Officejet Pro 8600 Plus connection issue - HELP!

[Paul_K]

I was able to lay my hands on a Linksys EA4500 simultaneous dual-band router, and I have had no problems after a week of using it.  The lease time is not an issue in my situation, since I use a static address on the printer.  For my network, it appears the Netgear WNDR3800 (its firmware) is the likely culprit.

[AlanCW]

Unfortunatelly, the issue occurs with other people regardless of router. In my instance, we are using the Verizon Fios wireless router, which is in turn, connected to a D-Link switch.

Either way, we connected our old Officejet 6310 because my wife needed to print a document urgently- and sure enough this printer worked instantaneously.

So I very much hesitate to blame the local network arrangement. I still say that HP shoul d issue a recall.

[jm_harp]

** UPDATE 8/9/2013 *******************

My issue has been resolved.  Short story: I purchased a different router, the D-Link AC 1200 (DIR-850L), to replace my NetGear N600.

Longer story: The NetGear router had worked flawless in every aspect, great range, great signal strength, never a dropped connection.  It had even worked fine with the OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus for several months.  As the lenthy story below relates, the printer at some point kept dropping off the network.  I tried SO MANY solutions found in different threads here and elsewhere (upgrade pritner firmware, upgrade router firmware, use static IP on printer, etc., etc.)... NOTHING worked.  I ran across a great price on the D-Link router and bought it on a whim that it might resolve my printer problem.  I've had the D-Link router for about 4 weeks now and since Day 1, after going through the normal wireless setup on the printer, NO problems... I can print, scan, and anything else from my MacBook, my HP laptop, my MacBook Pro, etc. anytime.

I do still believe there is a firmware bug in the printer that causes it to misbehave - with certain routers.  Perhaps NetGear took some wireless standard or rule very literally where D-Link and others may have been more liberal.  I don't know.  Hope this helps.

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** UPDATE 5/8/2013 *******************

As of about a week after my post below, I'm back to the same old problem (see Short summary/recap below).  Almost every time I print or scan (from Mac OSX or Wintel Windows 7), there is a "connection issue".  If I turn off the printer and turn it back on, the printout will start and I can do anything... print, scan, etc.  Then, within minutes... the printer doesn't even have to "fall asleep", the connection will be lost again.  Ironically, any ePrint (from my mobile devices or from the Apps on the front panel) all work fine.  COME ON HP!!

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I have experienced this same issue and seem to have come across a resolution, with print and scan all working for the last several hours so far, with printer having gone into and successfully come out of sleep mode.  I'm not naive enough to think this will solve everyone's problems but am posting here just in case.

Short summary/recap of issue:

• All printer functionality worked just fine in the past (I've had the printer about a year, maybe less)
• At some point in the past couple months - I can't pinpoint when - the printer would "stop responding" to print requests, scan requests, etc.  This seemed to be intermittent, and I couldn't really determine what was going on.
• Then, it became more consistent... and would occur *every* time the printer went into "sleep mode" (front panel display goes off).  I could get the printer to re-connect by simply turning off the printer and turning it back on.  It would work just fine until the next time it fell asleep; then, rinse and repeat.
• Well, in the past week, even the above stopped working consistently... sometimes would, sometimes would not.
• And, this was happening across my three different computers (see environment below)

My environment, for what it's worth:

• Two Macbook Pros (OS X 10.8.3) with HP Officejet 8600 software/drivers installed
• HP laptop (Windows 7) with HP Officeject 8600 software/driveres installed
• High-speed cable broadband through modem
• Modem to Netgear WNDR37000v2 wireless router/switch/hub

What I Tried That Didn't Work:

• Printer was wireless; tried cabling it to router
• Changed from DHCP IP to Static IP on printer (as has been mentioned previously in this forum)
• Uninstall and re-install printer, software, drivers from all machines; tried to re-install but none of the machines could find the printer, even though all the network settings on the printer appeared normal - whether connected to router wirelessly or wired

What Finally Worked (I know, this is so "simple", I don't know why it fixed it):

1. Delete printer from Macbook (System Preferences, Print & Scan, etc.).  Same on HP laptop.
2. Uninstall HP printer software on Macbook and HP laptop (Applications, Hewlett Packard, HP Uninstaller).
3. Restore factory settings on printer (Setup, Network, Restore Network Defaults)
4. Power off printer
5. Power off router
6. (I kept my Macbook and HP laptop powered up during this)
7. Power on router
8. Power on printer
9. On my Macbook, I downloaded and installed "Full Feature Software and Driver" for Officejet Pro 8600 from HP website.  Just google it, you'll find it.  For Mac users, be sure to pick the one for your specific version of OS X (Apple menu, About this Mac).
10. Installed with no problems.  Printed with no problems.  Scanned with no problems... even when scan was triggered at printer panel!
11. Let printer fall asleep several times... print and scan working without issue.
12. Let Macbook fall asleep (printer also fell asleep)... print and scan working without issue.
13. Repeated steps 9-12 on HP laptop

Other Comments

• Currently, printer is wired to router
• Print/scan works from Macbook (wireless) and HP laptop (wired)
• I am going to keep that for a few days to make sure everything is working fine (will report back here)
• If I'm feeling adventurous, I may disconnect the printer from the router and go wireless
• I do recall updating the firmware on my Netgear router, but I don't believe it exactly coincided with when my printer troubles began... though I can't definitevely rule that out either.  In my humble opinion, it is some "interaction" between the printer and router that is the root cause.  And, my guess would be some bug in the printer firmware.

[Gotsauss]

Hello! It isn't a wireless issue. All the printers here that we have are wireless. They all work fine on Windows 7. The one windows XP machine we have is connected with a wire and that is the one that is the problem.

I have been searching the forums and doing my own troubleshooting and reading many many posts. I have found one useful article but even with the updated software, I keep losing connection to the printer and I have to reboot in order to be able to print and scan. Even if I try to search for the printer again, it cannot be found on the WinXP computer until I reboot it. But if I reboot it, I don't need to re-scan for it. It just works again for a few hours then stops working again. All the other Windows 7 computers and laptops on the network are fine. They all have the same virus scanner etc.

Here is the helpful article: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03149924

But at the same time, I have the updated version of the software v25 something and the problem is still occcuring but I can see how this can help some people. I think upgrading to Windows 7 is the solution for now. I have run out of options. I have tried stopping and starting the print spooler manually, which used to fix a heap of problems in the past in WinXP. Deleting and re-adding the printer. Next step before win7 might be to uninstall the software and see if there is anything newer than v25 of the software.

Good luck all!

[AlanCW]

All other printers we've ever had worked right out of the box with our computers, including Wndows XP, Mac OSX, and Linux!

This particular model has been a royal pain in the neck. Since day one I've spent hours trying to figure out why the **bleep** thing refuses to stay connected.

In a serious act of desperation, we resorted to using the old and trusty Officejet 6310- which works flawlessly with all computers.

HP- Please issue a recall! You don't have to pay me back, just get me a replacement.

[Clancey]

I have been using my HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus for 1 year.  I am now getting a message that the printer is not connected to the internet.  I am a real novice, when it comes to computers, please spell out what I need to do.

Thank you!

[sonny01]

How do you get a hp8600 printer out of the sleep mode

[UniProg]

Hi sonny01,

Make sure in the printer settings, the "Schedule" setting is to OFF.  Let me know if this helps.

Good luck!

[dogdays]

My problem with th HP officejet Pro 8600 plus happened suddenly after 3 months of perfect usage. The problem was that the printer one day just would not connect wirelessly to the internet. I realized it was happening when i stopped getting a weekly print-out from the web called "weekly to do". When i tried to manually connect to the web services (by clicking on "Apps"  i got the error message "this printer was unable to connect to the server. Check your internet connection and try again. Would you like to try again?"

(btw i have never had any trouble printing wirelessly from my 3 computers unlike most of the posters here - touch wood. But i am posting here because the solution to their problem is the same solution to my problem)

I am not an IT person but i am fairly familiar with routers and tried many different router setting changes (dmz, changing channels, turning off/on cable modem, and router, printer etc. ...often these things got the printer online maybe once or twice and then the problem came immediately back). It was very frustrating and i spent hours troubleshooting.

Here is the solution that a brilliant early poster came up with (on page 7 or 8). I modified it somewhat for my specific wireless only problem and added some details since i didn't know myself what ews was or how to get into it or how to find ip settings etc.
 
Solution:

1) Do not use DHCP to assign addresses ( printer ip address will be lost )

2) Assign Static IP addresses

3) Log into the EWS (embeded web server) ( GUI ) by using a web browser and typing in the ip address of the printer e.g. 192.168.1.101 (see step e. below to see how to get the printer ip address of your own printer)

a. once you have the web page on the screen then click on Wireless Network Status

b. Click on Wired ( 802.3 ) or Wireless ( 802.11 ).  Use Wired if you're using actual cable. <i didn't need to do this step but i left it in anyway>

c. click on IPv4 (it is within the wireless heading)

d. select "Manual IP"

e. Enter Manual IP Address (you get this from your actual printer's screen under >setup >network >view network summary

f. Enter Manual Subnet Mask  (in windows xp you can get this info via the command prompt >start button >run >cmd >ipconfig /all)

g. Enter Manual Default Gateway  (in windows xp you can get this info via the command prompt >start button >run >cmd >ipconfig /all)

h. Select "Manual DNS Server"

i. Enter Manual Preferred DNS Server (in windows xp you can get this info via the command prompt >start button >run >cmd >ipconfig /all)

j. Optional Enter Manual Alternate DNS Server.  This is optional, not required.

k. Make sure you click Apply to save your settings

[dorsborne]

SOLVED!

HP please investigate this and issue a patch to fix ASAP.

It appears that connecting this printer to a router which supports WPA and WPA2 in it's wireless security settings can cause issues when trying to connect from a PC on the network.  From my experience this is periodic - sometimes the printer will be able to access the internet, sometimes the PC will be able to connect to the printer but this was really only occasionally.

To solve ths issue login to your router and change the security setting to WPA only and then reconnect the printer and any other wireless devices.  The printer can then be discovered from the Printers and Devices menu automatically and installed on any other PC without issue.

I think there must be a bug in the WPA/WPA2 code that the printer uses as it really struggles when working over wireless with my PC's.  For reference my router is a BT HomeHub 2 and my PC's all run Windows 7.  I can replicate this issue by switching back to using WPA/WPA2 security on the router.