Touch screen goes all white, printer doesn't respond

[WilliamVV]

About once per day, my printer touch-screen window goes all white and the printer goes offline.  I can reset it by pressing the power switch once, which goes through the initiation and the printer works again.  Any idea how to fix this so the printer keeps working for extended periods of time?  Thanks for any help!

[sandytechy20]

@WilliamVV

Welcome to the HP support community.

I understand that you are getting printer offline errors, follow these steps to fix the issue.

Let's try the below steps to see if that helps -

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.

I'd like to know the following to isolate the issue further-

1.) Are the printer and Mac connected to the same network?

2.) Is your router dual-band enabled i.e., both 2.4GHz and 5GHz? If yes, make sure the dual-band has different SSIDs for 2.4G and 5G networks.

3.) What is the distance between the router and the printer?

4.) Is there antivirus software installed on your Mac?

5.) Could you perform a ping test and let me know the results? Use the printer IP address to perform a ping test, the printer IP can be located by selecting the wireless icon on the printer display.

Perform a ping test to check the connectivity

1. Click Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
2. type ping "IP address" and press enter

Wait until 10 pings have been performed and then press ctrl c on the keyboard and hit return. 

The results will appear.

Share the ping test results.

The wireless status menu on your Mac should also give us quite a lot of information that would help us identify the issue. You can press and hold option-click the WiFi icon and then use shift-command-5 to take the screenshot. Press the space bar when the icon turns into a camera. Share the ping test results and the screenshot with us.

Also, 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 me know how it goes.

To thank me for my efforts to help you, please mark my post as an accepted solution so that it benefits several others.

Cheers.

[WilliamVV]

Thanks for the suggestions.  Here are my replies:

1.) Remove All Barriers: Nothing has changed with regard to barriers.  It worked for a couple of years before this problem started.

2.) Change Router Channel: Don't have an Apple router, I have a Netgear Nighthawk R7000P.  It works flawlessly with all my other devices, some much further away than the printer.  I have not changed the channel number(s) ever, and since it worked for years before this problem, don't think that is the issue.

3.) Move Closer to Your Router: Not practical.  Now about 10-12 feet away.

4.) Get Away From Microwaves and Fluorescent Lighting: Not related to microwaves or fluorescent lighting because it happens even when these things are off.

 1.) Are the printer and Mac connected to the same network? Same router.  Mac connected to 5 GHz and printer connected to 2.4 GHz

2.) Is your router dual-band enabled i.e., both 2.4GHz and 5GHz? If yes, make sure the dual-band has different SSIDs for 2.4G and 5G networks. Yes, and yes.

3.) What is the distance between the router and the printer? about 10-12 feet

4.) Is there antivirus software installed on your Mac? Yes, Bitdefender.  But it is turned off.

5.) Could you perform a ping test and let me know the results? Results:

Last login: Sat Jul 31 08:37:40 on console

[Yums-MacBook-Pro-2:~] william% ping 192.168.1.16

PING 192.168.1.16 (192.168.1.16): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=11.060 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=10.392 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=9.772 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=9.838 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=14.696 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=5 ttl=255 time=10.727 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=6 ttl=255 time=10.235 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=7 ttl=255 time=21.788 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=8 ttl=255 time=3.889 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=9 ttl=255 time=11.131 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=10 ttl=255 time=8.600 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.16: icmp_seq=11 ttl=255 time=17.910 ms

^C

--- 192.168.1.16 ping statistics ---

12 packets transmitted, 12 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 3.889/11.670/21.788/4.403 ms

 

Also, check with your Internet service provider if your router is able to forward 'Bonjour packets'.  My ISP did not provide the router, it is my personal equipment. It was working flawlessly for a year or more before the printer began going offline by itself.  By doing a Google search, it seems that my R7000P router can forward Bonjour (my interpretation.)

[sandytechy20]

@WilliamVV

Connect the printer and the Mac to the same band that is 2.4GHz to resolve this issue.

[WilliamVV]

I will try it and get back to you.  May I ask, what does it indicate when the printer touch-screen goes all white?

[WilliamVV]

I don't have 2.3 GHz, but connected the Mac to 2.4GHz (same as the printer).  The failure happened again within 2 hours.  MAY I PLEASE ASK "WHAT DOES THE TOUCH-SCREEN GOING ALL WHITE INDICATE?"

[sandytechy20]

@WilliamVV

If you have connected the printer to 2.4Ghz and if the printer still does not respond, then this could be a printer software issue.

Restoring the printer will fix the screen going all white issue as well.

I am sending you a private message with the steps to reset the printer. Please check the mailbox icon at the top-right corner of this screen.

I hope this helps resolve this issue completely.

To thank me for my efforts to help you, please mark my post as an accepted solution so that it benefits several others.

Cheers.

[WilliamVV]

I have followed the steps, including OKing the reset.  The printer did not ever turn itself off as instructions said it would.  I waited a long time.  It just came back to the language menu: English, Español, Français, etc.  

After waiting for over an hour, I turned it off, then unplugged it, then plugged it in, then turned it on.  I'm assuming it was a successful reset and  I will report back soon.  It failed in less than 8 hours fairly reliably, so I should notice a difference by tomorrow.

Please, what does the all-white touchscreen indicate?  Hardware failure, software crash, error condition, ... or something else?  If you don't know, will you please ask your supervisor?

Thanks for sticking with me on this.  I really like the printer and don't want to replace it.

[sandytechy20 · Accepted solution]

@WilliamVV

All white touchscreen indicates the printer software crash,

However, resetting the printer should fix the issue.

You have successfully reset the printer by following the above steps which were sent in a private message.

Keep the printer under observation and let me know the status by tomorrow.

Cheers.

[WilliamVV]

It appears that the reset fixed the problem.  The printer has been working normally for two days.

Thank you