HP LJ Pro M402dn on ethernet works fine until powered off. After power on printing fails.

[brittboy]

I have 2 brand new HP LaserJet Pro M402dn configured with static TCP/IP addresses on ethernet cable.  They print reliably until the first time the printer is powered off.  Upon power back on, it fails to print.  Print jobs go to queue and display as "printing", the printer seems to initialize but the job never prints even though it eventually disappears out of the queue.  Sometimes the printer display panel will display "Printing document" and the green indicator will be blinking but it never prints.  If I completely uninstall the printer from my computer and reinstall, it will again print fine until the first time the printer is powered off after which the printing issue described above returns.  Through all of this I can consistently ping the assigned IP address.

I have tried "Full Solution" software installs, "Basic Solution" installs, Windows update installs, downloaded various versions of driver packages from HP Support site, tried HP Scan and Print Doctor, tried HP Easy Start.  I have let the printer search for and install automatic updates until it reports "No Updates Available".  In no case has the problem been resolved for either printer.

The ONLY way the printers have consistently worked as they should is when attached to the computer with USB and configured to use that.  In that case they print reliably even after being powered off and back on.

One note... when using the HP Easy Start utility, it could not find the printer on the network even if I told the utility to specifically look for the assigned IP address.  However, I could still ping the IP address from a command line as long as the printer was physically attached to the network. I confirmed the IP belonged to the printer by unplugging the ethernet cable and the ping would then fail.

I am ready to return the printers unless someone has some additional ideas.

[Repairatrooper]

The most reliable method to connect via network is to manually configure an IP address or DHCP reservation to ensure the printer always has the same network address. Then manually install the printer on an TCP/IP port. For the M402 I would recommend that you use the latest Universal Print Driver.

[brittboy]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, by "static IP" I meant that I had manually configured the printer to use an assigned IP on the network.  And correct, when I do the installation I give it the TCP/IP port address to be installed on.

As I say, it installs fine and initially prints fine.  It's only after powering off and back on that it will no longer print.  In running the Windows Printer troubleshooter it reports the printer is "turned off" even though the display panel on the printer is lit and saying "Ready" and showing the correct IP address.  Which if I ping the address being shown in the printer display, it pings fine.  But it still does not respond to print jobs that are sent and display in the print queue.

I did try an HP Universal driver install that I used on another HP printer in the facility which is working fine.  Unfortunately when I installed it on this printer the results were the same... no printing after powering off and back on.

[Repairatrooper]

Sorry for the repetitive on the static ip address. The symptoms you are describing really sound like either a duplicate IP address or a failing formatter, however having 2 new printers like that would be unusual. Confirm that your firmware date code is 20190113? If you have not already tried a cold reset that would be another thing to try.

[brittboy]

No worries about the static IP idea.  As for duplicate IP, at one point I had actually let the printer obtain an IP from domain DHCP and then used that same IP to manually set the printer address, so my feeling is the IP is clean.  Not enough of a printer guy to know about failing formatter but I'm willing to consider anything.  But if that is something internal to the printer shouldn't it be an issue regardless of whether it is connected using Ethernet or USB?  When connected with USB both printers perform with no problems.

I looked at the date codes and one is 20180201 and the other 20170802.  So have these printers been sitting around in a box that long or do I have some very well refurbished machines being passed off as new?  I thought I had updated the firmware on one of them.  If so shouldn't that have changed the date code?  Maybe I'll look at that again.

I did a cold reset on the first printer after it initially showed the symptoms as I thought maybe I had gotten something wacked out in the configuration but it didn't help either.

Thanks for the feedback.  Any ideas are welcome.

[brittboy]

So here's the latest in the "non-printing" printer saga.  Based on Repairatrooper's mention of a later date code, I manually did a firmware update to one of the printers while it was USB connected to my PC.  The update went well and the date code on the printer now shows 20190113.  I then completely uninstalled the printer from my PC, rebooted the PC, powered on/off the printer, assigned the printer a fixed IP address and then used HP Print & Scan Doctor which located the printer on the network, downloaded HP software, (I assume the latest), and installed the Full Solution driver package. Other than IP I used all defaults during install.  Install completed with no issues and test page printed.  I printed a page from an Adobe document no problems.

I powered off the printer, powered back on, opened the print queue, reopened the Adobe document and hit print.  The job showed up in the queue, the printer initialized and then halted with the display panel showing "Printing document" and the green indicator blinking.  The print job disappeared from the queue and the printer seemed to reinitialize but again halted with the display still showing "Printing document" and green indicator blinking.  On a whim I opened the paper tray and closed it.  The printer again initialized but again returned to the same "Printing document" state and has been that way for 30+ minutes.  I don't think it's going to print...

Ideas anyone?