Printer goes offline as soon as it receives a new print job

Question

Printer goes offline as soon as it receives a new print job

My Brother HL-1440 printer is behaving badly. When I send a print job to the printer, it immediately goes offline after receiving the job.I have to turn the printer off and back on to bring it back online to print the job. If I send another job to printer immediately, it immediately goes offline again when it receives the new job.

I've tried deleting the printer from the Print & Fax preferences and reinstalling the printer driver. This does not fix the problem.

Another misbehavior: If I unplug the USB connection to the printer and reconnect it, the printer driver is reinstalled so that I have multiple copies of the printer driver in the Print & Fax preferences.

Update: After again reinstalling the driver and deleting the original driver today, the printer is behaving--three print jobs without fail. This has happened before many times over the last several months, and I'm certain that the problem will return again. It seems the driver is getting corrupted.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Aug 18, 2012 7:14 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,658 points

Aug 18, 2012 7:48 AM in response to Fred L Johnson

System Preferences - Print & Fax - right click the printer in the box on the left and choose Reset Printing System.... It will look similar to:

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Answer 2

Aug 18, 2012 9:57 AM in response to rkaufmann87

As soon as the printer goes offline again, I'll try this. Can you tell me what "resetting" the printer system actually does?

Update: The printer just failed again no more than two hours after I last used it. (My wife has a separate account on this computer and was using the computer in the meantime, but did not use the printer.)

I "reset" the printer system which deleted all the printer drivers. My Canon inkjet printer driver apparently reinstalled itself when I turned the Canon printer on. The Brother printer, which was never turned off, doesn't show up on the Print & Fax list of printers, unlike the Canon printer, which installed itself. I turned off the Brother printer and turned it on again. It still doesn't sho up as an installed printer, so I press the "+" button to install it and the Add printer window opens. The Brother printer isn't there. I turn off the Brother printer and turn it back on again. Now, the Brother printer appears on the Add Printer window, so I can selectd it and add it to the Print & Fax list.

The reset really did nothing more than what I've had to do in the past.

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Answer 3

Aug 25, 2012 4:16 AM in response to Fred L Johnson

For no apparent reason, the printer driver problem has disappeared (for now). I haven't restarted the computer, and I haven't done anything that I am aware of that would have changed the communication between the computer and the printer. The problem just went away.

Does that provide any clue as to the cause of the problem?

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Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,658 points

Aug 25, 2012 6:38 AM in response to Fred L Johnson

Good.

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Answer 5

Aug 26, 2012 3:11 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Printer was offline or went offline today when I printed a calendar. The problem disappeared for less than 24 hours and now it's back.

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Answer 6

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,658 points

Aug 26, 2012 7:33 AM in response to Fred L Johnson

Have you tried another USB cable, they can and do fail on occasion, if you haven't then try this first. If you still have the same problem then go onto the next step.

Uninstall the printer completely, if you use Brother's software for printing or their drivers then follow Brother's instruction for uninstalling and DO NOT re-install their software. If you are simply using Apple's drivers (recommended) then highlight the printer and click the - symbol below it, you will see that in the graphic from my first post. After the printer is uninstalled physically disconnect it and turn it off and unplug it. Then restart your computer in Safe Mode and then also do a iMac SMC and PRAM reset. Then connect the USB cable to the printer, turn it on and your iMac should discover it.

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Answer 7

Aug 26, 2012 1:16 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Thank you for guiding me through this process. I have not tried a new USB cable yet, but I went ahead reset the printing system, which removed all the printers. I then shut down, removed the power cord from the computer, removed all peripherals, and shut off the printer. I restarted in Safe Mode. I then connected the mouse and keyboard and restarted the computer simultaneously resetting the PRAM. I then reconnected the USB cable to the printer and the other periperals and turned on the power to the printer. The printer driver was reinstalled and the first job printed correctly.

If the problem returns, I will try a different USB cable.

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Answer 8

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,658 points

Aug 26, 2012 2:10 PM in response to Fred L Johnson

It should be fine going forward, you simply reinstalled so it should be OK.

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