Wireless printer continually disappears from installed printers in Windows 7

Question

Hi, I have a printer (HP J6480) connected to 2 desktops and one laptop. One of the desktops and the laptop are wireless connections.  Everything worked fine in Win XP, but since upgrading to Windows 7 Home Premium, the desktop with the wireless connection (HP Touchsmart) seems to randomly lose the printer.  It disappears out of the printers and devices list...just the fax option is still listed, not the printer.  Seems to happen most often after an automatic Windows update.

Reinstalling works..but only for awhile, and then it disappears again upon a future bootup (but not always).  Other two computers with Win7 don't have this issue).  When the printer is listed, it works fine.  This is very frustrating...can anyone help me?

Answer 1

What is the HP CUE Service and how do you disable it ?

Answer 2

This seems to be a problem with HP drivers. HP forums recommend to disable the HP CUE service after installation of drivers. This problem exists for a long time now and HP is not fixing it.

Answer 3

I have the same exact problem. My local wireless network consists of a laptop (Windows 7 32 bit), a desktop (Windows 7 64 bit) and a second desktop ( Windows XP Home). I have lost the printer icon on all systems including the XP Home PC. Reinstalling the latest HP Drivers has been the only solution so far but it is usually short term. And, in the case of the XP Home PC, I have had to completely uninstall the HP software and reinstall for a (temporary) solution. If anyone has an answer please let me know. Thanks very much.

Answer 4

Hi Manasa..

Troubleshooter doesn't help.  When the computer shows the printer installed, it works fine.  After losing the printer (when it doesn't show it installed anymore) troubleshooter cannot detect a problem. 

It just lost the printer again since last bootup, and again I'm having to reinstall the thing.

Answer 5

Hi Julie Wood,

I would suggest you to run the Printer Troubleshooter that would help us diagnose the issue better.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Open-the-Printer-troubleshooter

1. Open the Printer troubleshooter by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Control Panel.

 In the search box, type troubleshooter, and then click Troubleshooting. Under Hardware and Sound, click Use a printer.

Get back to us with results.Regards, Manasa P – Microsoft Support.