network printer

Hi,

Are you printing to IP Addresses or to Printer Names?  Are the printers pingable?

- gurutc

Is your Windows 7 on the same network, getting the IP address from the same block as everyone else?

Printing using IP address.  Win 7 is on same network.  Getting IP from same block. Printers are pingable.

Can you print a test page by going into the properties of the printer on the machine that can't print?

no

Did anything change on the laptop when it stopped printing?
Like Windows Update or similar?

- gurutc

But you do see the printers installed on the machine that can't print?  If you don't see any printers then look to see if the spooler service is running.

Start from "high level" steps towards more specific:

1. does this Win 7 laptop have network connectivity? Can you ping the machines on the same subnet? Can you ping the printer? Can everyone from the same subnet print to these printers?

2. is name resolution working as it should? Can you ping other computers by name? Probably not needed right now but for the sake of completness and to get a better picture.

3. go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services and check if Printer Spooler is set to Automatic Start and running

4. In Devices and Printers, right-click on the Printer, click Printer Properties, then click on Ports tab. Check if the port to which the printer is attached has correct IP address or Port.

5. open web browser, type in the address field: http://x.y.z.w where x.y.z.w is the IP address of the printer. If the printer is a network printer and is manageable through web browser, check if everything is okay. If you can connect to printer from the affected laptop then something must be wrong with the configuration or services on that particular laptop.

I see the printers installed.  Not sure if a win update happened.  Where can I check that?  How about a system restore to last week?

Everything that SASA asked to check did check out.   Laptop can access web version of network printer.

Do the printers have backed-up print jobs on this computer?
If so, get rid of any waiting print jobs.
Obvious maybe but a common problem.

no backed up jobs

When you try to print do you get any error message?  

1. Can you print a test page from the web interface
2. Try restarting the print spooler service
3. Remove the printer and re-install

hi
did you have used the printer before without problems ?
 if yes try this link

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/troubleshoot-network-printer-problems

I CAN print a test page from web interface.  REstarted spool service couple hours ago.  Reinstalled before I tried answers on EE

I know that you said that the printers are being accessed via IP address.  Perhaps it would help for us to be very specific about that.

If you check the printer port setup on the computer for each printer, what is the port?  Is it a TCP/IP port?  Is the IP address correct in each case?  Obvious maybe but critical.

How did you set up the printers?  There are two ways in general:

Add a Printer:

Option 1:
Call it a Network Printer and let a network scan find them all.  Select the one you want to install.  Go from there.

Option 2:
Call it a Local Printer and force the port to be a TCP/IP port with the proper IP address.  Go from there.

In many cases only Option 2 will work - having to do with drivers, etc.  It seems counterintuitive to call a network printer a local printer but that's exactly what you do.

I would try it with one of the printers as follows:
1) remove the printer from Devices and Printers.
2) If there are no other printers of that model/driver then highlight any printer in Devices and Printers - which will add a menu item "Print Server Properties".  Select that item and you will see a list of drivers.  Completely remove the driver.
3) Now select Add a Printer and Use Option 2.

I have to ask two (stupid and obvious) questions: (1) do print jobs stack up in the queue and (2) is the printer paused?

Have you tried to print using different account? Do you have a domain? What if you install printers locally, like FMARSHALL suggested in Option 2? Can you print using locally installed printer?

If this is a windows 7 computer then use the advanced feature for the printer drivers and queues. Start the mmc console by typing mmc under start, then search for files (used to be run in xp). Open console window and choose file, add/remove snap in. Choose the print management snap in. In add servers, choose add local server, then finish.  

Look at the ports, drivers and specific printers and see if they are paused, connecting to right ip addresses and such. Also do some specific pinging of each ip address from the specific laptop to make sure it is able to talk to each networked printer.

Also reboot reboot reboot, fixes all!! :-)