[RESOLVED] WINDOWS 11 & WIRELESS PRINTER PROBLEM.

I had recently upgraded windows 10 to windows 11. That was several days ago. I have a Brother wireless laser printer. I had printed a couple of pages including a test page since the win.11 upgrade.
This morning , I was at my desk, browsing some of my files when all of a sudden, the Brother printer took off printing some garbled text at the top of each page. I could not stop it. I had to let it run out of paper in order to stop it.
I shut down the computer, reloaded the printer, powered up the PC & made desktop shortcuts of the printer. Meanwhile, the printer took off again doing the same thing. I could not control it with the shortcut tools. I now have a remote controlled power switch to turn it off till I can find a way to fix the problem. Every time I reload the paper, the printer runs till it runs out of paper. Any suggestions PLEASE ??

In the bottom right of your screen is the systray..... Look there to see if you see the printer. If found open it and try to CANCEL any print jobs that are waiting.

Been there, done that. There was one there with win 10 but not win 11. The printer will not accept any commands whatsoever. I went on-line to get a firmware update, only to find that they require a password to obtain such. There's a PW stamped on the back side of the printer, but it keeps getting rejected. I'm gonna try see if I can speak with a Brother agent.

How to cancel print jobs in Windows 11:

https://www.guidingtech.com/top-ways...in-windows-11/

https://www.digitbin.com/fix-clear-p...in-windows-11/

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/cancel...dows-11.11915/

If there are no print jobs showing, then that would not be the cause of the issue. Try the following:
Power off the printer.
Power up the computer and remove the printer driver.
Shut down the computer.
Power up the printer. See if the printer starts spitting out paper. If it does, take it off-line and remove the paper.
If the printer is not printing junk, power up the computer. See if the printer starts printing.
Post the results of the testing.

Finally got the printer problem resolved. With a Brother tech on the phone, it took about 4 hours. Some things still remain a mystery however. In the past, the printer has always worked on my wifi while my pc was hardwired to the modem. But after having to do a factory reset as a last resort, the printer will only work with both pc & printer having the same IP address. In a way, that seems to make sense, but it had been working for at least a year when using Windows 10 & the earlier setup.

Apparently, (just a hunch) the printer was picking up a ghost signal showing " Receiving Data" on its monitoring screen, till a factory reset resolved it. When it was on my wifi, I was able to access the printer anywhere in the house. Now, I'm not so sure. Anyway, thanks to all for your input. Appreciated !!

When I set up network printers, wired or wireless, I always assign a fixed IP address to them to prevent loss of connectivity. I make sure that the assigned IP address (or address range for multiple printers) is not part of the range that is being used for the DHCP Server service that assigns IP addresses to other network devices.

If the printer was showing "Receiving Data", and the IP address was changed, it may have been receiving data intended for a different device that now had the IP address formerly used by the printer.

Possibly useful links:

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/use-...ers-57587.html

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/h...tic-ip-address

https://www.online-tech-tips.com/com...etwork-device/

https://www.technology-solved.com/ho...for-a-printer/

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+...t=gws-wiz#ip=1

Thanks jdc, for the listed websites. I will capture each & store for future use. Over the years, I have gotten away from networking & also have lost track of the various methods involving same.
A lot of the things I used to do associated with computing, have slipped away from me, memory wise. I try to take care of my wife's (she handicap) as well as my own pc's in theses declining years
and it does take extra effort in trying to resolve issues that erupt. Thanks to you guys that can still keep up with the changing times, & give us a boost sometimes. :))