LAN printer stays offline on a laptop

I have a LAN-attached printer (HP 8710) and 5 computers - 2 PCs, 2 laptops, 1 tablet. The printer is usually powered off but on 3 at least of the computers the printer status changes to idle the the printer is powered up. On may wife's laptop (A Dell Inspiron 17 - 3793) the printer status often stays "offline". I've found no way to fix this other than to restart the laptop. Connectivity to the printer is not a problem. The HP Printer Assistant program which talks with an HTTP server in the printer has no trouble communicating with the printer - checking ink levels, etc. It's just the printer status in Windows that is the problem.

As near as I can tell, the printer is defined the same on all the computers. The Windows Printer Test Page shows the same driver level and Print Processor (winprint, whatever that is). I've tried with "Let Windows manage my default printer" turned off and on but this did not fix anything. All computers are running Win 11 Pro x64 22621.1848.

Two questions:

1. Any idea why this is happening and what I can do to fix it?
2. When this happens again, is there any way to get the printer status back to "online" other than restarting the laptop?

BTW, there is some HP "app" called HP Smart that is available from the Windows store but I haven't installed it. (Actually, I uninstalled it when Windows automatically installed it a short while ago.) It isn't needed on at least 3 of the computers so I don't feel a need to install it on the laptop.

On the troublesome device, try uninstalling the printer, restart, then reinstall it.
If that doesn't work uninstall printer again, restart, and reinstall printer by ip address.

I'll give that a try next time I have access to the laptop.

I went through the uninstall-restart-reinstall process, and it may have fixed things. The problem was intermittent so It's hard to tell, but my wife has printed twice with no trouble.

The problem reappeared today so now I'm after a quick recovery rather than a real fix. Rebooting makes the printer go back online but is a bit disruptive. Breaking and reestablishing network connectivity (in this case, turning off Wifi and turning it back on) also brings the printer back online. Is there a command (or PS cmdlet) I could put in a script that would redrive whatever initialization code gets driven when the network connection is established?

Try assigning the printer a static ip address. That might help. HP Designjet 30/70/90/100/110/111/120/130 Printer Series - How to Assign a Static IP Address to a Network Printer | HP® Customer Support
The setup screen is different for your printer but the process is the same for all HP printers.
Also in settings>bluetooth and devices>printers & scanners, under printer preferences turn off "Let windows manage my default printer."

Oh my. A static IP address might be a good idea, but there is other weirdness that I want to address first. I have 5 Windows printer test pages in front of me- 2 taken several days apart from the problem laptop, and 1 from each of 3 other computers that never have problems printing. What I see is chaos.

1. 4 show the printer name "HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 PCL-3 (Network)".
   1 shows printer name "HPFFB27D (HP OfficeJet Pro 8710)". HPFFB27D is the printer's hostname.
   The unique one is the problematic laptop, but so is one of the others from 4 days earlier.
2. 1 shows Printer Location as a now obsolete IPv4 address. 4 show an IPv6 address - the same addr on each test page.
   The one IPv4 is the problematic laptop but not from the test page showing the printer's hostname.
3. 2 of the OK computers have "Let windows manage my default printer." One does not.
4. One of the OK computers shows 1 "HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 PCL-3 (Network)" and 1 "HPFFB27D (HP OfficeJet Pro 8710)" with the latter also saying "(redirected 2)".

I obviously need to clean this up, but I don't want to move the problem from the laptop to the other computers.

Yuck!

If you no longer use IPv4 try turning it off. Settings -Network & internet -WiFi -Hardware properties -More adapter options -Edit.

Fabler2 said:

If you no longer use IPv4 try turning it off. Settings -Network & internet -WiFi -Hardware properties -More adapter options -Edit.

Click to expand...

I'm still using IPv4. I have 3 NAS devices accessed via IPv4. They support IPv6 but I haven't get them to use it. (I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to IPv6.) In fact, all devices on my LAN except the printer - 5 computers and 3 NAS devices - communicate amongst themselves with IPv4 even though they all have IPv6 connections across the internet.

Maybe it would be easier to disable IPv6 on the printer.

pokeefe0001 said:

I'm still using IPv4. I have 3 NAS devices accessed via IPv4. They support IPv6 but I haven't get them to use it. (I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to IPv6.) In fact, all devices on my LAN except the printer - 5 computers and 3 NAS devices - communicate amongst themselves with IPv4 even though they all have IPv6 connections across the internet.

Maybe it would be easier to disable IPv6 on the printer.

Click to expand...

One of my three machines wouldn't open the printer interface via 192.168.1.254 (fixed IP) and I eventually found out it had changed to IPv6 for some strange reason. Double clicking on the printer in File Explorer -Network- opened it with an IPv6 address
So I just disabled IPv6 and it went back to normal. Can't remember if I re-enabled v6 though.
Giving the printer a fixed IP and stopping it sleeping (if you have the option) makes the connection pretty solid.

pokeefe0001 said:

One of the OK computers shows 1 "HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 PCL-3 (Network)" and 1 "HPFFB27D (HP OfficeJet Pro 8710)" with the latter also saying "(redirected 2)".

Click to expand...

I think that "redirected" relates to my accessing the computer via RDP, but I'm not sure of the implication. Does that mean it's using the print on the RD client? Hard to tell since it's the same printer.

Anyway, I've disabled IPv6 on the printer. I'll see if that helps anything.

pokeefe0001 said:

I think that "redirected" relates to my accessing the computer via RDP, but I'm not sure of the implication. Does that mean it's using the print on the RD client? Hard to tell since it's the same printer.

Anyway, I've disabled IPv6 on the printer. I'll see if that helps anything.

Click to expand...

Hi Pokeefe,

Glasskuter recommended configuring the network printer with a Static IP. Although this can be done on the printer itself, i would recommend using your Router to set the Static IP for your printers MAC address. Be sure to use the correct MAC address (LAN or WLAN).

I'd recommend staying away from the HP Smart software by the way... it does more than what you want it do. You also don't need IPv6 for your home network. I doubt your printing stuff while away from your house.

As for redirected: Yes, that's due to your RDP session. If you have access to the same printer on the remote system, then there is no need to share the same printer from your host with your RDP session. Check your Remote Desktop Connection settings > Local Resources and unchck Printers. This way your host printer is not redirected to the system you are connected to.


Switch back to the General tab and click Save to save your changes. This assumes you have an RDP file saved already that you use frequently to access that system. If not, click Save As > give it a brief name and a home and now you can pin that new RDP file to your Taskbar for quick and easy access.

Now back to the printer showing offline:
There are some factors that cause our wireless network printer to show offline on a system or two:

• Network Profile switches to Public by mistake which would effect your Advanced Network Sharing settings; unlikely for your case I think.
• Power Options - like Balanced or Power Saver.
• Resuming from Sleep (ok) or Hibernation (useless).
• Laptop moving from one access point to another within our ASUS Ai Mesh network.

I'm not sure if any of the above relate to you, but easy enough to verify. Test one system at a time.