So a few weeks ago my MIL got a HP C7200. I hooked it up, installed the drivers and it worked [del]great[/del] okay. After a few days she told me she couldn’t print anything. I went over there, did some troubleshooting and found out the printer wasn’t installed anymore. Reinstalled it and it worked fine. Then a few days ago she was having the problem again. This time it was still installed, there was a bunch of stuff in the queue, but it reported the printer as ‘offline’ I reset the printer and the computer to no avail. I deleted the printer and reinstalled it and it’s working fine for the moment.
The computer is a wireless laptop, the printer connected to a network switch if it makes a difference.
Do you have the latest drivers for the printer? The manufacturer’s web site should have them, usually under “downloads” or “support”. Sometimes the driver discs that come with equipment are horribly outdated, and major updates are in newer drivers.
What do you mean it worked “okay” when she first got it? Was she having problems with it from the start? If so, I’d take it back. Might be faulty equipment.
I usually get cheapo printers. They last for around a year, then I check Wall mart or Staples for a printer sale (usually can be had for $30 or less). More expensive printers don’t seem to last any longer, and even the cheap ones print pretty nice nowadays.
The problems we had with the printer are unrelated. Things like you can’t get it to easily print a photo bigger then 3x5, the paper trays are stupid, the printing software it came with is atrocious. But nothing that would cause it to self delete it’s own driver. It sucks, it’s not suicidal.
I’ll check for newer drivers next time I’m bored while I’m there.
She meant to return it, but ran out of time. So she’s just dealing with it. I feel bad that she’s stuck with it, but oh well.
If the printer is connected to a network hub, how is the IP address being assigned? If your router is assigning a different (local) IP address every time you turn the printer on, the computer won’t be able to find the printer and you’ll end up with a bunch of print jobs in the queue. You need to set up the router to assign the printer a static IP address and then insert that IP address into the print driver…normally, your local IP addresses are something like 192.168.1.100 through 192.168.1.255. As different computers connect to the network, they usually have addresses 100, 101, 102, etc. I usually set a static IP to a higher number so that that number won’t be assigned to some random computer connecting to the LAN, such as 192.168.1.199 (you’d have to have 100 computers on your network before that address would be used.)
I breifly thought about the IP address thing. But it didn’t make sense to me. If I have a computer on the network and map to it, then give that computer a different IP address, the map still works doesn’t it? Eitherway, I’ll give it a static IP and reinstall the driver next time I’m over. We’ll see what that does.
Okay, I put on the new driver and gave it a static IP address. It worked that day, but it doesn’t now. I think it’s the printer as it doesn’t appear in Linky’s DHCP client list, and not the computer. But I’ll check into that again it a little while.
Hmm, I just went to the printer menu in Widows and as usual the printer was listed as “offline” just for kicks I right clicked and hit “use printer online.” The second I did that everything in the queue started coming out.
Well even if it keeps happening, if the fix is as easy as that, I think MIL can handle it.
I work on print queues for a living (when I’m not working on file servers). Not glamorous, but there are some things to check.
Since it looks like you’re printing directly to the printer via IP address (you created a port to print to, using the IP address), open the Printer Properties, go to the PORTS tab, and select “Configure Port.” Uncheck the “SNMP Status Enabled” box. You’re not running any software that would use it anyway. In my large installed base of queues (6 thousand or so), we’ve seen that this can cause printers to display as “Offline” or “Out of Paper”, varying by printer model/brand.
Drivers are not usually set to “uninstall” by themselves. When you remove a queue, it only removes that printer’s association with the driver. If no other queues are using the driver, you can go to “START-SETTINGS-PRINTERS & FAXES” then select “FILE-SERVER PROPERTIES” and actually remove the driver properly from the “Drivers” tab. If you get an error, restart the print spooler (from a command prompt, type “Net stop spooler” then “Net start spooler” and try again.
As others have mentioned, you need a static IP address for the printer… unless you have a DNS setup that is reliable, and you use the DNS name, rather than the IP address in the port setup. I’d stick with IP addresses personally, unless you tend to move things around a bit (and that would only be in a corporate setting anyway, most likely.)