HP Colour Laserjet 4600 offline

Check the data cable.  I recently had a printer doing similar (and worse) because the USB cable had become faulty.

It's a network printer.

Then check the network cable, or try a different cable.

And cabling all the way to the print server

Failing that, your next step should be to test the network port on the print server, and the NIC on the printer itself.

Hi, tested the cable by using a cable tester either end. How do you test a network printer's nic?

Print a hardware page from the printer. There may be a buton for this near the network port on the printer or you could try holding the printer button down as you turn the printer on. This should give you the IP of the printer.

Put the IP into a web browser which will take you to the printer set up utility. From here there may be a way of testing the function of the printer.

You could also try pinging the printers IP when it goes offline to see if you are getting a response from its NIC.

There is now feedback.

There is no option on the web interface to "test the printers function"

When the printer goes offline it is not possible to ping it.

Is it clients and server that cannot ping or just server?

Possibly try postscript driver. Sounds very odd, but I know how these things an be.

It is using a PS driver. There are no PCL53/6 drivers available from HP for this printer model.

I have only tested pinging from a client machine. I will try from the server, but I can't see how that would be any different than from a client. :(

Hi, my bad.
It is using PCL6 drivers. It has just gone offline, I could still ping it from the client and the server even though it was reporting as offline.

I have changed to PS drivers now and will monitor how this goes for the next week.

Ok let me know how you get on.

Hi goldsim,

All clients and the server are using the latest PS drivers available from the HP website.
The printer has gone offline again.

Hi goldsim, any other ideas?

Has the printer definatley got a static IP. Can you get to the config page or print a network info page?

It definitely has a static IP.

What information do you require off the config/print a network info pages?

The static IP isn't one in the range of those assigned by DHCP?  If so change it.  It should still be in the range that will work for your subnet but keep it out of the DHCP range.

I see you tested the cable but can you try a different cable?  Then I would try another port on the switch/router.  Do you have another network printer that works without this problem?  If so a great test would be to move the printer to that location.  Have this one use the same cable, IP, etc.

The problem could be the NIC card in the printer.  That would probably mean sending it in or trying to order a replacement.  The tests above would be nice to do before this more expensive option but if you have eliminated the rest then it is most likely the port itself (or card).

Let me know if you have a question about any of this or how it helps.

bol

Hi, THe IP is not assigned by DHCP and is not one that is in the DHCP range.
Will plug the printer into another working port to test this and report back

Thanks.  Let me know what you find out.

bol

Hi b0lsc0tt,

I've just had to turn the printer off and on again as it was reporting to be be offline, despite the control panel saying "Ready"

Isn't that the "solution" you mentioned in the question but seemed to have to repeat regularly?  It seemed you asked this to figure out a better way than that quick fix.  It is an odd problem I'll admit so I won't be disappointed if you said turning it off and then on this time completely fixed it (for the long term).  I just wanted to point this out in case you were just back to where you started.

bol

hi bolsc0tt... I'm just pointing out that changing the cables hasn't resolved the issue... in the sense that it has gone offline again.

What would you recommend as our next step?

Hi bolsc0tt,

I've reset the configuration and configured it with another printers IP, and given the other printer a new IP.
Will test this for a week, failing that will look into hardware upgrades.
Thanks very much for your assistance.