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

Anonymous

Ok, have checked similar threads wihich got no successful answers.

I have a PC with Epson printer connect directly via USB. Print driver installed correctly. Works fine.

Windows 7 Ultimate (32 bit) no security other than windows firewall and microsoft security essentials.

Laptop connected wirelessly to PC. On same network and homegroup, file and media sharing all working fine.

Laptop running Windows 7 Ultimate (32 bit) same security as PC.

When I add a network printer it finds printer on PC and correctly installs driver etc. Printer appears in devices and will print the first couple of times.

However, by the next day the network printer shows up as "offline" in the print spooler on the laptop. Documents simply stack up.

The PC does not go to sleep and is left on all of the time except for the monitor which is switched off. Printer works fine on PC, indeed with docs stuck on the laptop I can still print directly from the PC - even this does not show the printer as online on the laptop.

Have checked that the printer spooler on laptop is running and set to automatic.

Epson unable/unwilling to help - have found a similar thread with no answer - anybody any guesses as to what to try?

Many thanks

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Anonymous

I had a similar problem and for me the Problem is with the EPSON driver.

My printer was connected wirelessly to my network, I had IP address and could ping it but WIN 7 showed it as OFFLINE.

I then went and had a look at the printer driver, (start, Devices and printer, selected the epson printer then under printer management, customise printer, ports then configure port)

And noticed that for Standard TCP/IP Port it was pointing to a different IP than that what my printer currently had. I edited it to match what the printer was and it came ONLINE.

When you turn your printer off, its IP address goes back in your routers pool to be reassigned.

The Epson windows driver still has the old IP. You turn your printer on and your router happens to give it a different IP from last time. It now doesn't match with what the Epson driver stored before and tells you it is OFFLINE.

For me, rather than changing the IP in the driver each time this happend I assigned a static IP (fixed host ) address in my router to match my printers MAC address. This way it always gives my printer the same address everytime and no more fake OFFLINE messages appear in Windows.

This is an Epson driver problem, not a windows problem.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Set the IP address of the printer to a static address as stated earlier in this thread. If you add the printer again by browsing the network, the Standard TCP/IP port will only work as long ast the printer retains the same IP. If the print device support DNS or WNS name registration you can add a Standard TCP/IP Port using the hostname rather than a transient IP address for DHCP enabled print devices.

Alan Morris Windows Printing Team; Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: http://support.microsoft.com/search/Default.aspx?adv=1

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88 additional answers

Anonymous

2010-06-04T18:38:27+00:00

Whilst this is very interesting, and I have managed to set a static IP address for my HP inkjet because there are instructions to do so on the screen, there seems no way to do so with my OKI C3300. Now no doubt some computing guru could do this (such as you, Alan Morris), but I would challenge you to identify members of the Glomeromycota, which is what I do. Microsoft should not really expect everybody to be capable of dealing with such problems, especially as it cost me more than £100 to buy Win 7 Ultimate which I now realise is a bit less useful than Win7 Hope Premium (the latter at least still runs with an old version of Access). I just want to be able to set up my computer simply and without fuss. Since the system worked nicely before with Win2000 and XP and Vista, I wonder why it doesn't work with Win7 64 bit.

So, it really has to be a Win7 problem -- doesn't it?
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Anonymous

2010-06-01T10:01:40+00:00

I solved my problem the same way, it works! And I have 3 printers installed in my network. Just give your printers a static IP-address in your wireless router.
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Anonymous

2010-06-01T00:02:57+00:00

I've posted my problem elsewhere on this site, but have just realized that what I've experienced is similar - if not identical - to the problems others have described in this thread. Briefly, I have two printers connected to a printer server with a fixed IP address on our home network. Both printers have worked for years - and continue to work - with three printers running XP Pro. Having bought a new computer that runs Windows 7, I downloaded and installed new drivers for the two printers (an HP LaserJet 1220 and a Canon S820) in the new computer. Connected directly, they worked fine, so I have no reason to think there's a driver problem.

Next, I connected the new computer to the network and installed the two printers, which were reattached to the server (a Troy 100d). The new (Windows 7) computer printed to each of the printers over the network after the initial installations.

BUT, when the Windows 7 computer was/is rebooted, the printers' status is changed to "offline."

I've found a manual fix for one, but it must be done after every boot!

This is, so far as I can tell, NOT a printer driver problem.

It's a Windows 7 problem, IMHO.
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