HP PSC 2510 wireless network installation

I had a problem re-configuring an HP PSC 2510 photosmart all-in-one printer. I wanted to change the router that the printer was connected to.

The stupid blue light on top of the printer wouldn’t come on, indicating that it was connected to the router via ethernet.

The key turned out to be: unplug the printer for 2 full minutes. After that, when I turned it on, I got a network connection and could continue installation.

Full instructions for configuring the printer on a wireless network:

  1. Unplug printer for 2 minutes
  2. Plug printer into router via ethernet
  3. Turn on printer and wait for blue light
  4. Install HP software. Note that it takes 30 minutes
  5. The printer will eventually be assigned an IP address. It might take 2 full minutes longer than you think it should. Go to the Network setting on the printer and print out the network configuration
  6. On the computer, go to http://nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn to set the SSID, WEP, etc.
  7. Disconnect the printer from the router.
  8. The printer’s blue light will turn off. It might take another 2 minutes for the light to come back on. If it doesn’t, check the network settings on the printer to make sure that the radio is on.
  9. Revel in the wirelessness of it all.

48 Comments

  1. Yo says:

    this just solved what hours of phone support couldn’t..thanks

  2. Lee says:

    I’m glad! That’s a big reason why I do this blog.

  3. Gknah says:

    FINALLY!!! THANKS!!!

  4. Lee says:

    Glad I could help :-)

  5. Christian says:

    TTTTTTTTTThhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnkkkkkkkkkkssssss!

  6. remus says:

    when i install the software what option should i use?local computer or network?
    thankx

  7. Lee says:

    If you are installing it over the network, you should select “network”. If you are installing it locally, then… ummm…

  8. Gknah says:

    when i install the software what option should i use?local computer or network?
    thankx

    Go with “network”. For me it was required to detect the printer.

  9. dock says:

    Please help. I have nowhere else to turn: After working wirelessly perfectly for a few weeks, suddenly my PSC 2510 wont connect to the network wirelessly or via ethernet! Could a recent power outage the other night have fried the internal network hardware?? It still prints test pages and copies, but wont connect to the damn network. Please help.

  10. Lee says:

    Sorry, I set this printer up for a client. I haven’t had access to it for a couple years now. Good luck! If you find the solution, it’d be great if you posted or at least did a trackback here.

  11. Gknah says:

    Unfortunately (IMO), if it doesn’t work via ethernet or wireless, I’d bet the network hardware is toast.

    I’m also assuming it still prints normally via USB cable right?

  12. Greg says:

    My HP psc 2510 worked fine until yesterday, now wifi light will not come on and have tried all of the above posts to fix the problem. I’m thinking my wireless radio has gone out in the machine. Is there a way to test the wireless radio? Blue light does blink when I restore network defaults, then I unplug unit for 2 plus minutes and plug in nework cable then wait for blue light to come on, it never does even when making sure wireless radio is on. HELP

  13. Henry Greer says:

    Well I don’t know of a way to test just the wireless radio and I’m assuming the printer works via USB.

    One of the other options I can think would be wifi interference. Did you move the printer to a new location? Did you move a wifi device close to the printer?

    I would test the printer in a couple of locations and see if that helps.

    This article may shed some light too (could it be interfering w/itself?): http://forums.vnunet.com/thread.jspa?forumID=2&threadID=74656

    – Hank

  14. Maggie P says:

    What more can I say but THANK YOU!!!!! If I could buy you a beer (or the drink of your choice), I would gladly do it!

    Thank you for those great directions. I spent more than 1 hour on a chat session with HP with no resolution. In fact, the tech tried to tell me that my printer was damaged! I was so annoyed. I was ready to call in a pro for help.

    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. You’re information was wonderful and got me going again (and saved me close to $200.00 for the tech).

    Thanks again,
    Maggie

  15. Lee says:

    You are very welcome!

    If you’re ever going to be in San Francisco, buzz me. I’d love a mojito at the Velvet Cantena. My internet spies (well… your IP address…) tell me that you’re near Stockton. So it could happen. And if it doesn’t, then enjoy the wireless printing just the same. :-)

    Lee

  16. Tookie says:

    Do I have to re-install the All-in-One software from scratch??

    I hope not, because I have 3 different all-in-ones installed on this computer, and when you re-install it messes everything up.

  17. Hank says:

    Tookie,

    Do I have to re-install the All-in-One software from scratch??

    The short answer is no (sort of), but my memory is fuzzy. You’ll have to try this at your own risk, but here goes…

    Go ahead and run the install for the All-in-One software, at some point it will ask you if you want to overwrite all of the files… say NO!

    The installation should (no guarantees here) move to the next step and preserve your current settings.

    I hope this helps.

    -Hank
    Eurlist.thesol.com

  18. Peter says:

    I have a PSC 2510 which has worked very well on my network for 3 years until I installed a new wireless router. My printer is connected via ethernet cable to the router.

    Installation gets into an infinite loop and I have to cancel the installation. It finds the printer at 169.254.165.200 an address which is outside the range of the router. The software then asks to confirm settings and when you do it jumps back to the Connection Type dialog box requesting you to choose between USB & Network. I guess at thi spoint the installation is supposed to adjust the printer IP address to within the router’s range?
    I spent a lot of time & money on the phone with HP today so if anyone has any ideas it would be great.

  19. Michael says:

    Great and helful advise. Thanks.
    One quick question: I have misplaced my HP software. Can I find it online to download?

  20. BK says:

    This page rocks! Thank you so much. Finally I have wireless printer freedom.

  21. Adria says:

    I am having trouble printing the config. page. When I hit okay to print on the Network Menu it just takes me to 6. Network…any ideas???

  22. steve says:

    Had a “wireless” printer when I bought it, but for some reason just stopped working. Tried so mant times to fix it. 2 years later, thanks to the above information I now have a wireless printer again. Thanks!!

  23. Rob says:

    Thank you very much for the assistance; it worked perfectly?

    For some reason, I am able to connect to the printer wirelessly on one laptop running Vista, but not on the other running Windows XP.

    I have entered the IP address from the Network Config Page and I receive an Error message saying its incorrect.

    Any suggestions?

    Thank you again!

  24. Jennifer F says:

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

  25. Kasper says:

    Hey. I have followed ur info on how to setup a printer. This printer.
    But i think that there is something wrong coz i cannot setup the printer using Windows XP. I cannot find it, and i use the wireless thats in the printer. My problem is that, the printer knows what IP it has. But even though i cannot find it on the network ?
    Does that sound correct ?
    I cant find the printer when im searching for printers. And i this is my hobby if u can say that. To help my dad with these things.
    But i hope that u can help me, coz this problem is very annoying. And i do not know what to do at this point.
    Else, very good describtions on how to get the printer working with the wireless setup. Thanks

    Kasper.

  26. Marcus K. says:

    Ive had this printer for 4 years and couldnt figure out the wireless functioanlity, but this blog explained it all thanx a lot!

  27. lorna says:

    After hours spent setting up my hp psc 2510 to my 2wire wireless network I have to make a choice between printing wirelessly, OR being on the internet. I therefore cannot print from the internet. I have to go into the CONNECT TO menu and switch from the hpsetup to my 2WIRE to use the internet. If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated. I have a Dell Vostro 1400 notebook with windows vista home premium on it.

  28. michael says:

    After following the first three steps and begin installation it asks how will the printer be used (obviously wirelessly) but im having trouble selecting my router

  29. Richard says:

    Anyone successfully set this printer up using WPA? I’ve managed to get everything to work wirelessly on an Open network (connecting to a Netgear Wireless AP), but when I try to configure WPA access it simply won’t work. No error messages, just keeps scanning and never seems to find the network.

    If you can give me the answer I will be ever grateful!

    Richard

  30. lee says:

    Richard, the printer was originally built before WPA was available. Unless there is a firmware upgrade available, you’re out of luck.

  31. Richard says:

    The printer claims to support WPA (or at least HP claim it supports WPA)! And there are appropriate entries in the EWS to allow WPA encryption – I just don’t seem to be able to get it to work.

    To be fair it is relatively old; it’s just that I have moved it to a new location where it would be vastly more convenient to have a printer that I can use wirelessly, and securely.

    I have read a couple of comments elsewhere that others have also found it hard to get WPA to work. Just wondered if anyone had found the magic trick.

    Richard

  32. lee says:

    Hopefully someone will chime in with help here. Good luck!

  33. John says:

    Just installed a new router DIS-615 and no luck with HP2510.
    Did you find an answer?

  34. chuck says:

    while attempting to set up my hppsc 2510 printer to wireless, the blue light comes on initially for 15-20 seconds after the first steps then goes off… do you have any idea why? the printer is recognized during that time period, but the rest of the install is apparently impossible without that connection.
    thanks, chuck

  35. James says:

    I just noticed that the conenction light is out on my HP PSC 2510. I printed the network configuration and page and it shows the adaptor is intializing. I’m not sure what has happened as it had been working perfectly for sometime using WPA/PSK encryption. So I unplug it for several minutes hoping it will reconnect. No Luck. I restore Network defaults and connect via ethernet from my laptop. Network lights up (blue light on top). I printed the net configuration page, got the IP address and brought the config page. Reconfigured everything, turned on the Wireless radio and then shut the printer down, removed the ethernet cable and waited several minutes. Turned it on and still no blue light and the config page still says Initializing. Any Ideas?

  36. Cole says:

    James, exact same thing here. I’ve had this 2510 for years and it’s worked fine, even through broadband changes like going from cable modem to DSL, changing wireless routers, etc. Out of the blue this weekend the blue light goes out. Won’t come back on. Network status page just shows Initializing and no IP. Unplugged for 5 minutes, reset router, etc. It’s connected by USB and will print that way fine…but wireless is hosed for some reason. It took forever to get my XP client upstairs connected to it, so I hate to reset everything. Let me know if you find a solution. Thanks!

  37. James says:

    I can get the light to come on with just WEP….but it doesn’t connect because my router is WPA..as it has always been…lately, I’ve just run it to my laptop via ethernet….but it doesnlt really suit my need. I’m about to give up and go by a newer model printer.

  38. Jonathan C says:

    Brilliant thank you so much for taking the trouble to write this

  39. Jonathan C says:

    Got so excited forgot to say why I was thanking you, the wireless settings worked wonderfully

  40. lee says:

    You’re very welcome. I’m glad this helped! It’s crazy that this post has been helping people for over 5 years now!

  41. James says:

    It is helpful but it doesn’t really fix WPA issues…I can fix WEP fairly easy without a reinstall…but I still can’t get WPA to initialize after having working for over a year prior to the unknown incident that interuppted the comms. So for now I’ve down gradged my security to WEP

  42. Veronica says:

    My problem started when I went from a Linksys Wireless G router to a Linksys E3000 router. I did this for the dual band separation for my n devices. In any case, I’ve always had SSID broadcast disabled since I couldn’t get WPA to work on the 2510. Now the new Linksys E3000 I can get everything to work just like before except that when I turn off SSID broadcast, the blue light turns right off of the PSC 2510. When I turn it back on, the blue light comes back on. One would think that’s not a big deal – just turn on SSID broadcast however with no WPA support in the router, it’s the ONLY thing I can to do protect my network right now. So my question is, how can I make my wireless light stay on when SSID broadcast is disabled? As I said before, this is the same setup I had with old Linksys router so I know the printer does support it. Oh, and have I expressed how FRUSTRATING this issue is???

  43. paul says:

    One thing I found out: WPA2-PSK doesn’t work. Use WPA-PSK instead.

  44. Veronica says:

    I wanted no security meaning open but non broadcasting…

  45. Shelley says:

    I must add my thanks.
    After 3 days of fighting to get my new dual-band router to recognize the psc 2510, I have won.
    I’m battle-scarred, but grateful for this info!

    Shelley

  46. preston says:

    ok, first let me say that you rock. HP seems to have the worst configuration procedures of any organization. think they work hard to make them impossible. have the printer working with and IP address on cat5. get that pretty blue light. but when I unplug ethernet it will not seem to grab the wireless. Radio is on. wireless is set to my SID and have the WEP set to same as I use on all other devices.

    any suggestions?

  47. preston says:

    got it. had to open my router and see what the config was….hexidecimal. why can my iphone figure this out but HP equipment cannot?

Leave a Comment

Do not write "http://" or "https://" in your comment, it will be blocked. It may take a few days for me to manually approve your first comment.