I’ve had that same problem for. . . many years. I currently have this problem with my Vista desktop and my newer Toshiba i7 Laptop running Windows 7. So, I doubt it has anything to do with Windows 8. Never took the time to fix it, I just re-install the printer every time. The printer is an HP5600, or something like that, that’s about 8 years old.
Yeah, I’ve started having this same problem with my Win 8.1 box and an HP 6600. Works on USB cable, fails (sometimes) on wireless. Happened yesterday in fact.
I’ll check for any Windows updates it missed and see what I find.
Just a though: You should try connecting the HP printer to your router via an actual network cable (i.e. not wireless or USB). Then download & run HP’s setup software on your laptop. I’ve always had much better connectivity with a wired network printer rather than USB…
I just saw this thread and thought I’d comment that…
I have a very similar problem with my Windows 7-based PC and my (relatively new) Canon PIXMA MG3500 printer.
This printer can be connected as either a wireless or a USB-connected printer. Just like its Canon PIXMA MP560 predecessor (which had died after several years of faithful service).
I wanted it to be used over the network wirelessly by several PCs the way its predecessor was, so attempted to set it up that way - but found that, unlike its predecessor, there was no way to tell it what my network password was that way. So I connected it up to my main PC via USB, where I was able to give it my wireless network password. Then I disconnected the USB cable and set the printer up again as a wireless networked printer.
All went great - until a local power failure caused all of my PCs to have to be powered back on. Every other PC reconnected to the new printer wirelessly just fine - but my main PC claimed that the printer was offline.
I’ve since determined that when it’s powered up (as opposed to just being restarted) my main PC reverts to thinking that my printer is connected via USB (and claims it’s offline when it can’t find it there). Only removing the printer from my list of printers and reinstalling it as a networked printer gets my main PC to the point when it recognizes it again. At that point everything works fine - until the next time my main PC gets powered off.
I’ve tried everything I can think of, including deleting the printer from my PC and reinstalling it. No joy: something is leftover from that old USB installation that takes charge whenever my main PC is powered off and back on again.
Wotta pain…
Problem solved. I went to the HP site and very carefully followed the directions there to download the driver. (Oh wait–first I deleted the driver from the computer.) The directions included connecting the laptop temporarily to the printer via USB. There were other options to connect it but it had to be connected in order to download…something.
Now I thought I had been through exactly this procedure before, but it must not have been exact because it didn’t work. This time it did. So, yay.
There are two things I might have done differently this time. One was, I might have thought my computer was running Windows 8.1 as my old one was. It is not. (And won’t be.) The other is I might have thought I had the 32-bit Windows 8, but I have the 64-bit Windows 8. This is because when I was setting the thing up I was told by a help desk person to install a 32-bit something and there may have been another reason for that.
Also this time I wrote down every single step so I could tell somebody I had done it perfectly. That may also have contributed.