Bizarre printing issue

[Jawloms]

We run Papercut and have Sharp MFDs throughout. Today I am losing connection to some of my printers completely (won't even ping) randomly, then they come back again. The curious thing is I am only losing access to certain models! We have a MX-5140N and three MX-C312 which all stay working. We have a MX-7040N, two MX-C301W, and two MX-M654N which all stop working at the same time as each other, and then come back to life at the same time as each other. The printer's network port continues to blink activity and static green light indicatin connection, as does the switch's. We have tried;

 

- Turning printers/server off and on again.

- Checked for duplicate IP addresses

- They are plugged in to different switches throughout the school

- Different network leads

- Different ports we know work on the same switch

- We've unplugged a printer and then given a computer that printers IP settings and the computer has full network connectivity

- We wheeled a working printer down the corridor and plugged it in in a room where one wasn't working and it carried on working fine

- The switches (all HP) are not reporting any issues in their logs

- If I redirect a not working print queue to a working print queue on the server, it will then print out of the working printer

- We don't have any VLANs

 

As far as I am aware I've ruled out switches, cables, VLANs, print queues, IP settings, and I haven't left myself with much else to look at.

 

Please....... Anyone any ideas? Sharp don't.

 

Stuart

[gds64]

Do you have any network asset management applications that may be running a scan? I've seen something similar before.

[Jawloms]

I've got Spiceworks, but that isn't running any scans at the time.

[FishCustard]

Can you do a Wireshark trace of a non-working printer (might have to use port mirroring on a switch).

[MatthewL]

Have you got WSD and IPv6 disabled on your devices and are they on the latest firmware versions?

 

I suspect disabling them two protocols will solve your issue as it has me in the past.

[ITGURU]

We usually get 2 issues with Papercut - the popup box doesn't appear or the printer doesn't map at first login. A log off and back on resolves the issue. Never been able to to find a permanent cure.