I’m trying to help someone set up a HP M7140W laser printer.
The printer install guide (aka HP Smart) requires macOS 11, but the person I’m helping can’t upgrade from macOS 10.6 for complicated reasons.
Does anyone know if there might be a version of HP Smart that would work with macOS 10.6? Or some other way to get the printer working with older Macs?
Unfortunately I’m not near the printer now and won’t be for a week or so, so I’m looking for potential solutions I can queue up and try then.
Are they trying to connect it wirelessly or with a wired connection?
If wirelessly, I would strongly suggest trying to use Airprint rather than the HP driver/app. Connect the printer to the network, then on the Mac, select add new printer and then select Airprint rather than a specific make and model. If the printer supports it, it will just work with no software installed. If the Mac reports that a printer cannot be found and you have verified there are no network related issues, then you know that you need HP’s drivers.
Thanks. The network probably has to be a personal hotspot, which obviously isn’t ideal. HP’s instructions, even for AirPrint, all begin by telling you to connect to the printer using their setup software (which is the problem).
Ah, so you need to connect to the printer to configure the WiFi connection of the printer so that the printer is connected to the network so that you can connect to the printer. That’s why I always purchase wired network printers. Just plug it into the network and connect via AirPrint and done.
The way this works (as I understand it) is that the printer presents itself as an unsecured WiFi hotpot from the factory. From a device with the software installed, connect to the hotspot and then navigate to the printers network settings and configure the network connection (provide your local network’s SSID and password). When you save the changes, the printer will disconnect the unsecured hotspot (and disable it) and then connect to the local network (if the connection fails, the printer should bring the hotspot back s you can try again). Once the printer is connected to the network, the printer is available on the local network and can be used like any networked printer from any device, not just the device used to set it up. For advanced features and/or to reconfigure the printer, you will still need the app, but for basic printing via AirPrint no app or drivers should be needed.
By the way, it appears that the HP Smart App is available for iOS/iPadOS. Could you install the app on a phone/tablet and use that to configure the printer’s WiFi connection? Once the printer is connected to the network, the app shouldn’t be needed to print from the Mac so long as everything is done via AirPrint. Although, I’m not sure what may be needed for scanning.
Thank you! We got it working the old fashioned way, with a USB cable. But the iPhone approach also works when the network (a cellular hotspot) is up and running.