Printer not responding

[koberulz]

I'm thinking I should maybe just give up on the whole computer thing; this is ridiculous.

Went to print something a few minutes ago, and nothing happened for a while until eventually the printer popped up a dialog box on the screen saying that the printer wasn't responding.

Tried to update the drivers, and when the driver installer went to find the printer on the network, it couldn't. The printer does, however, show up under 'Printers' in the Control Panel.

It's a Canon MG5250. Pretty much brand new. Still haven't got through the set of replacement ink cartridges that came with it.

[shadowgrin]

Update drivers that immediately? Didn't bother to check loose wires or connections? The simple stuff.
An installed printer will always show under Printers even if it's not connected.

[rise]

Wireless printer?

Mine gets fucked up all the time. It sorts itself out sometimes.

[koberulz]

There can't be any loose wires, since there aren't any wires to begin with. Other than the one plugging it into the wall, obviously, but there are lights on in the front of the printer and I can fuck around with the LCD display on the printer all I like perfectly fine, so I'm guessing that's plugged in.

I also rebooted. No dice.

[shadowgrin]

Have you tried troubleshooting/maintenance check by printing a test page via the printer itself (PC not attached)? Every recent printer has a function for that, which is accessible in it's manual control panel (buttons around/in the lcd display).

[koberulz]

Found a setup thing that printed the current print head alignment. Printed fine.

[shadowgrin]

Printer prints, which is good. Trouble probably the communication between printer and PC. Cause could be (faulty) driver, weak wireless signal, gnomes in your PC, signal interference, witchraft, background program disrupting/slowing your PC from accessing the printer, NBA lockout, Obama, pedophiles attracted by your website and now hacking your PC, ants.

I also rebooted. No dice.

Both the PC and printer? Not just reboot, as in shutdown then wait for 5 seconds before turning them on again?

[koberulz]

Cause could be gnomes in your PC, witchraft, NBA lockout, Obama, pedophiles attracted by your website and now hacking your PC, ants.

I feel those can be safely discounted, at least initially.

Both the PC and printer? Not just reboot, as in shutdown then wait for 5 seconds before turning them on again?

Yes, both. No, I didn't shut down and sit on my ass for five minutes. I've done enough of that already, so I just hit the reset button.

Can't reboot right now, though, as I have video encoding. Shall try that when it's done.

[Andrew]

When you say you rebooted the printer, did you just turn it on and off again? I was having a few problems with a customer's printer the other day and what ultimately resolved them was doing a full reset: turning it off, unplugging the USB (obviously not needed here if you're running it wirelelessly), unplugging the power cable and leaving it unplugged for at least 30 seconds. Connected it back up again, all working fine.

[koberulz]

Tried that, followed by printing from a different computer. No dice.

Grabbed a USB cable, plugged it in, put in the driver disc, and installed the printer as a USB printer instead of a wireless printer. Problem Tomko'd. Which is fine for me, because my computer's in here with the printer and I managed to dig up several USB extension cables to make it reach. Less fine for my mom and brother, who can no longer print without coming in here and plugging in, which sounds easy enough until you see the mess of cables all over this desk (not to mention that most of it is actually being taken up temporarily by a VCR). I'm guessing, though, that replacing all or part of the printer is probably going to be the only way to get the Wi-Fi working again. A week after replacing my graphics card.

FML.

[Andrew]

Have you got a wireless network set up in your house? If so, you could share the printer from your PC so your mother and brother could access it that way. It means your PC would have to be on for them to access it, but that's got to be less inconvenient than them coming into the room to plug in.

[deihatein]

Have you got a wireless network set up in your house? If so, you could share the printer from your PC so your mother and brother could access it that way. It means your PC would have to be on for them to access it, but that's got to be less inconvenient than them coming into the room to plug in.

Didn't even knew about that.