MFP M476dw goes offline

[slym1]

We have a M476dw that will print for a while, then apparently goes offline randomly. The only thing that will bring it back is to reboot the printer - literally pulling the plug to restart.  After the reboot, all the queued jobs start printing.  Then it's rinse, repeat after it goes offline randomly again, usually later that day, or the next. 

We're not using wifi, just lan connection.  Wifi is disabled in the printer settings.  I've changed out the Ethernet cable and updated the printer to the latest firmware.

I've set the ESM auto shut-down to never, and sleep/auto to 1 hour (it doesn't have a never selection).

Computers are Windows 7 Pro 64bit, drivers are recent.  No one is able to print when this happens and  I can't access the web GUI, so I don't think it's a driver issue.

This printer is out of warranty (barely), so I'm reaching out before I just scrap the whole thing.  I really don't want to do that if I don't have to.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[John_Getzke]

First thing you will want to do is confirm if the printer is going offline due to some kind of network traffic or lack there of.

Try unplugging the printer from the network and all other connections and let it sit for a while.  Observe and compare if the printer goes to sleep or offline if it does so in the same way as it does when its network connected or not.  Since the printer is disconnected you will have to use the control panel to run a test copy job for confirmation.  Based on what you have described so far when the problem happens you cannot use the control panel at all so this shoudl be a sufficient test to confirm if the printer is broken or simply sleeping.

If the printer goes offline only while network connected then you may have to consult your network administrators to help you detect the traffic and network status of this printer through the day.  Perhaps they have a system that is interfering with the normal functions of this printer. 

That happened to me with a printer on our network.  We had a network security system (NAC) that was not detecting the printer. After a while it would close down the port on the router which would block all communication until the printer was rebooted and sent another authenticaiton request to the network.  They had to reconfigure or disable the NAC feature on that printers port as a work around to keep the printer online.

If the printer goes offline and stops responding even when there are no connections to it then the printer itself may have a hardware defect or a power issue.  You can check the event logs on the printer for clues, but if there arent any related to shutdowns then I would just cut my losses and replace it.  Before you replace it you could try contacting a local repair shop for quotes on replacements of common components like a formatter board, power supply or something else, but that may go beyond your budget and interests for troubleshooting.

[slym1]

I'll try the disconnect from network routine.  Might have to move it into my office so I can watch for when it sleeps.  That might also give me a clue if it's the network setup in that classroom.  It's an external classroom that's connected to the main network via fiber.

As far as network administrators, I'm it, LOL.  We don't have anything running that should affect it, and have several other HP networked printers that have no problems.  I'm thinking I have a lemon here, but paying for repair probably isn't cost effective. 

Thanks for the idea - I'll give it a go.

[John_Getzke]

Sounds good, keep us posted.

> As far as network administrators, I'm it, LOL.

If you detect that somethign with teh network connection is interfering with this printer then the next step would be to setup and monitor a trace between this printer and the network.  You may have access to other tools that can expose more information about the status of the port this printer is connected to and if anything switches from on to off around the time of the problem.

Whats unusual here is that the printer is completly unresponsive when the problem happens.  That suggests that its stuck on a bad job and is crashing for one reason or another.  If the network doesnt expose any other clues then you could also experiment with alternative drivers to see if you can influence the way the print jobs are recieved by the printer and avoid further crashes.

[slym1]

>That suggests that its stuck on a bad job and is crashing for one reason or another.  

Pretty sure it's not a bad job - once it reboots it spits out all the print jobs.  And the driver thing - since I can't access the web GUI, wouldn't that rule that out?  It just completely goes offline.  Doesn't show up on network scans either.

But, the idea of watching when it goes offline, I'm going to do that.  Moving it to  my office might also help rule out if it's the switch it's connected to - or some setting on the switch.

[John_Getzke]

In my experience its bad print jobs that trigger strange reboots on printers, but you're right, it might be something different here.

> And the driver thing - since I can't access the web GUI, wouldn't that rule that out?

The print driver is stored either on the Print Server (if you are using one) or on the client PC.  Accessing the EWS(Embedded Web Server \ web GUI) is seperate from the driver part of this equation.  Drivers convert applicaiton data into printer language that the print processor on the printer can understand.  All the printer knows is PCL and Postscript on most models.  Some printers allow you to submit jobs directly from the EWS suggesting they have just enough of a driver stored to handle simple print jobs, but you cant impact that feature from the normal driver upgrade and switching process.

[slym1]

An update to the situation...

I read on some other forums that IPv6 can cause this, so I disabled it about a week ago.  So far the printer has not gone offline since that change.  It hasn't stayed online this long since the problem started, so I'm hopeful that it fixed the problem. 

[John_Getzke]

Thanks for the update. 

I tried searching around for confirmation on the IPv6 fix you suggested and found a few threads:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/LaserJet-Printing/printer-keeps-going-offline/td-p/5467661

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/LaserJet-Printing/M477fdw-goes-offline-all-the-time/td-p/5803844

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/LaserJet-Printing/MFP-m477FNW-loses-connection-when-router-drops-Wi-Fi...

@sabretooth04 do you have more info on why disabling IPv6 would impact a printers online/offline status?

There also appears to be an article from HP suggesting to disable IPv6 too:

https://support.hp.com/rs-en/product/hp-officejet-200-mobile-printer-series/5156326/document/c042490...

[paking]

I have just started experiencing the same problem.  I would like to add that I have owned this printer for 4 years, and the problem just surfaced after there was a software update loaded onto the printer.  Frankly, I think HP downloaded something onto the printer that has caused this problem to occur, because I never experienced it before the download.

[slym1]

@Paking, that's interesting to hear.  Have you tried disabling IPv6?  It's been over a year since I posted about this, and so far we've had no further problems with the printer going offline after disabling it.