HP Officejet printer keeps going offline only on Windows 10

phrab · 28 Mar 2019

I have 2 printers (Epson & HP Officejet) & 2 computers (Windows 10 & Windows XP). Every time I reboot my Win10 machine (& sometimes even if I don't reboot), my HP printer goes offline, but just on my Win10 machine. I have no problem with it working on my WinXP machine. And the Epson always is available on both machines.

I can reconnect the HP printer by unplugging the printer & plugging it in again, but this happens almost daily & is very annoying. I also notice that in Windows XP, when I right click a printer shortcut, the context menu has an option to "use printer offline" or "use printer online". No such option appears when I right click a printer shortcut on my Win10 machine.

The only thing I notice different is that my HP printer is connected via ethernet to Win10 (but I think also through WiFi) but my WinXP machine accesses the HP printer only through WiFi (image attached).Is there a network or printer setting that I'm overlooking that keeps causing this problem?

Thank you in advance,

HP Officejet printer keeps going offline only on Windows 10-network-connections.png

Caledon Ken · 31 Mar 2019

Hi phrab

There should be a Power Management tab in the properties of your network adapter. You could remove the check mark - Allow the computer to turn this device off to save power.

Do you ever use your wi-fi adapter on this device? If not i would shut it off and test.

I don't understand your screen shot. It appears you have an Intel nic connected with a LAN cable, then another nic, Killer e2400 Gigabit. Are there actually two cables? Do you get the same screen shot right after unplugging and plugging in Printer.

When I searched e2400 I see it has options, have you investigated its setting.

DoubleShot Pro – Killer’s DoubleShot Pro Technology which allows you to use WiFi and Ethernet at the same time – even on different networks. Killer gives you the power to choose which apps go over Ethernet and which go over Wireless.

I wondering if it is "deciding" how the printer should be connected.

phrab · 31 Mar 2019

Caledon Ken said:

Hi phrab

There should be a Power Management tab in the properties of your network adapter. You could remove the check mark - Allow the computer to turn this device off to save power.

Do you ever use your wi-fi adapter on this device? If not i would shut it off and test.

I don't understand your screen shot. It appears you have an Intel nic connected with a LAN cable, then another nic, Killer e2400 Gigabit. Are there actually two cables? Do you get the same screen shot right after unplugging and plugging in Printer.

When I searched e2400 I see it has options, have you investigated its setting.

DoubleShot Pro – Killer’s DoubleShot Pro Technology which allows you to use WiFi and Ethernet at the same time – even on different networks. Killer gives you the power to choose which apps go over Ethernet and which go over Wireless.

I wondering if it is "deciding" how the printer should be connected.

Thank you for your response & sorry for the delay in responding, but in order to check things, I had to crawl under my desk to see what chords connected to what. I'll start by saying that I know almost nothing about networking & connections, but I'll try to answer your questions.

You said to go to the power management tab in the properties of the network adapter. However, I don't know how to find that. When I double clicked on the Wi-Fi icon & went to Sharing, this is the image that I got:

HP Officejet printer keeps going offline only on Windows 10-wi-fi-properties_sharing.png

As far as using the network adapter, I don't know if it's being used. I do know that Wi-Fi is being used for many other devices in the house. It's also used for the Epson printer because that's in a different room. My HP printer is connected via USB to my WinXP machine...there are no direct wired connections from the HP printer to my Win10 machine, so it must be by Wi-Fi.

I have cable internet provider. There are 2 ethernet cables coming out of my router, one to each computer. If I unplug the ethernet cable that goes into Win10, all 3 icons in the image I originally posted have a red X. I got a message that it lost the connection to WinXP. When I unplug the ethernet cable that goes into WinXP, I also lose connection between the 2 computers, although the printers are still online. Does this mean that my two computers, which are right next to each other are actually connected by ethernet cable though the router, & not by Wi-Fi? It took me quite some time to get the 2 computers to recognize each other; @Brink helped me at Turn On or Off Network Discovery in Windows 10 | Tutorials

Correction: I again unplugged the ethernet cable that goes into Win10. This time, the left most icon in that image had a red X, BUT the Wi-Fi icon (the Rabichow-2.4G) one on the right doesn't have the red X. When I double click that icon though, it says that I'm NOT connected to the internet. Also, my WinXP machine doesn't show up on my network & both printers are offline. Plugging the ethernet cable back in corrected both problems.

As far as the Killer Network is concerned, I don't know how to really access it. This is what I see when I double click the Killer icon in the system tray, go to Settings & try to update the speed.

HP Officejet printer keeps going offline only on Windows 10-killer-network-manager-settings.png

I apologize for rambling, but I'm very confused about networking. I hope I've answered your questions & that you're able to help me figure this out. Thank you very much for your time & expertise!

Caledon Ken · 01 Apr 2019

Well I'm glad you did the investigation.

Think of your router as the hub of a wheel. You said you have two ethernet cables coming out from device, these are spokes. The router is also providing wireless connections to several devices. So we have this hub with several spokes coming out of it. Any device can talk to any other device, if allowed, through the hub(router).

So yes your two computers are communicating to one another through the ethernet cable. When the Windows 10 machine wants to talk to the HP printer it likely sends the information to the router on the ethernet cable and then the router sends the information on to the HP printer wirelessly. It could be sharing through through XP machine or it could be direct wireless.

The Epson printer is strictly wireless and is located in another room. You said both devices can access it always. So both communicate to router and router connects wirelessly to Epson.

If you shut off XP machine can the Windows 10 machine print to HP printer? (This answers question is HP printer being shared from XP box)

Lets disable the power management function in the Windows 10 machine as I first suggested.

Right click Start (lower left), then left click Device Manager, the Device manager opens. Scroll down if necessary to the Network adapter section and expand it.

You should see two or three adapters, one for wireless and one for wired. You might have two for wired as you have that Killer network. Yours will be different than mine.

HP Officejet printer keeps going offline only on Windows 10-image.png

Right click one of the adapters, then left click properties, then left click power management tab, then uncheck "Allow the computer to turn this device off to save power"

You have to do this to each of the two adapter (maybe three in your case).

Please answer the XP question above, that is if XP device is shut off can Win 10 print to HP? As well what Epson Printer and what HP printer do you have have?

Helmut · 01 Apr 2019

It's a mess of connections and needs sorting out.

Your HP Printer seems to have everything connected Wired Network, Wireless Network, WiFi Direct and USB, no wonder it is confused as it can only use one of those at any one time.

Assuming your Router is also the Wireless Access Point, the name gives the purpose.

Your 2 PCs connect ethernet cables to the Router 2 ports.

Then connect the two Printers to the Router/WAP either by Ethernet Wired port or Wireless depending on the Printers specs.

Forget about USB and WiFi Direct.

phrab · 01 Apr 2019

Caledon Ken said:

Well I'm glad you did the investigation.

Think of your router as the hub of a wheel. You said you have two ethernet cables coming out from device, these are spokes. The router is also providing wireless connections to several devices. So we have this hub with several spokes coming out of it. Any device can talk to any other device, if allowed, through the hub(router).

So yes your two computers are communicating to one another through the ethernet cable. When the Windows 10 machine wants to talk to the HP printer it likely sends the information to the router on the ethernet cable and then the router sends the information on to the HP printer wirelessly. It could be sharing through through XP machine or it could be direct wireless.

The Epson printer is strictly wireless and is located in another room. You said both devices can access it always. So both communicate to router and router connects wirelessly to Epson.

If you shut off XP machine can the Windows 10 machine print to HP printer? (This answers question is HP printer being shared from XP box)

Lets disable the power management function in the Windows 10 machine as I first suggested.

Right click Start (lower left), then left click Device Manager, the Device manager opens. Scroll down if necessary to the Network adapter section and expand it.

You should see two or three adapters, one for wireless and one for wired. You might have two for wired as you have that Killer network. Yours will be different than mine.

Right click one of the adapters, then left click properties, then left click power management tab, then uncheck "Allow the computer to turn this device off to save power"

You have to do this to each of the two adapter (maybe three in your case).

Please answer the XP question above, that is if XP device is shut off can Win 10 print to HP? As well what Epson Printer and what HP printer do you have have?

Thanks so much for sticking with me on this. To answer your questions:
1) My printers are HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 & Epson Workforce-3620.
2) I shut off the WinXP machine & could still print from both printers on the Windows 10 machine.
3) I went to the Device Manager/Network Adapters & unchecked the box on the Power Management tab for the first 2 adapters in the picture below (Intel & Killer).

HP Officejet printer keeps going offline only on Windows 10-device-manager_network-adapters.png

When I rebooted Windows XP, I went to Devices & Printers. The Epson printer was ready, but the HP printer was offline on the WinXP machine. However, all I had to do was right click the printer & choose "Use printer online" & the HP printer was available on my Win XP machine.

At this point, both printers are available on both machines (which is usually the case). If that changes, I'll post back. If you have any other advice, please let me know.
Thank you again!

Spoke too soon! I just rebooted Win10. After I saw the desktop again, a notice flashed briefly "could not connect all network drives". Then the message disappeared. When I checked Devices & Printers, the HP printer was offline. Unplugging, waiting, & then plugging the printer in again corrected the problem, but this was the issue that I was having to begin with.

phrab · 01 Apr 2019

Helmut said:

It's a mess of connections and needs sorting out.

Your HP Printer seems to have everything connected Wired Network, Wireless Network, WiFi Direct and USB, no wonder it is confused as it can only use one of those at any one time.

Assuming your Router is also the Wireless Access Point, the name gives the purpose.

Your 2 PCs connect ethernet cables to the Router 2 ports.

Then connect the two Printers to the Router/WAP either by Ethernet Wired port or Wireless depending on the Printers specs.

Forget about USB and WiFi Direct.

Hi @Helmut:
Thank you for responding. I can't connect either printer directly to the Router/WAP by ethernet, as there is no more room on the router & neither printer is close enough.

I am not sure how to change the connection on the HP printer. I'm a little worried about losing whatever connection that I have. How would I go about doing this?

Caledon Ken · 01 Apr 2019

Okay. Progress.

Are you using wireless for anything on Windows 10? Wireless or bluetooth? If not I think I would turn "On" Airplane mode.

Left click on your network icon in Notification area (systray). At the bottom you can click on Airplane Mode which shuts off bluetooth and Wireless. (Box becomes blue) That or you can click on the blue Wireless box to shut it off. Easy to reverse. Note what you did so you can undo.

Lets see if we see anything when we look at how Windows 10 sees HP printer.

Start > Settings > Devices > Printers & Scanners > click on your printer > click Manage > Click Printer Properties > click on Port tab

You may have to expand first column a little to get address. Screen shot and post. (Please check no personal data in screen shot).

Can I ask did you set your printer up as a static IP or did you reserve an IP address in router for the printer?

phrab · 01 Apr 2019

Caledon Ken said:

Okay. Progress.

Are you using wireless for anything on Windows 10? Wireless or bluetooth? If not I think I would turn "On" Airplane mode.

Left click on your network icon in Notification area (systray). At the bottom you can click on Airplane Mode which shuts off bluetooth and Wireless. (Box becomes blue) That or you can click on the blue Wireless box to shut it off. Easy to reverse. Note what you did so you can undo.

Lets see if we see anything when we look at how Windows 10 sees HP printer.

Start > Settings > Devices > Printers & Scanners > click on your printer > click Manage > Click Printer Properties > click on Port tab

You may have to expand first column a little to get address. Screen shot and post. (Please check no personal data in screen shot).

Can I ask did you set your printer up as a static IP or did you reserve an IP address in router for the printer?

Thank you again. Here are the answers to your questions:

I put Win10 on airplane mode. While I haven't tried printing anything, when I go to Devices & Printers, click on either one of my printers, they show "Status: 0 Documents in Queue". So they both work (otherwise they saw "offline"). Also, I can still copy files from XP to 10 & vice versa, so it appears that Windows 10 isn't using bluetooth or wireless. I turned airplane mode off again, as it doesn't seem to affect anything.

To set up the printer, I went to Devices & Printers & added the printer. It was a long time ago, so I don't recall all the steps. However, I did write down the following steps:

1. Press the wireless icon on the printer to get the IP address.
2. Go to Devices & Printers & select the printer.
3. Go to Printer Properties/Ports tab & use a standard TCP/IP Port
4. Configure the port & put in the IP address of the printer in both the name & IP Address box.
5. The SNMP status is enabled.
I've posted an image below, as you requested. I blacked out the IP address, but they both match each other & the printer.

HP Officejet printer keeps going offline only on Windows 10-printer_configure-port.png

As far as I can recall, the printer is set up with a static IP address, because it's always the same as shown in the image.

Additional: Although I turned on airplane mode, if I click the Network icon at the bottom of the Action tab, it shows that I'm connected to one of my wi-fi networks.

Caledon Ken · 01 Apr 2019

I would disable wifi. We are trying to ensure it, Win 10, has one path to network.

Not the screen shot I was expecting. The internal IP addresses are really not personal, just wanted to ensure you didn't have a name in printer or something.

I must admit I've never added a printer in this manner. Not saying it is wrong. Just I've never done it that way.

I either set the IP address on printer or reserve it in router. I then go to devices, printers and scanners, add a printer.

With the printers all working as they currently are, and wifi off, could you reproduce the screen shot in your first post.

If you follow the path I laid out to get screen shot of ports do you get this?