Printer says offline, won't print, tried everything (Windows 10)

Hi all, hoping someone has run into this. I've been trying to print a single PDF for the last six hours. My printer (HP OfficeJet 4650, connected by USB) is showing as "Offline" in Windows 10, even though it's plugged in, powered on, and the green light is solid. The display panel says Ready. Other devices in the house can print to it over Wi-Fi without issue. It's just my Windows 10 desktop that won't.

Things I have already tried, in order:

• Restarted the PC. Three times. One of them was a full power-cycle.
• Unplugged the USB cable, restarted, plugged it back in.
• Removed the printer from Devices and Printers and let Windows re-detect it. It detected fine, still offline.
• Manually toggled Use Printer Offline off (it was already off).
• Right-clicked the printer → Properties → Ports → confirmed it's on the correct USB port (USB001).
• Restarted the Print Spooler service via services.msc. Twice.
• Ran the Windows Printer Troubleshooter — it found "no problems" and closed.
• Updated the HP driver from the HP website. Reinstalled it. Restarted again.
• Checked for Windows updates. Installed two pending ones (KB5034441 and KB5034203). Restarted. No change.
• Tried printing from Notepad, from Edge, from a fresh Word doc. All return "Offline."
• Connected the printer to my wife's laptop via the same USB cable — prints fine. So it's not the printer or the cable.

I'm at the point where I've tried everything Google and the HP support site suggest. The print job sits in the queue marked "Error - Printing" for about 12 seconds, then disappears. No paper movement. No noise from the printer. Windows just shrugs.

Has anyone seen this exact issue? I've already exhausted the obvious fixes. Will mark whichever answer works as the solution. Genuinely stuck.

Edit: also tried disabling SNMP under Port → Configure as suggested in another thread. No change.

Hi DesktopGuy_88, sorry to hear you're having trouble with your printer. I'd be happy to help you sort this out.

To start, please could you try the following:

• Restart your PC and printer (turn the printer fully off, count to 30, turn it back on).
• Make sure you're running the latest Windows updates. Go to Settings → Update & Security → Windows Update and install any pending updates.
• Run the built-in Printer Troubleshooter: Settings → Update & Security → Troubleshoot → Printer.
• Reinstall your printer driver from the manufacturer's website.

Let me know if any of those work for you. Looking forward to your reply!

Best regards,
Annie
Community Moderator

Hi Annie, thanks for the response. As I mentioned in the original post, I've already tried all of the above. Restarted the PC three times (one full power-cycle including the printer), all Windows updates installed, Printer Troubleshooter ran and reported no issues, drivers reinstalled twice from HP's site.

Still showing as offline. Any other ideas?

Bumping this. 5 years later. Still happening. Mods please don't lock.

Have you tried turning it off and on again? 😏

Did you check the Print Spooler service in services.msc? That fixes it 9 times out of 10.

+1 same problem, did anyone find a fix?

I had this exact issue, fixed it in 2 minutes — see my video tutorial here: [link]

Mods, please move this thread to the correct subforum. This belongs in Hardware → Peripherals, not General Drivers.

Open an elevated PowerShell and run: Get-PnpDevice -PresentOnly | Where-Object {$_.Class -eq 'Printer'} — that'll tell you if Windows even sees the device.

If it doesn't appear in the output, your USB chipset driver is the problem, not the printer driver. Reinstall the chipset driver from your motherboard manufacturer's site (NOT Windows Update — Windows Update gives you the generic Microsoft USB driver which doesn't fully support the device).

Have you considered switching to Linux? CUPS handles printers like this without a single registry edit. I made the switch in 2014 and never looked back.

Happy to walk anyone through Ubuntu setup, just DM me.

just buy a mac mate

This worked for me on Windows 11: open Settings → Bluetooth & Devices → Printers → click your printer → Properties → Maintenance → Reset Spooler Cache. Hope this helps!

Hi all, for issues like this we recommend contacting HP support directly via their website. They have specialised hardware diagnostics our community can't replicate.

This thread is now several years old. If anyone is still experiencing this issue on a current build of Windows, please open a new thread in the appropriate subforum. Locking is not currently planned but may be considered if the discussion drifts off-topic.

— Rob
Community Moderator

My dad had this and we just bought a new printer 🤷 they're only £39 at Argos.

I solved it!! Will post the full step-by-step when I have time, this is huge for everyone in this thread, stand by 🙏

OP if you're still alive PLEASE share the fix. I've been on this for 6 hours, I have to print my boarding pass in 30 min, I am begging you. Anyone??