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

Anonymous
2010-02-06T13:46:55+00:00

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

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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Anonymous
2010-05-03T09:50:43+00:00

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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Anonymous
2010-05-28T07:49:43+00:00

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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  2. Anonymous
    2016-06-29T04:44:42+00:00

    actually the manufacturer driver. are submitted to Microsoft. so the problem was the manufacturer driver in the first place.

    Sorry, this comment I don't understand

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-06-29T04:42:04+00:00

    I would say to first check your network connection on the router. if it work properly it will show online. try rebooting the router. see if it work after. if not reboot the printer. see if it work. reboot the pc see if it work.

    as for print spooler it is in the service. you just have to go to manage service and look in the list. for print spooler. look if it is on or off. if it is off put it on. this does not go off with out someone putting it off. you might also go to manage and look in the device list and see if you have some conflict.

    another thing you can try is from from admin command prompt  fnc scan now this check your file integrity and correct your file system. if there is some issue.

    Thanks for your comment. But this is not a network issue. Alle the messages are in one folder with some 30 subfolders on my PC. I want them copied to .PST-file that I can use on another computer. Outlook13 is installed and there the content of the IMAP-files show.

    I can access the IMAP-file on the server using a server application. It is empty, but the associated .OST-file is more than 1GB.

    I transfer the messages into local folders on my PC. And I want these folder transferred over to another computer. I don't succeed. Only partly as documented.

    All I want is to transfer ALL of my messages to another computer.

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