Printer always offline

Hi - I recently set up a Brother MCF 665CW on a wireless network with
an HP laptop running on Vista. Initially everything worked fine but a
few days later (the next time someone tried to print) the laptop
showed that the printer was offline.

I have tried the following:
- made sure "use printer offline" was set (or whichever way around its
supposed to be; I did check this with Brother)
- pinged the printer successfully
- turned printer on and off
- disabled "enable bidirectional support"
- spent 1 hr 50 mins on the phone with Brother support and went
through everything with them that they could suggest
- uninstalled, reinstalled software and drivers

I think that's about it. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

I have a similar problem in Vista with an HP OfficeJet 7410xi that is
wirelessly connected to my network. Whenever I want to use the printer
or fax, I have to re-enable the printer's online status in Vista, even
though it is never offline!

It seems there are lots of printer problems lately with vista but no help. I
need help too but can't get it. My "One Care" won't update anymore either.

Hi guys,

The issue is when a vista machine "sleeps" or is logged off but still the
machine is still running.
As far as I can tell the vista machine does not refresh the printer list
after the workstation comes back online.
To fix this you must ensure that SNMP is not selected.You must restart your
workstaion and problem solved.
Once again when SNMP is selected and the workstaion goes into standby mode
the list is not being refreshed.
Cheers,
Corliss

I have (well at least my daughter has) a Vista home basic laptop - with
almost identical problems.

I can connect okay (over a Netgear wireless network) to an Epson 760 printer
(using the standard Vista driver) which is connected to an older PC running
Windows ME - but if the laptop goes to sleep, or is re-started - the printer
shows up as off-line - and won't come back on line - using either the
standard or admin menus.

The only successful method seems to be to delete and re-install the printer
- every time you turn the laptop off. What a pain! (Not something I can
explain to my daughter how to do).

I have seen some comments from Alan Morris elsewhere about disabling SNMP on
the printer port - but even after re-installing from scratch (with teh
printer working fully) - the 'configure port' button shows up an error when
clicking on it. So how do I get access to this SNMP setting (for a network
port).

I have searched for hours on the internet for solutions to this issue - and
there are literally thousands of posts to all sorts of technical forums about
this same issue (with some pretty crazy suggestions being put forward). Many
people obviously haven't realised that this is a straight Windows Vista bug.
It works fine on Windows ME and XP - so isn't it about time that Microsoft
sorted this problem out - for all versions of Vista - and stopped people
pulling their hair out on this one.

If I had a choice (except that this was a smart new laptop with Vista Basic
on) - I would go straight back to Windows XP asap - at least it works!

Come on Microsoft - you must know what the problem is by now - it's highly
repeatable for any number of printers. We all want a downloadable
hotfix/solution now!!!

Actually connecting to a shared Win9x printer was disabled in Vista. I
assume you created a local port that targets \\WindowsMEmachine\printershare
in order to create the SMB connection.

When the printer goes offline open a command prompt and type

net print \\WindowsMEmachine\printershare

you should get this returned.

E:\>net print \\win98\xerox

Printers at \\win98


Name Job # Size Status

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
XEROX Queue 0 jobs *Printer Active*
The command completed successfully.

Do you really mean 'disabled' - or just not designed and tested to work with
Win9x?

Clearly I can get Vista to print to a printer attached to a Win ME PC over
my network - I just can't get it to stay on-line on a restart.

The net print command worked as you indicated - but teh printer is still
shown as off-line.

Are you saying that because Vista is not designed to work with Win9x PCs,
this situation isn't fixable? Is there a workaround to keep the printer
on-line

Yes this was deprecated.


Are you using a net use command to LPT on startup?

When attempting to connect do you get the "could not connect" dialog.

What port is the Vista "connection" assigned?

Hello all,

I've found a solution (worked for my setup) that clears the printer offline
problem when printing from a Vista laptop PC over a home network to a printer
connected to a Windows98 desktop PC. I never had this problem with my XP
Home laptop accessing the printers on the Windows98 PC.

With the Vista PC, I was always able to Add my 2 printers (HP PSC 1350 and
Canon i560) using Vista's wizard (Add a local printer), but after a restart
of the Vista PC, both printers would be offline. In Printer properties,
Ports tab, both printers would appear as Client Side Rendering Provider under
the Description column.

My Vista PC is a new Dell Inspiron 1420, Vista Home Premium.
My print server is a Dell Dimension V350, Windows 98.
Home network is WiFi using a D-Link 624 router, WPA-PSK security enabled.
Canon i560 on parallel port of Dell Dimension V350
HP PSC 1350 on USB port of Dell Dimension V350

Here's the fix:
1. In Control Panel, Printers, delete offline printers. If they wont
delete, it may be because there are pending print jobs in the queue. Open the
printer and Cancel the jobs.
2. In Printer properties, Ports tab, delete the previoulsy installed
printers (offline statuts) that appear as Client Side Rendering Provider
under the Description column. To do this, highlight the port, then click on
Delete Port button. Click Apply.
3. Restart your PC.
4. Now reinstall the printers as follows:
5. Open Control panel, Printers, and click Add a printer.
6. Click Add a local printer.
7. Select the "Use an existing port" radio button, and select LPT1: (Printer
Port). Click Next.
8. Install the printer driver. Mine were found in the list inlcuded with
Vista. Select the manufacturer and the printer. Click Next.
9. In the next window, accept the printer name or type in a new name. Leave
the "Set as default printer" box unchecked. Click Next.
10. Vista should now install the printer. A window should open saying
"You've successfully added printer name.
11. DO NOT Print a test page at this time, because nothing is connected to
the LPT1 port on the laptop. Just press Finish. The printer you just added
should appear in the Printers window.
12. Click ONCE on the newly added printer to highlight it, then right-click
and open Properties.
13. On the Ports tab, click Add Port…, select Local Port, then click New Port…
14. When the Port Name window open, Enter a port name as follows:
\\computername\printername
(replace computername with the name of your PC acting as print server, and
printername with the name of your printer). Click OK.
15. You should now have a new port listed on the Ports tab of the printer
Properties, but now the Description should be Local Port, instead of Client
Side Rendering Provider. Click OK.
16. Now you can go to the General tab, and Print a Test Page.

Hopefully, your test page will print. Then restart your computer to check
that the printer comes back online.

This procedure worked for me. Hope it works for you too. Good luck!

"Actually connecting to a shared Win9x printer was disabled in Vista"
I am not quite clear on that. I am sharing 2 XP printers, on my wifes
laptop, from Vista.


--
davehc

[Mike L]

What is SNMP and where is it, and how do I select it?

Configure the network port that targets the print device

I have the same problem with my HP 7410xi. How do I enable it?