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Printing question marks in boxes

As of today, all my printouts on my HP PageWide Pro 452dn look like the attached image where every character is a question mark inside a box. This happens with PDF's and Word documents, and the fonts are the same ones I always use (Calibri, Cambria, etc.). It could be a Big Sur 11.4 issue since I just updated. Any ideas?

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Aug 2, 2021 5:26 PM

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83 replies

Aug 20, 2021 4:39 AM in response to joshfromsan anselmo

I had the same issue on all of our apple devices. After spending some time on the phone with HP they managed to resolve this.

 

We had to remove the Printer from the computer and install the driver using a dropbox link. Once this was installed we had to re-add the printer and change the use to: HP PageWide Pro 477 MFP

This allows the printer to function as before and print as normal again.

 

[Link edited by Moderator]

Aug 20, 2021 12:17 PM in response to Rebecca-LTS

Thanks that link worked great, unfortunately for anyone else it seems the moderator has removed the link. As this has been a very frustrating event with both Apple and HP neither wanting to really assist, I hope that since I'm not providing links that what I type next will be allowed to stay up as plenty of us have to get prints done for jobs and this is what worked for me.


I would suggest searching "hp-essentials-s_5_15_5_12 " OR " MACOS 10.15.7 CATALINA SENDS ERR MESSAGES ON STARTUP - out of date" on the big search engine. You should get a hit from HP forums. I went there and about 3/4 down the forum page there is a link to an FTP site from HP with the said hp-essentials-s_5_15_5_12 install file. I downloaded directly from the ftp installed it and installed the certificate, added the printer again and now I have all functionality with the printing side. I did notice the scanner functionality from the system preferences, printers& scanners >and then my Pagewide Pro 477dw does not allow me to scan from there but at this point I could care less as all I really need is to print documents with color from Word and converted files to pdf. Both worked for me.




Aug 24, 2021 8:49 AM in response to joshfromsan anselmo

i am having this issue also. i have spoken to Microsoft, Apple and HP support. who are unable to help me with this issue. i have deleted and reinstalled all software inc printer software.

i am using HP PageWide Pro 477. MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 and MacOS Big Sur 11.5.2, all software are up 2 date.

i have tried using AirPrint and Secure AirPrint but still having the same issue. however i can print from any Apple software ie note, email etc just not Microsoft.

Help!!!!

Aug 27, 2021 5:12 PM in response to Xam Weyl

This solution worked for the one print job that I couldn't solve using the Adobe PDF workaround. Thank you!


I must say, I'm surprised to see this issue persist for weeks with two tech companies normally noted for reliability. I choose to pay more to buy their products because of my own past experience and forward-looking trust they will continue to be reliable--or correct mistakes immediately.


With other companies, it's par for the course--but I expect more from Apple and HP. I hope they address this quickly.

Aug 28, 2021 3:57 PM in response to SRRNRA

To SRRNRA: Can you tell us if using the Generic Postscript Printer allows all functionality to work, incl. scanning, AirPrint from iPhone and iPad of Word and PDF documents, printing notes from iPhone and iPad without infrequent square boxes, in fact, all functions that were previously working? Everything prints normally from my Dell PC laptop, so it must be an Apple vs HP connection issue. My view is still that HP needs to change the firmware for at least its Pagewide printers. I own a HP Pagewide Pro 577dw. Has anyone heard from HP, and how long it may take them to issue a firmware update to address the problems?


Sep 1, 2021 2:58 PM in response to MacForLife05

If someone at Apple could communicate with someone at HP in the context of open dialogue, perhaps a complete solution (HP firmware) could be developed. This situation has now lasted for too long - now a month.


One obvious temporary solution for HP would be to issue a firmware upgrade that matches the firmware that was in existence before the last firmware upgrade was offered, which I think occurred on 2 August (which is when the problems commenced). This would allow HP time to investigate the problem and only issue a new firmware upgrade when they were certain the problems had been addressed.

Printing question marks in boxes

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