HP H470 prints only black and white

Question

HP H470 prints only black and white

Hi - I have a 16" MBP, 2021, running Monterey 12.5.1. My usual printer is being worked on so I dug out my HP H470 printer out of the closet and am using that in the meantime. The problem I'm having is that everything I'm printing is coming out in black and white: no color. When I use the printer's built-in functionality to print a diagnostic page, the color is coming out fine but nothing when I print from the machine through a USB cable.

The computer is describing this as "Generic PCL Laser Printer". The only other option I had when installing was to select a driver file. A search for drivers turns up only older files where the installer file has a slash through it, indicating that it won't run - I'm guessing that they're using x86 instead of M1 code.

Any suggestions as to how to get this working correctly?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.5

Posted on Aug 28, 2022 10:35 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

FrankFromSomerville Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 28, 2022 2:04 PM in response to Jan Hedlund

Installing "HP 5.1.1 Printer Software Update", uninstalling the printer then re-adding it worked!

I had first checked HP Easy Admin, the H470 wasn't among those listed.

Thanks!

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Answer 2

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

24,235 points

Aug 28, 2022 12:08 PM in response to FrankFromSomerville

Hi,

Yes, the latest drivers from HP's support page seem to be for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

An HP Officejet H470 version 4.0.8 driver is listed in Printer and scanner drivers for Mac - Apple Support, so you could perhaps carry out an experiment with HP 5.1.1 Printer Software Update. However, the system requirements for this package say macOS 10.14 and Not compatible with macOS v12 and newer. It may not open/work at all with your operating system.

Also, you could possibly check whether anything suitable can be found via HP Easy Admin.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06164609

Do you have access to an earlier Mac, or maybe a Windows PC?

Add a printer to your printer list so you can use it on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

Reset the printing system on your Mac to solve a problem – Apple Support (UK)

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Answer 3

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

24,235 points

Aug 28, 2022 2:09 PM in response to FrankFromSomerville

You're welcome! Thank you for the report. Glad to hear that the HP 5.1.1 Printer Software Update worked.

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HP H470 prints only black and white

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