[SOLVED] HP Officejet Pro X451dw printer keeps asking me to load plain A4, but that's what is in already

[MrYossu]

HP Officejet Pro X451dw connected to my Windows 10 PC via wifi. Was working fine for a few years, but recently we got a new router, and we had a lot of problems persuading the printer to connect to the new wifi. We got it working eventually, and it was fine for a while.

However, recently, whenever I have tried to print, the job gets sent to the printer, but then the printer itself asks me to load plain A4 into tray 2. However, tray 2 is already about 3/4 full of plain A4. If I press OK on the printer control panel, the message just comes back.

I have tried running the HP print and scan doctor. That told me that the printer was out of paper (no it isn't), and said I should load it with letter paper. I'm in the UK, we don't use letter paper here, we use A4, which is what is on the printer, and is what it keeps asking me to load.

I have reinstalled the printer driver. During the install, it found the network printer without problem, and went through the motions of connecting, reporting success at the end, but it didn't help.

Don't know if it's relevant, but if I look in the printers control panel in Windows, I see two entries, one named as I would expect, and one named "DO NOT DELETE - Needed for HP Officejet Pro X451dw Printer" I don't remember seeing this before I reinstalled the driver.

I tried printing from another device (which had previously been able to print without problem), but that claimed that the printer was out of paper.

To be clear, the printer is NOT, repeat NOT out of paper 😀. I may be getting old and daft, but I'm capable of spotting a mostly full tray of paper when I see one!

Anyone any ideas? I can't print at all. Thanks

P.S. Since posting, I deleted and reinstalled the printer driver. This time it only created the one (didn't create the "DO NOT DELETE" one). In the Windows printers and scanners control panel, it shows the printer with a status of "Out of paper." Obviously, I can't print.

 

[jojesa]

That printer could have 3 separate paper trays (including the optional), are you sure the computer is trying to print a sheet from the appropriate paper tray?
Are you able to manually make a copy from the device without using the computer?
The printer sensor, that detects the paper could be dirty, malfunctioning, it is not reading that there is paper or it failed.
Take the paper tray out, clean it and adjust the paper...place it back and test.

 

[Ralston18]

Will add another suggestion:

Load all the trays with some other size paper and reconfigure accordingly. Do some test prints to that paper size to determine if they will print.

Then go back to A4 and try that size again.

 

[hang-the-9]

Take out the paper tray and check the size tabs on it, good chance they are not clicked into place. In 90% of the cases I worked on where a printer kept asking to load paper of a specific size the size tabs were not in the right spots. The other 10% has been a hard paper option set in the printer that over-rode application settings.

If the printer keeps saying it's out of paper that can be the sensor on it that failed, or just something stuck on the sensor like a piece of paper.