HP LaserJet Pro M225dw inaccessible after 10 minutes of operation

[hahaclassic]

Hi, our company's HP LaserJet Pro M225dw has started acting up lately. It's running the latest 20200619 firmware, connected to 2.4 Ghz-only WiFi access point (tried two different access point vendors), has static IP address. 

The printer becomes inaccessible from macOS Catalina 10.15.7 after 5-10 minutes after it's been switched on. Can't be set up as a new printer (the setup can't access the printer although it can be found on the network and it shows available connection modes like secure AirPrint etc.), printing and scanning does not work, can't be accessed by it's IP address to see the EWS.

After turning it off an on again everything is absolutely normal (new setup, EWS, printing, scanning, HP Smart info) but after 5-10 minutes it's gone. 

On Windows 10 (64-bit) 2004 it is always available for printing and scanning, but can't be accessed on EWS and from HP Smart after same 5-10 minutes. 

I'm running out of ideas, my last one was to downgrade the firmware but it seems I can't find an older one. Thanks for your help and ideas!

[Kumar0307]

@hahaclassic, Welcome to the HP Support Community!

I understand you have intermittent connectivity issues with the printer.

Check with your Internet service provider if your router is able to forward 'Bonjour packets'.

Bonjour locates devices such as printers, other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a local network using multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) service records. The software comes built-in with Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems.

• Make sure the printer and the MAC are connected to the same wireless network. Either 2.4 or 5GHz network.
• If you have a Dual-band router and both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks share the same name/SSID, the printer will not be able to connect to the network. In this case, contact your Internet service provider to assign different names to both networks.

Update the printer firmware

Click here to download and install the latest printer firmware from your MAC.

Click here to know different methods of updating printer firmware.

Also, check for any software updates on MAC

Click the Apple icon > About This Mac > Software Update and install any available update.

Let's also check these parameters - 

  

1.) Remove All Barriers: Certain building materials can get in the way of weaker signals like Bluetooth. Metal, bulletproof glass, concrete, and plaster are particularly bad, and marble, plaster, and brick aren’t great easy. So if you’re really struggling with interference, your first step should be to move your Bluetooth devices away from these materials. That means no brick walls between you and your devices, and definitely no metal desks! 

  

2.) Change Router Channel: If you have an Apple router and you’re constantly getting interference with your WiFi, try rebooting it. Upon restart, the station will search for a new channel. Specifically, a different channel than the one your Bluetooth devices is using to communicate. If you don’t have an Apple router, you may need to instead go into your router settings and try changing the channel manually. Experiment with different channels to see which one works best. 

  

3.) Move Closer to Your Router: If you often find that you’re getting interference when talking on a wireless headset while on a WiFi call (you’ll know because you’ll hear static), try moving closer to your router. This will give you a more robust WiFi connection, so the Bluetooth frequency can’t overpower it. 

  

4.) Get Away From Microwaves and Fluorescent Lighting: Both emit frequencies of 2.4GHz, and moving away from them will distance you from the source. 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Have a great day! 

[hahaclassic]

Hi Kumar, 

Thanks for trying to help. 

As everything works perfectly for about 3 minutes, it means that Bonjour packets are supported and being forwarded properly. Also we did not have any problems for many months, until I recently upgraded the firmware.

The printer and OS firmwares are up-to-date. Perhaps you can send me an archive of older firmwares for HP LaserJet Pro M225dw? I think this might be the culprit. 

The printer has excellent connection with all services working as expected for about 3 minutes and then becomes unreachable via EMS and HP Smart (Windows). The DHCP works fine and has a rather long lease time. We have a MikroTik router.

[hahaclassic]

I need to test this further, but it seems the problem is gone after switching the AP to 20 MHz mode. 

[Kumar0307]

@hahaclassic

Sure, monitor the printer and let me know how it goes.

[hahaclassic]

Hi Kumar, 

The printer was ok for a day and then it all went back. I disabled wireless connection and put in on Ethernet cable, the symptoms are the same.

Everything works well for 3-4 minutes and then the printer becomes unreachable on EWS both on mac OS and Windows 10. I did a factory reset (by holding my finger on the touchscreen) as well. When I was reinstalling the driver the setup was unable to complete HP connected services check, it said the printer is unreachable. I rebooted the device and the setup was able to complete. So the setup found printer on the net, installed basic printer driver functions and halted on HP connected until I switched it in and off again. Then it was gone on EWS again.

The situation is as following:

macOS: no EWS and printing after 3 minutes, and while printing just after startup it lost some of the pages

Windows 10: no EWS after 3 minutes, printing and scanning works fine

It's like some internal service in charge of EWS and macOS connections just gets turned off. 

I think it might be a firmware problem. Can you send me the previous stable ones? 

[Kumar0307]

@hahaclassic

It seems like the connectivity is intermittent. Did you check with your Internet service provider if your router is able to forward 'Bonjour packets'?

Bonjour locates devices such as printers, other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a local network using multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) service records. The software comes built-in with Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems.

Let us assign a static IP address to the printer.

• Obtain the IP address of the printer – You can touch the “wireless” icon on the printer control panel to get the IP address.
• Type the IP address on your web browser to obtain the printer's EWS page.
• Go to "Network" tab - General - Select "Network protocols" - Select "Enable IPv4 only" (or similar) - Apply the settings.
• Go to the “Network” tab – Click on “Wireless (802.11) – Then click on “Network address (IPv4)
• Click on the radio button which says “Manual IP” and then click “Suggest a manual IP address” to give a manual IP address to your printer.
• Click on radio button which says “Manual DNS Server” and under manual preferred type 8.8.8.8 and under manual alternate type 8.8.4.4 (This is Google DNS server address)

Check for the issue.

The previous version of firmware is not available now. If the issue persists, we can perform a factory reset on the printer and check if that helps.

I have sent you a private message with a set of instructions to perform a reset. Kindly check the same, this might help you to resolve this issue. Check next to your profile name, you should see a little blue envelope, please click on it.  

Let me know how it goes.