[RESOLVED] Wireless printer offline from one computer

We have a Canon MX490WS wireless printer connected wirelessly to a network with two computers. One computer is a desktop, Windows 7 Home Premium, connected to the router by cable. The other is a laptop, Dell XPS13, Windows 10, connected wirelessly.

The printer prints fine from the desktop, but displays as offline from the laptop. We get a popup when printing on the laptop, and it shows status offline in Control Panel. Shows "Printer: ready" on desktop Control Panel.

I turned the printer off and then back on and it did not resolve the problem.
Turned the router off and then back on and did not resolve the problem.
Turned everything off, then turned on router, computers, and printer, did not resolve the problem.
Went to uninstall and reinstall the printer in laptop Control Panel, but clicking on "Remove this device" produces no result.

Suggestions?

Was the laptop ever able to connect to the printer?

Have you tried re-installing the printer driver on the laptop?

Yes, sorry, should have mentioned that the laptop was printing at one time and stopped doing so.

There was a problem connecting when I first got the printer and I downloaded the current driver from Canon. I have not tried re-installing it since this cropped up, in part because I seem unable to remove the device in Control Panel. What happens if I re-install when it is already installed?

Did you try uninstalling the drivers in add/remove in control panel? I would do that first.

Did you set a static IP for the printer?

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What happens if I re-install when it is already installed?

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It is not working now, so the worst that happens is it still isn't working.

However, Midknyte's question should probably be answered first. If you have a networked printer, that printer should have been given a static IP address, otherwise if it is on DHCP, it will get another IP address at some point and then the connection will fail.

Manual:
https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/p...es/pixma-mx490


Previous thread on this issue:

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...m-one-computer

I had forgotten that earlier thread. That was another laptop running Windows 7. I did set a static IP address and never got the laptop to connect to the printer via wireless. Finally connected it via USB cable and wrote it off as "this is not the way it should be but it works."

So yes, I did set a static IP address back when I was dealing with that earlier thread, and I never unset it so it is still set. 192.168.0.254 There was then a process of "adding a printer using tcp/ip" which didn't go well and was for Windows 7. I am now using Windows 10. There was an issue with it not locating the device after I entered the IP address, saying to select the printer model from a list and the model not being in the list, and it said to check the selection "do not share this printer," but the printer does need to be shared.

What seems to be the issue is that the printer will connect when only one wifi link is involved, but not when two wifi links are involved. The computer linked to the router by cable prints, but now two different computers linked to the router via wifi report the printer as offline.

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What seems to be the issue is that the printer will connect when only one wifi link is involved, but not when two wifi links are involved. The computer linked to the router by cable prints, but now two different computers linked to the router via wifi report the printer as offline.

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It shouldn't matter how many clients are connected. Can you ping the printer from both computers?

You don't need to set a static IP on the workstations. I only said to set a static IP on the printer. You must make sure the printer's IP is outside the DHCP scope of the router.

Go over the old thread thoroughly. I'm probably going to say the same things

I went looking for the drivers on the Win10 laptop and discovered that they had disappeared, as had the installation program. Apparently when I was removing the device in CP it did remove it even though CP continued to show it as being installed. That doesn't, I think, explain why it lost the connection before I removed it, but...

I downloaded installation from Canon and it initially detected the printer and began installing it. There was one point at which it informed that the printer was not detected, but it had a "redetect" button which solved that issue and installation proceeded. It then printed the test page, and printed a document after the process was complete, so it seems we are okay.

Or maybe we're only okay until the next time it quits printing again. Anyway, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

You should be OK until the next time Windows 10 decides to helpfully "update" your driver for the printer, at which time it will probably fail again. I hope you saved the driver installation download file(s), preferably to a backup location that Windows 10 does not have access to.