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I recently upgraded a family member's laptop from Windows Vista to Windows 10 and am trying to install a driver for an HP LaserJet 4050 TN printer. I created a TCP/IP port and used the Windows Update option to get a list of drivers, but Windows gives a "Printer driver was not installed" error. I tried again several times but got the same result.

I installed a generic driver instead, but that caused the printer to show a "79.8109 printer error." The issue persisted even after I removed the device. I had to do a system restore to fix the problem.

This did not happen on our other Windows 10 machines. I'm aware this printer is a very old model. Has Microsoft discontinued the drivers?

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    The HP Support Article for this printer acknowledges that it is a very old printer (you said too), use Add Printer making sure Windows 10 is up to date (you did), and try the universal print driver (you did). So if this point, if all else is working, then consider replacing the printer.
    – anon
    Commented Nov 25, 2019 at 1:26
  • I managed to get the printer to work after downloading the universal print driver from the HP website. It turns out I installed the wrong driver earlier.
    – Danny
    Commented Dec 1, 2019 at 5:36

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Well, I got the printer to work after downloading the universal print driver from the HP website. It turns out I installed the wrong driver earlier.

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As Danny discovered already, the HP Universal Print Driver (available on the HP website) is the way to go. However, there are a few caveats, as the LaserJet 4050 is limited to PCL 5 or PostScript Level 2.

By default, the PCL driver sends PCL 6, which the 4050 can’t handle. Some print jobs may print OK but others will fail. I haven’t figured out if there is a way to limit the driver to PCL 5.

The PS driver defaults to Level 2 and has worked for me. Caveat here: some applications may override this setting and send PS Level 3 to the printer (notably Acrobat Reader). You need to throttle that in the print options.

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  • If you're still having trouble with PCL 6, please refer to this answer that shows how to get a PCL 5 driver working on Windows 10 (you need to use HP UPD 6.1.0 x64).
    – Parker
    Commented Jul 19, 2023 at 12:25

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