Printer offline

[bettablue]

Simple question, I hope.

How do you resolve the printer offline issues in windows 7? There seems to
be no end of problems when this happens.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Simple question, I hope.

How do you resolve the printer offline issues in windows 7? There seems to
be no end of problems when this happens.

What problem is that exactly?

Yousuf Khan

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

What problem is that exactly?

Yousuf Khan

Obviously it's the printer offline issues in Windows 7.

Translation: I have no idea what bettablue means either

 

[Bob I]

Sure, turn the printer back on. If that isn't the answer, try explaining
what the problem is.

 

[dizzie.lizzie.5]

Sure, turn the printer back on. If that isn't the answer, try explaining
what the problem is.

I don't know what problems bettablue is having but the offline problem
I have sometimes on Win 7 and frequently on Vista is that when I turn
on the printer and try to print it is listed as offline. I have found
no way to get it back online except to delete the printer and
reinstall it. My printer is an HP all-in-one 6310. I have seen other
people with the same problem with HP printers. I don't know if it
happens to other brands of printer. It would be nice to either not
have it go offline or to be able to set it back online without
reinstalling it.

 

[Joe Morris]

I don't know what problems bettablue is having but the offline problem
I have sometimes on Win 7 and frequently on Vista is that when I turn
on the printer and try to print it is listed as offline. I have found
no way to get it back online except to delete the printer and
reinstall it. My printer is an HP all-in-one 6310. I have seen other
people with the same problem with HP printers. I don't know if it
happens to other brands of printer. It would be nice to either not
have it go offline or to be able to set it back online without
reinstalling it.

FWIW I've seen occasional problems where a USB printer (this is
USB-attached, right?) didn't get completely announced to waiting
applications when it came online. Try removing the printer through the
"Safely Remove Hardware" dialog, then turn the printer off, wait a couple of
seconds, and turn it back on.

No guarantees, but if it works it will be easier than remove/reinstall of
the printer.

Joe Morris

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

FWIW I've seen occasional problems where a USB printer (this is
USB-attached, right?) didn't get completely announced to waiting
applications when it came online. Try removing the printer through the
"Safely Remove Hardware" dialog, then turn the printer off, wait a couple of
seconds, and turn it back on.

No guarantees, but if it works it will be easier than remove/reinstall of
the printer.

Joe Morris

My Canon printer is connected by Ethernet, and occasionally reports that
it's busy and can't be bothered to print. Turning it off and then on
again after a few seconds seems to restore it. Occasionally it needs to
be unplugged from both the Ethernet cable and the power source (AC) to
clear its processor.

After one of those cures succeeds it's good for weeks or months.

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

My Canon printer is connected by Ethernet, and occasionally reports that
it's busy and can't be bothered to print. Turning it off and then on
again after a few seconds seems to restore it. Occasionally it needs to
be unplugged from both the Ethernet cable and the power source (AC) to
clear its processor.

After one of those cures succeeds it's good for weeks or months.

Is the printer using a Fixed IP address that is outside the range of any
being allowed by DHCP? I had similar problems with a printer that would
work fine using DHCP until the IP lease time ran out. Then it would
either "forget" to ask for the lease to be renewed or something else was
assigned that address but the printer kept trying to use it anyway.

With my local DHCP range limited to xxx.xxx.xxx.2-100 and my printer
running on a fixed IP of xxx.xxx.xxx.250 I no longer have the problem.

Depending on your router you may need to verify that the DHCP range for
wireless and Ethernet are both set with a limit lower, or higher, that
the one you assign to the printer.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Is the printer using a Fixed IP address that is outside the range of any
being allowed by DHCP? I had similar problems with a printer that would
work fine using DHCP until the IP lease time ran out. Then it would
either "forget" to ask for the lease to be renewed or something else was
assigned that address but the printer kept trying to use it anyway.

With my local DHCP range limited to xxx.xxx.xxx.2-100 and my printer
running on a fixed IP of xxx.xxx.xxx.250 I no longer have the problem.

Depending on your router you may need to verify that the DHCP range for
wireless and Ethernet are both set with a limit lower, or higher, that
the one you assign to the printer.

The problem is printer in use, rather than printer not found.

It does have a fixed IP address outside the range I allow for DHCP. I
had to look it up - it's been a while since I set it up, so I didn't
remember what I had chosen.

I tend to keep my fixed addresses and my DHCP addresses separate. Both
my fixed IP devices and my DHCP devices do fine, except for my Replay
TV. It had a bug so that it forgot that it was on fixed IP and every now
and again would get a new address from DHCP. But time has moved on and
it's no longer in use. I don't even remember what I did as a workaround.
I suspect that I just switched it to DHCP and looked up its current
assignment whenever I needed to access it. I would have had to look it
up anyway, given the bug.

 

[johnbee]

The problem is printer in use, rather than printer not found.

It does have a fixed IP address outside the range I allow for DHCP. I
had to look it up - it's been a while since I set it up, so I didn't
remember what I had chosen.

I tend to keep my fixed addresses and my DHCP addresses separate. Both
my fixed IP devices and my DHCP devices do fine, except for my Replay
TV. It had a bug so that it forgot that it was on fixed IP and every now
and again would get a new address from DHCP. But time has moved on and
it's no longer in use. I don't even remember what I did as a workaround.
I suspect that I just switched it to DHCP and looked up its current
assignment whenever I needed to access it. I would have had to look it
up anyway, given the bug.

This query seems a bit odd to me, because I had a difficulty with Win XP and
my two printers (one is a fast black only and the other is a slower colour
one). With Win 7 though, it has worked perfectly.

However, just in case the poster of the original question is a bit of a
beginner, it is well worth pointing out that if you ever get a problem with
printing, always check that the print queue is empty by clicking Devices and
Printers in the Start menu, right clicking any printer icons and select 'See
what's printing'. Any old job that has got stuck can then be cancelled.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

This query seems a bit odd to me, because I had a difficulty with Win XP and
my two printers (one is a fast black only and the other is a slower colour
one). With Win 7 though, it has worked perfectly.

However, just in case the poster of the original question is a bit of a
beginner, it is well worth pointing out that if you ever get a problem with
printing, always check that the print queue is empty by clicking Devices and
Printers in the Start menu, right clicking any printer icons and select 'See
what's printing'. Any old job that has got stuck can then be cancelled.

Somewhere along the line I noticed that Windows remembers its print
queue even through a restart, so you still have to clear it manually to
- uh - clear it

 

[dizzie.lizzie.5]

FWIW I've seen occasional problems where a USB printer (this is
USB-attached, right?) didn't get completely announced to waiting
applications when it came online. Try removing the printer through the
"Safely Remove Hardware" dialog, then turn the printer off, wait a couple of
seconds, and turn it back on.

No guarantees, but if it works it will be easier than remove/reinstall of
the printer.

Joe Morris

Thanks, I'll give that a try next time it goes offline.

 

[bettablue]

Sorry for the unclear post earlier. I am definitely not a novice when it
comes to computers, but didn't really think this through when asking my
question.

I have seen Printer Offline messages on numerous computers, both at home and
on computers we support at my job. Let me start with those. At my work,
customers call in for support on problems they have with their shipping
systems, I am not going to provide which company for privacy and security
reasons. But here's the rub. Our customers call in reporting that their
Eltron and Zebra thermal label printers no longer work. They just WILL NOT
print anything, not through our software, nor through Windows. There are a
few other printer models models we use with our software as well, but these
are the most prevalent. We look at the printer properties and see the
status as "Offline". It doesn't seem to matter whether the printer is
connected using a USB, or serial connection either. Cancelling the print
queue doesn't seem to work, because Windows just won't let it go. This
works only when the printer is online though. So we have gone into
Windows\System32\printers and deleting the contents. (I have not found this
folder in Windows 7 though and am wondering where Microsoft hid that too.)
This clears the print job, however it does not do anything to bring the
printer online. Yes, we have disconnected the printer and plugged it back
in after resetting the printer using a "dump mode". We still cannot get the
printer to read as online ad nothing will print to it. So, the next step is
to uninstall and reinstall the label printer driver. Sometimes this works,
but sometimes it doesn't. We have even gone so far as to set the printer to
print directly to the printer and avoid spooling in the printing
Preferences. This works great when print jobs continually get stuck in
spooling, but again does nothing to get the printer back online. We only
do this when there are spooling issues and the customer is not doing a lot
of shipping volume. Funny thing here too is that whenever we disconnect the
printer and reconnect it, Windows wants to reinstall the driver, even if the
printer just needs resetting to align the labels and the issue has nothing
to do with stuck print jobs. When this happens, we end up with duplicate
printers in the Windows device manager and Printer folders with copy 1, or
copy 2 etc. This is a problem because our software needs the printer to be
named correctly in order for the printer to work.

So here you have the full story. I am looking for something/anything that
will make my life easier with this issue. At home I am using an HP DeskJet
D1520. This printer is connected using a USB 2.0 connection to the
computer. There were several times when the printer will stop responding
and go offline. I have had to delete the printer and reinstalling to get it
back online. With all of the printer issues revolving around the same
issue, I'm wondering just where these are coming from. Is it Windows, or a
driver issue.

I really would like to have your thoughts on this. Any help will be
appreciated.

 

[Bob I]

Can't say as I've had any issues with printers, other than finding 64
bit drivers. I would guess the issue is drivers and perhaps the serial
setup, as it sounds more like a case of the printer not communicating
its status properly. Also do you have "Enable bi-directional support"
checked in Printer Properties? As to the "path", you will see it in the
Print Server. Go to Devices and Printers, select/"highlight" a printer,
click on "Print Server properties" in the menu above the devices pane,
select Drivers tab, select the Printer driver of interest, if you click
the properties button it will show/have the path in there as well as the
file list. But you may Add or Remove them at the driver Tab instead of
whacking them in Explorer.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Sorry for the unclear post earlier. I am definitely not a novice when it
comes to computers, but didn't really think this through when asking my
question.

<snip>

Yeah, that does sound like a wierd one, can't say that I've seen
anything remotely that severe yet. I've seen a problem with network
printing in Win 7 when printing to a Win XP-connected printer, for which
there is a workaround, but that's it.

Yousuf Khan