How do I enable keep-alive on HP Officejet Pro 8600?

[VisionAiry]

I have finally completed the user's guide to "hopefully" resolving this issue.  It is a step-by-step breakdown I gathered from every forum post and website dedicated to resolving this.

I hope you find this very useful.

--Printer Will Not Respond To Touch and Network Connection Is Lost--

[gdollar]

Hi Visionary, awesome post pulling all the causes together in one place. One last point though, is the operating system. All my problems were associated with XP computers. Win 7, iPad, galaxy s4 phone, iphone all worked all of the time. The two XP computers had issues and the ink status fixed most issues and the remaining ones were caused by virus protection. Might be worth asking folks what OS they are using.

Thanks for all your help on this matter.

Graham

[terymo]

I feel like my head is going to explode. I've done everything suggested, but the only thing that works is to walk over to my 8600, click on the wireless icon, settings, wireless. Turn wireless off and then back on. No problem. Thus, USELESS AS A WIRELESS PRINTER! I can print from my computer and my iphone 5 after I turn wireless off and on, but the purpose of wireless is to be able to print remotely. You mentioned ink settings. What did you mean and how IN DETAIL did you adjust that? I'm not a techie, so we need detail. I promise, with the exception of buying a new router, I've done everything on the list. It shouldn't be this hard.

[VisionAiry]

@gdollar-very good point.  That makes me think that maybe it is related to the running processes such as ink alerts if it is only caused by the older computer.  Perhaps the XP couldn't handle the processes needed to run "scan to computer" causing the printer to go to sleep to save energy.  Honestly, that is why I included every fix I could think of short of buying a new router because none of the "culprits" make perfect sense just yet.  I will need more data like what the solutions are so I can determine the cause.

@terymo - Sorry it is so frustrating.  In my above link, I extensively explain both why you would want to turn of ink alerts and scan to computer and how to as well.   If you have to turn off the wireless radio, have you considered an Ethernet cord to the wireless router instead?  This will allow you to by-pass any wireless radio malfunctions you could be having.

Also, have you tried the ePrint app for your iPhone?  I am curious to know if you can at least print from that app, even when the printer is in this state, as I hear the app, Google Cloud Print, and emailing the printer's ePrint address still works. I have heard the same for Airprint as well.  If you are unable to use any of the above features, you may be having a different problem.  That sounds like you might want to put a lot of your focus on this issue towards the router.  Let me know if I can help you especially at alleviating some pressure by at least finding a work-around for you.

Thank you for your patience while I work on finding the ultimate solution.

[8lives]

@ terymo, HP has just updated the 8600 firmware file, can you give the new firmware a try?

[Meeshka]

@8lives    When I went to the HP sight about the upgrade.   It said not to upgrade if connected wirelessly.  😞   Oh well, I thought I would try it, but I am not connected by ethernet or USB  so won't try it yet.    Too bad, am willing to try something new.    Maybe next time.

[terymo]

I did. No difference.

[terymo]

What is a wireless radio? I have no clue what you're talking about. And you mentioned ink alerts , but again didn't say HOW to turn them off.
Thank you.

[VisionAiry]

The wireless radio is what the printer uses to send a signal to other wireless devices and is indicated by the blue light on the front of the printer.  By connecting it with an Ethernet cord, the wireless is disabled.

Click here to jump straight to the exact point in the post linked above where I discuss how to turn off the ink alerts.

[edkivell]

Problem Solved.

1.  If possible, connect printer by wired ethernet, rather than wireless. This will provide a more reliable connection to the network.

2.  Give the printer a static ip address. This can be done via the printer's led control panel or by the embedded web administration page which is reached by the printer's assisgned ip address.

3. On the router. make sure that the printer's static ip address is not within the ip range potenially assigned by the router's dhcp manager. Fo example, if the printer has a static ip of 192.168.1.5, then configure the router so that the dhcp server begins to assign ip addresses at 192.168.1.6 and above. The default configuration for a Linksys router typically assigns ip addresses starting at 192.168.1.100, so the printer can be assigned to an address from 192.168.1.2 to 198.168.1.99. By having an ip range reserved for the printer will prevent the possibility of an ip duplication conflict.

4. Again, on the router, assign the MAC address for the printer to the static ip address assigned to the printer.

5. On the computer, go to printers folder (Windows XP - Printers & Faxes  Windows 7 - Devices and Printers). Right-click printer. Left-click properties. Create a new TCP/IP port with the static IP assigned to the printer. Do not use the HP re-discovery port created by printer driver installation.

This will also work for a Mac computer. Assign the static IP on the printer side. Assign the printer's mac address on the router. The Mac computer will find the printer via the Bonjour protocol. The static IP will keep the printer at the same address regardless of reboots, blackouts, etc.

I had a client with this problem. They have a mixed network of PCs & Macs. After I configure the router and printer with a static ip, everything worked.

Ed Kivell

ed@resourcewiz.com

http://tinyurl.com/resourcesystems