HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281cdw - offline despite all efforts to troubleshoot

[ChrisAllingham]

Printer has worked great since purchase March 2020, connected wireless to an Eero mesh network. I upgraded firmware about a week ago (something I've done a couple of times in the past) and the printer worked fine.

Yesterday printer worked fine in the morning, but by afternoon print jobs were stuck in the queue on my laptop (Win 11) and my wife's laptop (Win 10). Queue says printer is offline.

I have done everything possible to resolve the problem:

* Status appears normal at the printer LCD display.

* Can print a test page successfully from the LCD display. No paper jam. All new original HP toner cartridges within last month, toner status reports all colors full.

* Wireless icon on LCD display shows printer connected to the network. Eero app shows printer connected to the network. Running the wireless diagnostic from the LCD display is successful and prints a report page showing no errors. I tried resetting the wireless config then used the printer's Wireless Setup Wizard to setup again...no change.

* Cycled printer power off/on by power switch.

* Cycled printer power off/on by pulling the power cord.

* Cycled modem and Eero mesh network power several times.

* Restarted both laptops several times.

* Verified our laptops and the printer are connected to the same network.

* Verified the printer is my default printer.

* Verified that printer is NOT in "Use printer offline" mode.

* Stopped/restarted printer queue on laptop.

* Run Windows printer troubleshooting diagnostics -- no errors.

* Downloaded HP Print & Scan Doctor -- no errors.

* Deleted all HP printer software on my Win 11 laptop and reinstalled HP Smart software. HP Smart finds the printer on the network and completes the install process to the point where I'm supposed to click "Add Device" to add the printer driver. That part of the process never completes. When I say, "I'll complete this later", HP Smart shows the printer status as "Ready" and shows the toner levels. But I can not get the driver installed via the automated process in HP Smart. So I followed the process for manually adding the driver via TCP/IP and provided the IP address. Windows said, "Driver already installed, do you want to use it?" which I accepted. Still, printer reports "offline" in the print queue.

* From my Win 11 laptop, I can run the HP Smart scan app and wirelessly scan documents on the printer...I just can't print.

* I have connected the printer to the Eero base unit via LAN cable. Same result: printer offline in the print queue.

* From my Apple iPad, I can successfully print to the printer via Apple AirPrint.

So what to do when you have a printer that works flawlessly for 22 months then goes offline and can't be brought back online despite all efforts?

Any help is appreciated!

[ChrisAllingham · Accepted solution]

Well, just like taking your car into the shop and it doesn't exhibit the problem you've been having...the printer is now working.

As I did before, I reset the wireless settings in the printer and reconfigured it using the printer's Wireless Setup Wizard to reconnect to the network. I deleted HP Smart on my laptop and reinstalled it. I completed the printer setup in HP Smart and this time everything worked flawlessly.

So I'm all good for now. I guess I'll just chalk it up to technology weirdness. 🙂