HP Laser stopped connection to iMac

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Level 1

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HP Laser stopped connection to iMac

I have been printing from my old workhorse HP LaserJet 4000TN for years using Sierra on my late 2012 iMac. Yesterday I just stopped being able to print from it. The iMac and the printer are both wired in to a modem. At first when the problem occurred, the printer was still showing as connected in the Printers and Scanners window as the default printer but when I tried to print, it was unable to connect to the printer. I reset the printing system and the printer disappeared in the window. When I tried to add it again, the HP was not recognized. I tried to add it with the printer's IP address, the HP Jetdirect_Socket protocol and the HP LaserJet 4000 software, but it says it is unable to connect to the IP address ‘169.254.186.202’ due to an error. I tried using the Internet Printing protocol also, and the error message still comes up. I have done all the usual unplugging (modem, printer iMac) and rebooting, I have cold started the printer and manually reconfigured the printer with the old IP address, but no luck. My computer internet connection is wifi through the modem. Do I need to also use ethernet connection for the printer? I don't recall if I had that turned on when the printer was working. The only reason I can think of for this happening is that my internet service provider was for down for several hours yesterday. Would that have caused some setting to change? Advice please?

Posted on Feb 11, 2022 5:14 PM

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Answer 1

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Jan Hedlund

Level 7

22,303 points

Feb 12, 2022 4:08 AM in response to 2bdesign

Hi,

The 169.254.x.x appears to be a self-assigned address. When you say "The iMac and the printer are both wired in to a modem.", I assume that you mean that the printer and the computer are both connected by Ethernet to LAN ports of a router (perhaps combined with a modem). In this case, one would have expected something like 192.168.x.x.

You said "My computer internet connection is wifi through the modem." This should be OK per se, but is not the same as above.

You also said "Do I need to also use ethernet connection for the printer?". Is this not what you have already?

Please clarify.

To begin with, you may want to try the following procedure in the exact order:

Power off the router/modem, the printer, the iMac, and all other devices/computers. Wait two to three minutes. Power on the router/modem. Wait two to three minutes. Power on the printer. Wait a minute or two. Power on the iMac. Finally, power on all other devices/computers.

It may help if you could provide information about the modem/router make and model (please do not post information about serial numbers or access codes).

Reset the Mac printing system to solve a problem – Apple Support (UK)

Add a printer on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

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HP Laser stopped connection to iMac

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