Printer unable to connect

[steve_nfi]

I have a printer, which was working fine earlier but has now diconnected itself somehow.

It can be seen on the network but when you try to print to it, it just hangs then says unable to connect.

You then get a message saying 'The print spooler was unable to connect to the printer.' Then lists a couple of reasons, none of which are the cause.

Has anyone had a similar experience? The printer is a HP2605dn.

[sparkeh]

Does it have a valid IP?

Can you ping that IP?

Is the IP assigned by DHCP? If so perhaps release the IP power cycle the printer to renew and try again.

Does it have a web interface you can connect to? Sometimes get some more info from here.

Is there a failed job in the queue?

[Paid_Peanuts]

We have experienced very similar things happening with our HP 2605dn printers.

 

All we do is navigate to web browser - reset print server.

Then if all else fails remove from print server and re-add. Usually fixes 9/10 issues.

These problems usually happen once the printer has been turned off for 2 weeks or so like in the holidays.

[contink]

Might also be worth restarting the print spooler service for whichever machine is acting as the printserver.

[steve_nfi]

It did have a valid IP also reserved but when I checked it wasn't on that IP but on a DHCP allocated address. Which would explain why I couldn't ping the reserved address.

I have reassigned the reserved address but still can't ping it.

[Michael]

As well as the IP, check the the Subnet, Gateway and Primary DNS are correct. You should be able to disable the DHCP client on the printer (through the web interface).

 

I would check that the IP that's been allocated isn't now being used by something else. What's recommended is you adjust your Scope in DHCP.

 

So for example, if you had a Class C network 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254, you would setup the Address Pool as 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.254. These IPs would be leased out to your workstations. The remaining IPs 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.99 are the IPs you'd give your Servers, Printers, your Router (Gateway), admin workstations etc... so these IPs are not leased out to your workstations by DHCP.

 

I agree also (changing the subject) that restarting the spooler service would be recommend:

 

net stop spooler

net start spooler

[sparkeh]

I have had some trouble before with printers on DHCP. Now I just assign it a static IP and reserve it DHCP so nothing else gets it.

[steve_nfi]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to my little dilema. The printer has now been reconnected.

As a little extra note, I found that although I reassigned a static IP and reserved it, the printer didn't change until I manually assigned it via the web page using the DHCP assigned IP address.:-)