Locally connected Printer shows as offline on Windows 7 network after initially working

I think you have missed a major point. There is a difference in drivers that you download from a manufacturers site, and the ones in the Microsoft Windows Update database.

The digitally signed drivers on the manufactures sight are drivers the company made for their product and submitted to Microsoft to verify that they work with the device, and with the intended version of windows. It also assures that the device driver meets Microsofts security levels for safe device drivers.

Those are NOT the drivers I've been talking about. I'm talking about the ones "built into" windows. If they are not included with Windows 7, 8, 8.1, or 10, then Windows can download an expanded driver list from Microsoft. Like when you click add printer, you look through the list of "included" drivers, and if the printer is not in that list, you can click on the "Windows Update" button and it downloads an expanded list.

Now ANY and ALL drivers that are in that list are at very minimal Microsofts fault. As Microsoft builds and included that list in windows and on their update servers. If their is a faulty drive in that list (NOT the manufactures support site) then it is the fault of Microsoft as they minimally compiled and supplied the list and drivers for devices in that list. Disagree with that? If so, then who compiles the list of "built in" drivers? Who compiles the list of driver ONLY obtainable from running the windows update program? Please do tell! I'm dying to know who puts the drivers on the Microsoft servers that windows downloads it's updates from if it is NOT Microsoft!?! Is Microsoft at least responsible for any and all information hosted on their computer? I believe there is legal precedents that says the owner of the computers is responsible for what is on them.

If I download a driver from HP.com, and the driver is not digitally signed, then Microsoft bares no fault in that driver. If I download a driver from Realtek.com and the driver DOES have the "Digital Signature" then Microsoft has put their mark on the driver as being approved by them and they agree that the driver works. Now if that digitally signed driver has problems, then Microsoft shares in that blame, as they signed off that the driver works properly (assuming the correct driver for the hardware, and the correct version of windows that it was intended for).

See the point of the signed drivers is Microsoft guarantees that (if properly used under intended circumstances) that the drive will work. That necessarily means they SHARE in blame for problems. If the driver is not signed, then they are blameless.

But see the discussion about signed and unsigned drivers is mute. I was not talking about drivers that were obtained from the manufacturer. The drivers were obtained from the internal list of device drivers that Microsoft provides from the servers they own and operate for the purpose of updating the windows operating system.

See even this discussion point would have been avoided had you simple read in full the post I have made. When you skim through and only read part you miss MAJOR pieces of information. By not completely reading the post, you make comments that show that you either didn't read or didn't understand.

Now had you read the post in hole, you would have seen I clearly stated the broken drive came from the Microsoft Update database. The working driver (for my printer) came from hp.com. I never said I downloaded the initial drive from hp.com, that is the bad assumption that you made when you didn't fully read the post.

See my post Dec. 23, 2014.

Has always worked for me.

See if you bothered to read beyond my very last post, you would have the answers to all these questions.

Again, In Windows 7, I setup the printer....I print to it....a few hours later I try to print again, now Windows 7 says the printer is OFFLINE. I turn off the firewall to see if something changed there, and fine nothing. I turn off the anti-virus and that does not affect it. I reboot the computer and as soon as windows loads up the network print starts printing.

Hmm, maybe it was a setting that had not taken affect. It's the end of the day so I think oh well and go to bed. I leave my computer on over night. Then next morning I try to print again, and again the printer is offline. I know that nothing has changed from the night before. So I open Windows XP mode and try to print from there, and it prints right away. Hmm that is funny, Windows 7 (the host computer running the virtual PC) says the printer is offline?!? Now if there is a firewall setting blocking Windows 7, then surely it would block any hosted virtual machines as well?

My printers are on statically configure print servers. Because I know dynamic addresses can change and cause printers to be offline. The file and print sharing is enabled. The printer was added by the wizard in the devices and printers group, and the driver used was provided by clicking Windows Update button (because the printer is NOT listed in the initial list of printers. After waiting for a while for the larger list of drivers from Microsoft's Windows Update is downloaded, the printer is list in the new list.

See one of the funny things, is the problem always goes away with a reboot. The problem always returns when the computer has been up and running for sometime. The printer is offline and will not return to online unless the PC is rebooted. This happens to both my HP 2600n (built in jetdirect) and my two printers on my Netgear print server, a HP 5p laserjet and a Panasonic dot matrix printer I use for carbon copy paper. Though the Panasonic is very rarly affected as it only prints invoices very occasionally. In fact the 5p only started after the 2600n stopped. HP finally released a driver on their site, instead of the one built into windows (via the update datebase).

Another thing is I have had at least 10 customers with the same problem, only one of them had an HP printer. All of them had older printers who manufacturer was not making Windows 7 drivers. The only driver that was available is when you add the printer and you click the "windows update" button and it downloads the larger database list and then downloads the drive direct from Microsoft. (You know, the list of "built-in" drivers, the ones that come with windows.)

Now security settings and firewalls can all be blamed for network printers. How exactly do you explain the same problem with a USB printer? Oh sure, maybe the printer went to sleep, except that I reached over and turned the printer on first and the green light is on. I even tried unplugging the USB cable ( from both ends) and plugging it back in. But even after the cable has been plugged back in and windows has made it's little chime confirming so, the printer is still listed as offline!?! Now firewalls have nothing to do with USB, same goes for file and print sharing settings.

Got any more bright ideas? Please, before you respond to that, go back to the beginning of this thread on the forum, and find and thoroughly read all my previous post detailing the problem.

See this was all covered in the post you replied to as well as the first few, including the one that a Microsoft employee replied to as well. I am not a dunce I've been doing this of over 20 years, and have several certifications (comptia, cisco, and microsoft) and degrees that back my knowledge. I am not some person who assembled one of two computers in their parents basement and then decided I was a computer tech. I started back when you had to know how to address DMAs, IRQs, and such, back before plug'n'play did the configuring for you. When techs had to actually know what they were doing.