Brother MFC printer dropping off the network

[Geoff]

I have a brother MFC 7360N multifunction network printer. Several times a day it will refuse to print and appear offline to clients (A Mac using Appletalk and several windows PCs). Power cycling the printer fixes the problem for a short while. I have checked the following:

 

1) The LACP and admin edge port settings on the switch (its a Procurve 2626).

2) Moving the printer to a different port.

3) Updating the firmware on the switch and the printer.

4) Updating the printer drivers (and trying various versions).

 

However I have not managed to stop it misbehaving. Has anyone seen this sort of problem before or have any ideas?

[Geoff]

Putting it on a static IP didn't help either. :/

[mac_shinobi]

Printing to it using LPR using the relevant Que Name ie DIRECT / LPR or whatever as per said manual ( bit of RTFM'ing )

 

On the RICOH MFD's you can get an engineer out to go into a special mode to restart / reset the printer app to defaults which puts all printer side of things to defaults and most of the time it fixes the issue.

 

Also clearing the print que on the MFD itself and clearing off the doc server ( assuming people don't have any documents they need before you clear it off )

 

Ensuring it has the relevant settings so that it knows its on a domain, ensuring the time, time zone and date are all correct. Presume the relevant DNS Servers and if you use WINS ( that those are programmed ) and does it give you the option to test the dns servers to ensure they work...

 

On some of the lower spec RICOH Printers, when entering in the domain whether FQDN or short name that it is in upper case ie MY.DOMAIN.COM

Edited February 8, 2012 by mac_shinobi

[Geoff]

I'll try using LPR. I'm not hopeful though as the Mac uses bonjour anyway. So I don't think it's a protocol issue.

[sted]

on the pc server have you tried disabling snmp. on the printers properties ports tab and click configure ports.

[Michael]

You could try resetting the printer to factory default, then re-configure a static IP.

[Geoff]

I have reset the printer settings and as its proving far too annoying I have hooked it up to a nearby machine via usb and shared it that way. If it still misbehaves there's obviously a fault with the printer. I guess this will get to the bottom of the problem either way.