Printers on network but won't print -- throwing 49 Error even for demo page

[Cara999]

I have three HP printers on my small network. Everything was working until the cable went out and the cable guy gave me a new modem/router. Now both laser printers (HP LaserJet Pro M402dn and HP LaserJet Pro M252dw) won't print. Specifically, they can be seen on the network. I can see their configuration pages in a browser. For the 402dn, if I go to its IP address in Safari, I can see all the info about it, its settings, supply levels, etc. But I can't print. Similarly, for the M252dw, I can see it in the utility, I can see all of its settings and supply levels, etc. But I can't print.  (402dn is connecting by ethernet; M252dw is connecting by wifi.)

For both printers, the printer shows up as idle with a green dot  in the list of printers, but if I try to print something, it says the printer is not connected. From my iPhone, both printers will show up as options, but if I try to print something, I get an error that the connection to the printer was lost. (The printers show no signs of awareness of these events.)

For both printers, if I try to print a demo page from the printer itself, I get 49 Service Error Turn Off Then On--and it reboots itself. Nothing ever prints.

However, I just tried unplugging the 402dn from the network and printing a demo page, and it printed just fine. I'm betting the same would happen with the other one. 

Meanwhile, I also have an OfficeJet 7612 that's working just fine--connected to the new router over wifi, no problems printing, no error codes.

The new router/modem is an Arris DG 2470A. Before we had a modem and a separate router.

What do I need to do to fix this? Super frustraing!!! I just want to print!

[dansdaduk]

>> ... unplugging the 402dn from the network and printing a demo page, and it printed just fine ...

Which suggests that something on your network is sending a 'badly-formed' print job, or interrogative request to the device.

Not always easy to find out which is the miscreant 'sending' device, without a great deal of 'trial and error' unplugging/plugging, or trawling through 'network sniffer' traces, etc.

Printer firmware upgrades (if available) may resolve the issue, by making the firmware more resilient to such badly-formed data.

[Cara999]

Thanks for this perspective! I tried telling each printer to update itself but both drop the connection before they can. 😞 

Since everything was working before, I hope it's the new modem/router sending the malformed requests. I'm going to try swapping that out. I really hope that's the problem, because I've wasted so many hours on this already! I just want it to work!

[sherwoodb]

I have an HP Color LaserJet 452dw, three HP ink jets and a Canon ink jet. All the ink jets print fine via wi-fi. The LaserJet printed fine until I updated its firmware to the 20160129 version. Since then the LaserJet won't work on wi-fi. It will print fine with USB. I got two replacements from HP: same problem. When the second replacement (3rd printer) arrived, I took it to my office, with a different wireless set up. It work fine & even printed wirelessly from the laptop I use at home. I took it home & started it up with all the other printers & computers turned off. Even turned off cell phone. It worked fine until I connected to the wi-fi, then wouldn't print printer sample page or anything. 49 service error. Unplugging or otherwise rebooting the Arris 44AB cable modem didn't help. Neither did changing the wi-fi password or clearing the NVRAM, etc. on the printer. I think there is a conflict between the HP laser printer (or the new firmware) & the Arris 44AB. I have made an appointment to have it replaced with a Cisco cable modem. I'll let you know if that solves the problem. Unfortunately, since I have such a busy schedule the appointment is for November 17. In the meantime I'll restore the printer defaults so I can laser print with USB.

[sherwoodb]

I believe this (49 Error, Turn off then on) problem is usually caused by a conflict between the HP firmware and the cable modem (Arris & some others). The problem is not with the printer driver or computer.

The solution is to turn off IPv6, so your printer only communicates with the modem via IPv4. Then reset the defaults on the printer & reconnect to the network. I also cleared the NVRAM for good measure. 

Note that on most printers, both IPv4 & IPv6 are on by default. Any time you reset the defaults, you'll have to go back & turn off IPv4 again. If you get the "49 Error, Turn off then on" message when trying to print a demo page, it probably means that IPv6 is on.

1. Clear NVRAM

2. Reset defaults

3. Turn off IPv6 (before connecting to network!)

4. Connect to network.

Once my printer (HP Color LaserJet M452dw) was connected to the wireless network, I set it up to print from my computer. I had one further problem. The computer would lose track of the printer after printing. I solved that problem by setting the IPv4 connection method to manual. When I set up the LaserJet up on my computer, I chose IP, then entered the printer's IP address, wrote in the name I wanted to call the printer, & chose use/HP Color LaserJet M452dw. It has worked fine since. If you use 'generic postscript printer,' you won't be able to choose paper types, etc.

Continued from above:

5. Set IPv4 connection method to manual.

6. Restart printer.

7. In computer settings, create printer using IP rather than by name of printer.

These are all the steps I took. You may not need to do anything other than disconnect the printer from the modem, reset defaults, turn off IPv6, and reconnect to the modem.

Note: The most common cause of a 49 Service Error is just a corrupted print file. That problem can usually be solved by deleting print jobs on the computer from the printer's queue.

  However, in those cases where the 49 Service Error occurs as soon as the printer is connected to the wi-fi network, I believe this will solve the problem on a variety of printers.

  I hope you folks will let me know if that is true.

[gstriph]

Four hours of my life down the drain, including posts to HP / Apple forums, and a call to HP service... Then I find your answer -- you are brilliant -- thank you for posting this!

[JoC5]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sherwoodb! I've spent hours working on this and finally found this post!

I recently changed modems/routers and new it had to have something to do with that! Never dawned on me to change to IP4. 

[Daniel_R]

@sherwoodb: Brillian feedback, switching off the IPv6 mode helped my home network printing to work again. Thanks a lot!