I have been looking for a compact printer for my camper for well over a year without much luck. I ended up buying a Canon Pixma which ended up not being compatible with my version of MacOS. A few weeks ago I found an HP LaserJet Pro M15a at a second-hand store for a very attractive price. The box hadn’t been opened and was marked new and works (not sure how they knew this, but I’m just reporting the facts).
Everyday for about 2 weeks I attempted to get the damn thing to print. I tried it on my home Mac and my work Mac (both running Sequoia 15.1.1) and my older Macbook Air running Monterrey. Nothing. In all cases the printer would appear to be installed, say Ready when looking at the status, would cause Print Center to open and show the document printing, but the printer would do nothing.
I scoured the web, attempted to call HP Support, who couldn’t even confirm that my printer model/product number/serial number was something that existed. I was about ready to give up when something occured to me – I hadn’t asked ChatGPT what to do.
ChatGPT immediately gave me the solution. I carefully crafted the prompt to ensure the assistant had enough information in order to help me. He came back with several things to try and the first one worked. I still can’t find this solution myself anywhere on HPs site or on the web in general. Here was the solution in case someone else needs it:
- Open System Settings and choose Printers & Scanners.
- Right or Ctrl-Click in the area that lists the printers installed and choose Reset Printing System.
- Click Add New Printer.
- Choose the printer from the list.
- Select HP LaserJet Pro M14-17 in the Use field and click Install.
- Open the Mac App Store and search for HP Smart.
- Download and Intstall.
- Open it.
- Click Print Documents.
- Browse for the document to print.
- Print from the HP Smart Dialog, not the applications or the OSs.
This leads me to a really baffling question: How can Amazon know that I merely thought about a warmer jacket and then display to me repeatedly on its own website and the website of many others ads for jackets for several months when HP can’t even retain what printer I’m looking for support for from one page on it’s site to the next in the same browsing session?