 10, here are the troubleshooting methods that you can apply.
Use the Troubleshooter
If you have started facing problems in installing printer after updating to Windows 10, you can use the in-built troubleshooter to get the issue resolved. Windows 10 provides a built-in printer troubleshooter to help you resolve all the issues regarding printer.
Go to ‘Settings’ of your device and you will find the option under the ‘Update and Security’ section. Run the troubleshooter and once it is done detecting and fixing the issues; try to reinstall the printer.
Follow the steps listed:
- Press Windows + R keys on the keyboard, in the dialogue box type ‘control panel’ and hit ‘Enter’.
- In the search bar given at the top-right corner of the window, type ‘Troubleshoot’ and from the list that appears, select ‘Troubleshooting’.
- Next, click on ‘View All’ from the navigation pane of the troubleshooting menu, and Windows will display all the troubleshooters available on your computer.
- Look for the ‘Printer’ option from the list.
- Select the options ‘Run as administrator’ and ‘Apply repairs automatically’ to let the troubleshooter find all the problems and the repairs are automatically applied.
- Next, follow the given instructions and let the troubleshooting complete.
Restart the Printer Spooler Service
Print spooler service is responsible for managing the printing process and if there is a problem with that, you will face an issue while installing the printing device. So first you have to ensure that the print spooler service is not going through any glitches and is running properly. In case it is not working normally, you have to bring it back to its normal functioning using the given steps:
- Press Windows + R keys to initiate the Run dialog box and type ‘services.msc’ in the text field and press ‘Enter’.
- In the list of services, look for ‘Print Spooler’ and double-click on it to launch its properties.
- Then, click the ‘Stop’ button and click ‘Ok’ to save changes.
- Once the service has been stopped, you need to delete the printer files. Press Windows + E and click on ‘This PC’; then, navigate to the following path:
C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS - If you are prompted for permission to access the following folder, press Continue.
- Next, delete all the files in the printer folder and exit the window.
- Go back to the Services tab and restart the ‘Printer Spooler’ service. Also confirm that the startup type is set as ‘Automatic’.
Delete the Printer Keys
If you still failed to install the printer, it may happen due to conflicting drivers. You can delete certain registry entries to fix the error. However, deleting or modifying registries wrongly can give rise to severe issues. So, create a back up of the registry before deleting the keys.
Have a look at the steps:
- Stop the print spooler service first and delete the content of the following folders:
C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Printers
C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Drivers\w32x86 - Pres Win+R keys to start the Run dialog box and type regedit and click ‘Ok’ to launch the Registry Editor dialog box.
- Search the registry key as per your operating system.
For 32-bit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Drivers\Version For 64-bit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Drivers\Version - On selecting this folder, all the printer registry entries will appear in the right pane. Right-click for each of them and click on ‘Delete’ from the menu.
- Once you are done deleting all the registry entries, start the ‘Print Spooler’ service.
- After that give a reboot to your device and check if the error got fixed.
Updating the Printer Drivers
If your system has a faulty, missing, or corrupt printer driver,
you may be welcomed with an error message like ‘the selected printer could not be found’. We can try updating the HP drivers automatically and manually and then check if the error disappears.
Manually
To update it manually, you have to get the driver from HP’s website.
- Press Windows + R and it will launch Run. Type ‘devmgmt.msc’ in the box and hit the ‘Enter’ key.
- The device manager will open, go to the hardware section and right-click on your printer hardware and then select ‘Update driver’.
- A dialogue box will appear asking for updating the driver, select the option that says ‘Browse my computer for driver software’.
- Select the driver you just downloaded and install it on your device.
- Once the installation is over, restart your computer and check if the error got resolved.
Automatically
To update the printer driver automatically, you can use the Windows Update and search for drivers available online. Windows keep on introducing updates to fix the errors and bugs in the operating system. So make sure you get all the updates to improve the functioning of your device
- Press Windows + S keys to open the search bar. Then, type ‘Windows update’ and click on the first search result.
- In the update settings section, click on the option ‘Check for updates’, and Windows will automatically check for updates. It will install the available updates and after that restart your device.
Check the Printer Process Files
If you are still not able to add your HP printer on Windows 10, the possibility is some files might be absent from your device. For this, you will need to copy the required files from another device; the one that is working and the missing files are present on it.
- Open the search box of the start menu and type ‘Services.msc’ to go to services.
- Stop the print spooler service.
- Copy all the files of the working system to the same location of the device that is facing printer or driver installation issues with the printer
C:\Windows\System32\spool\prtprocsx64
Create a registry for the print process that you have copied: - Go to the Search box of the ‘working’ computer, and type Regedit to launch Registry Editor.
- Navigate to the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\PRINT\ENVIRONMENTS\WINDOWS X64\PRINT PROCESSORS - Right-click the Print Processors folder to go to the Export section.
- Save the folder contents on an external drive and then open Registry Editor on ‘other’ system, and navigate to the same path mentioned earlier.
- From the File tab, select Import, and import the registry file saved previously.