How to install Hp Smart Tank 515 on Windows Xp

HP Smart Tank 515 is a tank printer that can print up to 6000 pages with black ink, and 8000 pages with color ink (cyan, magenta, yellow). It's a low page cost printer that is a good daily printer.

The printer driver requires at least windows vista to be installed, and won't work with windows xp because there is no official drivers for it. However, in this article I'm going to teach you how to make it work with windows xp.

I searched the internet for a driver that work with windows xp, but i didn't find any that works. So I stumbled on a reddit comment on a post that says: "Nearly every single HP printer since the LaserJet 4000 natively speaks LaserJet 4000 commands. It's a feature.", So from what I understood that most if not all hp printers use the same language to talk to the computer called "PCL" short for "Printer Command Language", and even old hp printers use it too. So I started testing different old hp printers drivers on windows xp until I got only 3 to work:

1. HP LaserJet - Text only.
2. HP OfficeJet - Text only.
3. HP PaintJet XL 300 - Color only.

One problem though, I couldn't get the scanner to work, to be honest I never tried to, because its more complicated than the print function, and I didn't bother to try to make it work. So here i will only explain how to make it only print from windows xp. Maybe some time in the future I will try to make the scanner work with windows xp.

This guide might also work with other modern HP printers, I didn't test any because all I have is the 515.

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Requirements:

1. Hp Smart Tank 515 configured with wifi and running.
2. Windows Xp pc or laptop.
3. Some patience.

Note: This guide assume you have your hp smart tank 515 connected to wifi and running, and your windows xp computer connected to the same wifi too.

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Step 1:

On windows xp click on start then click on printers and faxes.

Step 2:

Click on add printer.

Step 3:

Click Next.

Step 4:

Choose "Local printer attached to this computer" and untick "Automatically detect and install my plug and play printer", then click Next.

Step 5:

1- Choose "Create new port".

2- In type of port select "Standard TCP/IP port".

3- Click Next.

Step 6:

A new window will appear, on it click Next.

Step 7:

Now you need to enter you printer IP address. If you know it enter it in "Printer name or IP address", if you don't know it follow the next step.

Step 8: Obtaining the IP address of the printer:

1. Open HP Smart on your phone or where you installed it and connected it to the printer.
2. Click on the printer name.
3. Scroll until you find "Network Information".
4. There you will see the IP Address of the printer, write it or save it because you need to enter it in the "Printer name or IP Address" in windows xp.

Step 9:

Enter your printer IP address and Click Next.

Step 10:

Click Finish.

Step 11:

Now the the window will close and the printer setup will ask for the printer driver.

Step 12:

Scroll in the Manufacturer list until you find HP, then click on it.

Step 13:

Now you can choose from the 3 drivers I mentioned earlier:

1. HP LaserJet - Text only.
2. HP OfficeJet - Text only.
3. HP PaintJet XL 300 - Color only.

If you only want to print text documents, I recommend choosing the HP OfficeJet driver, because it has some more settings to customize, but if it didn't work or it had problems, choose the HP LaserJet driver. And if you only want to print color photos only choose the HP PaintJet XL 300 driver, but be careful, the quality of the printed color images is not that great, and don't print text documents on the PaintJet driver, because it will print garbage characters.

Here I choose the HP OfficeJet driver.

When your done click Next.

Step 14:

Choose the printer name and the default settings, and click Next.

Step 15:

Select print a test page if you want, then Click Next.

Step 16:

Click Finish.

Congratulations. HP Smart Tank 515 is installed now in windows xp and working.

You can actually have 2 drivers installed at the same time, just repeat the steps from 3 to 16, but in step 5 choose "Use the following port" and select the IP port of the printer.
If you have any questions or suggestions, leave a comment. I will try to answer all comments.

Thanks for visiting my blog.