Printer crashes completely on first scan attempt

[Leon122]

Each first attempt to scan makes my printer crash.

When I haven't used the printer or scanning for a few days and I open the HP Printer assistant on my windows 10 laptop , go to scanning, it takes a long time, then I get a popup that scan to computer has lost the connection to the printer.

Then I walk to the printer and notice that all lights are randomly blinking and the graphical display shows some distorted information -> printer seems completely crashed and no longer accessible from the network.

I then press long the power button until the printer goes off, and restart the printer afterwards.

From then on everything works fine and I can connect to the scanner from my laptop and scanning works fine!

The same sequence has happened many times now, I think after some days of inactivity something gets corrupted and connection to the scanner fails (while printing always works reliably if I do not attempt scanning in the meantime).

I've just tried to update the firmware but it says it's already on the latest version

EN6200_R1845A.exe

(45.8 MB)

[sandytechy20]

@Leon122

Welcome to HP forums, I see that you are getting a scanner connection error.

Run the Print and Scan Doctor

Download and run HP Print and Scan Doctor  to automatically diagnose and resolve printer hardware and connection issues.

After the Print and Scan Doctor opens, click Fix Scanning to test your scanner, and then follow any instructions to resolve the issue.

Perform root level uninstalltion to remove all the printer related software's.

• In Windows, search for and open Programs and Features.
• Select your HP printer.
• Select Uninstall.
• In Windows, search for and open Devices and Printers.
• In the Devices and Printers window look for your HP Printer. If you see it listed, right-click on it and choose "Delete" or "Remove Device.”
• Open up the run command with the "Windows Key + R" key combo.
• Type printui.exe /s and click OK.
• Click on Drivers tab.
• Look for HP Printer driver. If you see it click on it and click Remove at the bottom.
• Select OK.
• Remove all instances of the same.
• Select Apply and OK on the Print Server Properties windows.
• Close Devices and Printers. 
• Restart the PC again.

Download and install printer full feature driver

Click here to download the driver.

Check Windows Image Acquisition settings.

1. In Windows, search for and open View local services.

2. In the Services window, scroll down the list and find Windows Image Acquisition (WIA).

3. Look at the Status and Startup Type values.

   • If the status is Started or Running and the Startup Type is Automatic, WIA is running correctly. Skip to the next step.

     

   • If the status is Disabled or no status displays, right-click Windows Image Acquisition (WIA), click Properties, click the General tab, select Automatic from the Startup type dropdown menu, and then click Start.

     If the Start button is grayed out, go back to the Services menu, make sure Remote Procedure Call, Shell Hardware Detection, RPC Endpoint Mapper, and DCOM Server Process Launcher are running and set as Automatic, and then start WIA.

You can refer to this HP document for more assistance:- Click here

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.

[Leon122]

Hi @sandytechy20

I've recently installed drivers, the printer crash happens no matter from which laptop i connect, latest firmware is installed on my printer, i did check using the print&scan doctor.

No matter what problem the client has, do you consider it a client problem when the printer crashes and becomes unreachable on the network and even from its control panel?

Printing always works, and after a printer reboot scanning also works.

This is obvious a firmware bug/instability, please read my explanation again and I expect HP to provide a fix, my printer is still under warranty.

Regards

Leon

[sandytechy20]

@Leon122

This situation will need some additional support from our internal teams in HP. For that to happen, we will give you additional instructions/information via Private Message.

Please check the mailbox icon at the top-right corner of this screen.

Cheers.

[BugfinderBrad]

I'm having the same issue and reach the same conclusion: it's a bug.  I opened Case Number 5023968516 and thought I had it resolved but not so.  Scan initiated from the printer to a shared Windows folder fails with flashing panel on printer requiring power cycle.  Has this bug been fixed yet?

[mike711]

I'm having the exact same issue as well. Has anyone a solution for this yet?

I would conclude the same as others that the issue is with the printer/firmware and not the Windows software/app, as the printer/scanner itseld does not seem to recover "sleep mode" when try to  scan after not using the printer for a while.

[BugfinderBrad]

A couple of observations and some additional detail to help focus attention on this bug.

I opened a support case on this issue back in November 2018 but the issue persists today, in February 2019.  I see reports of this issue relating to various models of networked HP printer/scanners.  The issue did not exist until something changed; scanning worked wonderfully well as intended for years until that change.  I speculate that the change was a low-level code change common to these various HP product models.  While I realize that my printer is years out of warranty, I would nonetheless find it troubling if HP were to cause the problem with a buggy firmware update and then seek to charge affected customers to fix that problem if their HP products were old enough to be out of warranty.  I can't prove what HP did or didn't break with their last update, but I will surely form an educated opinion and let that guide my future purchase decisions.  Someone at HP must surely see the business case to keeping customers happy, which is only a short step away from keeping customers.  However, it seems that more voices need to speak up in order to reach the right person's attention at HP.

Please add your voice if you are experiencing this issue.

Below are some additional details that may help others facing this issue.

Originally I encountered problems scanning to a target folder on a Synology NAS, a target folder that had been working fine for years. I believe the change that precipitated the problem was a printer firmware update. After that I created a target folder on a Windows 8.1 local drive and was able to use that successfully. Recently, however, even the local Windows target folder has failed intermittently. Failures include the flashing panel requiring power cycle as well as a more insidious corrupt PDF file creation without error message. Today I went through Programs and Features and then Devices and Printers to uninstall all the HP software. Then I rebooted and installed freshly downloaded full printer software for the X576DW. I then rebooted and tried some scans. Some worked properly. Some produced corrupt PDF files without any error message.

When I used the flatbed scanner, I noticed corrupted PDF files were created from even some single page scans. I can't be sure, but I think there may be a timing issue relating to closing the TCP connection or the file. It seems that when I immediately respond "No" to the "Another page?" prompt, the scan works more reliably. I wonder if something is timing out when it should not? From the number of reports and variety of printers for which I've read similar issues, it seems that some low-level code common to all printers should be the focus of attention. Something changed for the worse in that code.

[dglasser]

I purchased this printer (HP ENVY Photo 6234) in August 2018 and I've been experiencing this same problem since the printer was brand new. I've made sure to keep the firmware on the printer updated and run the Print and Scan Doctor from the PC, but the problem persists.

I will also add that I can reproduce the problem just by using the Copy feature on the printer, i.e. without performing an operation that requires the printer to communicate with the PC. This suggests that the problem is related to something internal to the printer's Scan/Copy functionality, and not to its interaction with a PC or PC software.

[dglasser]

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@dglasser wrote:

I will also add that I can reproduce the problem just by using the Copy feature on the printer, i.e. without performing an operation that requires the printer to communicate with the PC. This suggests that the problem is related to something internal to the printer's Scan/Copy functionality, and not to its interaction with a PC or PC software.

---

Here's a video demonstrating the behavior: HP 6234 hangs on scan or copy after long idle period

[EddiesMinion]

Any word on a fix for this?

I'll add that I feel it's a power saving issue - if I print something, then scan, no issues. I can also sometimes get it to not crash by attempting to scan to a PC from the printer itself (that never works, but it sometimes seems to wake the machine up).