HP Laserjet 3055 printer "waiting for printer to be available" after HP Printer Software Update 3.0

Many thanks for your suggestions. After creating a bootable back-up, I tried the first suggestion--downloading and re-installing the HP printer driver update kit for which you kindly provided the link--but to no avail. Before downloading the driver update kit, I "reset the printing system", clearing all the installed printers, queues, etc. After re-installing the HP printer drivers, I went to System Preferences>Printers & Scanners to once again add the HP LaserJet 3055 only to discover it was already listed as installed! This I find baffling, to say then least. I tried printing and again got the "waiting for printer to be available" message. I subsequently tried deleting and re-adding the printer, going through the printing system reset again, but still no-go.

I also tried another approach to adding the printer which perhaps will shed some light on the problem. After clicking on the "+" button to add the printer, I select the "HP LaserJet 3055" which shows up as available via USB. Then, instead of using the "HP LaserJet 3052" driver that automatically appears in the "Use" [choose a driver] field, I chose "Auto Select" to see what happens. As the computer processes this request, the status message changes from "Gathering printer information..." to "Waiting for printer to become available..." And, of course, it never becomes available. This strikes me as odd, that the printer set-up system "sees" the printer accurately enough to list it as available to add but can't find it with the "Auto Select" approach to getting the appropriate driver. Of course, when I simply go with the "Use HP LaserJet 3052" driver option that, naturally enough, is the one automatically suggested by the printer set-up system, the printer is "successfully" added. I say "successfully" in quotes because it never becomes "available" to print something.

Before I try your second suggestion--downloading and re-installing the 10.9.5 combo update--I wonder if it's possible that the printing system reset process is "broken". It's as though the reset fails to clear the printer queue, making it appear that there is a pending printing job that the system is waiting to be finished. Also, as noted above, I reset the printing system prior to re-installing the HP printer driver update kit and then, after installation, the HP LaserJet 3055 magically had already been added. This makes me wonder if the printer wasn't properly "cleared" from whatever makes up the printer System Preference process during the reset.

Any other thoughts?

This is to correct the first paragraph of my previous message. It should read:

Many thanks for your suggestions. After creating a bootable back-up, I tried the first suggestion--downloading and re-installing the HP printer driver update kit for which you kindly provided the link--but to no avail. Before downloading the driver update kit, I "reset the printing system", clearing all the installed printers, queues, etc. After re-installing the HP printer drivers, I went to System Preferences>Printers & Scanners to once again add the HP LaserJet 3055. As soon as I selected the HP LaserJet 3055 (USB) from the list of printers, the printer appeared in the list, even before I had confirmed my printer driver selection. After duly selecting the HP LaserJet 3052 driver, the system took about 30 seconds to configure the printer, at which point a duplicate HP LaserJet 3055 printer appeared in the printer window. (It was NOT already listed when I went to add it as I previously described.) I still find it baffling why the printer would appear twice after going through the adding printer procedure once. I tried printing and again got the "waiting for printer to be available" message. I subsequently tried deleting and re-adding the printer, going through the printing system reset again, but still no-go.

Another correction. I apologize, but in playing around with various combinations of resetting the print system, rebooting the computer, plugging in the USB cable from the HP LaserJet 3055 printer, my initial description two messages ago is indeed correct. Here's what happened. I reset the printing system, disconnected the printer USB cable from the computer, rebooted the computer, re-connected the printer cable (the printer was on), and then opened "Printers & Scanners" in System Preferences to add the printer. I waited for a few minutes, not doing anything, and lo and behold, the HP printer magically appears in the "Printers" box with status "Idle, Default". However, in the box to the right of the "Printers" box, the message is "No printers are available. Click Add ( + ) to set up a printer." Just in case, I tried printing at this stage and immediately the window to the right of the "Printers" box shows the usual information about the HP LaserJet 3055 printer with buttons for the print queue, etc. I eventually still get the "waiting for printer to become available" message in the queue status. If I delete and re-add the printer, I get the same result. Something seems definitely amiss with the computer's printing system and reset process, so this may not be an HP driver problem at all.

BTW, on my iMac I am able to successfully add, and print to, this HP LaserJet 3055 printer as a Bonjour Shared printer connected to my MacBook Pro via our home wifi network. This is the laptop that does not have the HP Printer Software Update 3.0 installed in case that remains relevant. I dare not try installing that update on the laptop quite yet since using the printer as Bonjour Shared printer works.

Misery loves company... I'm sorry you're having the same problem but it confirms that I'm not the only one. I have dealt at some length with Apple Support through their chat system since my iMac is still covered by Apple Care. They have had me go through MrHoffman's suggestion to reinstall the OS 10.9.5 update, and as you experienced, it did nothing to solve the problem. At Apple Support's suggestion, I have also tried deleting the Macintosh HD>Library>Printers>hp folder and then reinstalling the recent HP Printer Software Update 3.0, but this didn't work, either. I am in the midst of doing a clean install of Mavericks (10.9.5) in a new partition on the iMac, then adding the HP LaserJet 3055 and seeing what happens. If this solves the problem, there may well be a lot more work ahead to figure out what's amiss with my principal HD partition; if it doesn't solve the problem, I think Apple will be passing me over to HP.

What is particularly puzzling to Apple Support, I think, is that my MacBook Pro (as noted earlier in my saga) prints to the HP LaserJet 3055 just fine with OS 10.9.5 installed but NOT the recent HP Printer Software Update 3.0.

I'm curious that you're able to get a document to print if it is in the print queue during a restart. Do you mean restarting the computer or the printer or something else? I'd like to try this before my next session with Apple Support and see if this sheds any light on a solution...

Interesting that HP would tell you the LaserJet 3055 is not compatible with Mavericks. The printer works fine with my MacBook Pro running Mavericks (10.9.5). The key difference seems to be that the MBP doesn't have the Sept 30, 2014 HP Printer Software Update Version 3.0 installed. I'm not convinced HP gave you a straight or accurate explanation for this problem, but thanks for sharing it. Please see my additional comments about the printer working fine when I did a "clean install" of Mavericks 10.9.5 in a partition of my iMac's hard drive. This complicates the situation, I believe, because to set up the HP LaserJet 3055 in the new installation of Mavericks, I had to download the latest HP Printer Software, presumably the version 3.0 that appears to be causing the problem on my main hard drive.

I have duplicated your experience by re-booting the computer with a document "stuck" in the "waiting for printer to become available" mode in the printer queue and having the document print once the computer has booted up. Thank you for that insight.

At the suggestion of Apple Support, I added a partition to my iMac's hard drive and, after downloading the latest Mavericks (10.9.5) from the App Store, did a "clean install" on the new partition (named "Test OS"). The HP LaserJet 3055 was on and connected via USB to the computer when the Test OS booted up, and immediately I was asked if I wanted to download software for that printer. I clicked "yes", and after the computer downloaded and installed a 137 MB "software update" (presumably, the HP Printer Software Update, Version 3.0), the 3055 works fine. I didn't even have to manually add the printer to the Printer & Scanner System Preferences. This seems to complicate the picture, suggesting that there's something installed on my main hard drive (that has numerous applications installed) that may be causing this printer frustration.

I will report back here once I've gone through these latest "findings" with Apple Support.

The Apple Support person I last worked with has solved this problem! At least in my case, it involved deleting the items in the Macintosh HD>Library>StartupItems folder and then rebooting the computer. The HP LaserJet 3055 now prints fine. It appeared to the tech support person that some process (presumably a startup item) was "occupying" the printer (my term), generating the "waiting for printer to become available" status in the printer queue. [In case you're wondering, yes, I had tried starting up the computer in "safe mode" and the printer problem still persisted. There are apparently some processes not disabled by a startup into "safe mode".]

If you try this same solution, I would suggest you (1) copy the contents of your StartupItems folder to a similarly named folder you create on your desktop and (2) have a bootable backup of your HD before trashing the contents from the Library's StartupItems folder. If you'd rather have the technical guidance of an Apple Support person, refer him/her to Case ID 6739948790 where the details of this case and solution will be found.

Thanks to everyone who responded to this issue.