MX922 keeps going offline

[williampeck1958]

I set up the MX922 a couple of weeks ago, it's a nice printer, but it keeps going offline !!!! Why is that ? Yesterday I checked the properties and there was a checkmark beside "Use Printer Offline". How in the world it got like that is beyond me, so I unchecked it, and started printing, everything good. Now today it's offline and I can't get it to come online at all . . .  WTF ???? The property "Use Printer Offline" is UNchecked, so that's not the issue . . . It's connected via wireless. This post says you have to keep turning ther printer off and back on to wake it up . . . is that true ???? if so, that's going to make me mad(der than I already am).

So I turned it off, back on, and the printer is now "Ready" ! yea for small miracles, but then I went to print and it won't print !!! it says in the little Canon box "Another printer is using the printer . . . The following status is the usage status of that computer." . . . but there's NO "status of the other computer" .
 

So I fiddled with the print queue and it looked like the printer was going to print, then it stopped and did nothing. so I canceled the job from the print queue, tried to print again, first it says "Port is in use", then it went again to ""Another printer is using the printer".

So I shut down Computer B (Windows 7-64 bit), and tried to connect to the printer via wireless . . . it couldn't find the printer when I tried to "Add Printer". So I went through the steps to connect to the wireless router, connected !!!! It still couldn't find the printer 😞

So I plugged in the computer to a USB port, it found it right away, but won't print !!! Now it says "The printer is performing another operation" !!! WTF x 2 !!! What operation might this be ????

So I turned the printer off, back on, and the previous document that wouldn't print due to "The printer is performing another operation" printed ! Woo-hoo, I thought . . . so I tried to print again, and back to square 1: "The Printer is offline" . . . BUT the Control panel settings says that the Printer is Ready !!! ahhhhhhhhh

Now it's printing normally, but it's connected via USB.

Not exactly smooth sailing for a fancy printer . . . . sheesh . . .

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Update: I conncted the printer to PC A, which is my main computer, via USB cord. Now everything is working fine.  I set up PC B to the network, and it recognized the printer and I added the printer, but it's shared from PC A.

My conclusion is the wireless doesn't work as expected - too much goofing around and nothing controling the printer. Everything is good now, except for the wireless being a POS.

[williamauer]

Mine seems to be behaving fairly well since I went into my router settings and assigned a fixed IP address to the printer. My theory is that every time the IP address expired and the router assigned a new IP address to the printer, that's when the problems started. Now that the IP address never changes it seems to be staying on line. It's only been a few days though so it's too early to tell if this is really a long-term fix. But I'm pretty optimistic at this point.

[Tracey]

Thank you for your reply. I have just spent about two hours tinkering around with my settings to no avail. I finally completely removed the printer software from my programs and reinstalled it. Although able to print a test page, thats as far as I get. My computer shows my wifi name however the printer just refuses to acknowledge it. I am going to call Canon tomorrow to see what the problem is. I have never in all my life had to mess with a printer the way I have had to with this model. This was my first purchase of a Canon printer and most definietly my last. Not worth the hassle. Good luck with your printer, I hope it continues to work without any problems. 

[Lee333 · Accepted solution]

First, Go to Start > Devices and Printers, and make sure your printer is set to default. If not, right click and set to default. Next, Right click the printer icon and select "See What's Printing". Click on "Printer" and Deselect "Use Printer Offline".

This should fix the issue, however, the root cause is usually but not always caused by trying to print from an attachment in an email. Pop-up blockers and internet connections can sometimes interfere and cause a printer to go offline. Download the attachment first, open it and then print. You can file or trash the attachment after it prints. Hope this helps. BTW, on a related issue, adding a printer in the devices and printers window can sometimes add the generic Windows Update printer driver. It does not work well with multi-function devices. The best driver to install for all multi-function printers is the one on the installation CD or the driver posted on the driver support page of the printer manufacturer.

[williampeck1958]

Thanks ! This thread sure has legs . . . 1 year to the day from the last comment

[williamauer]

I had no end of problems with this same thing. I think I may have found the answer, it has certainly worked for me. I only have two computers on my network that share the printer, but I found out that both computers were trying to access the printer using the same port name. I uninstalled the printer from one computer and then reinstalled it, making sure to add one digit to the end of the default port name that was assigned by the printer installation program. I have had zero problems since I did this.

Hint, don't use the Windows "Add Printer" to reinstall the printer, I don't think it allows you to modify the port name. Download and use the newest printer driver from Canon instead.

[DPayne5750]

I had this problem also, and finally solved it.  The router that the wireless printer is connecting to has to sit higher than the printer.  Since I have done that the printer has always stayed connected.

[Bob4]

Nothing I tried worked until I manually set the IP address AND rebooted both printer and router.

- Find your printer's current IP address at Menu/Setup/Device Settings/LAN settings/Other settings/TCP/IP settings/IPv4/Yes/IP address/Manual setup

- Enter the IP address in your computer's browser window; this will display a page with your printer's settings. Select Network Settings. 

- Use Wireless LAN should be checked and your router's name should appear.

- Use following IPv4 address should be checked.

-  Change the IP address to a value outside the range automatically assigned by the router. If you don't know that range, change the last 3 digits to 250.

- Change the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0

- Verify that an address appears for your Router. If not, you will need to enter it.

- Click OK at the top of the page.

- Shut down the printer and router.

- Restart the router. Wait till it finishes rebooting, then restart the printer.

If this doesn't work, you may need to reinstall the printer using the new address, but I didn't.

[jduzan]

I just gave up on LAN printing and strung a USB cable   NOT what I wanted to do.  Had to download the USB driver, and it worked for a couple of days, then back to the old 'printer is offline' message.   Troubleshooter has no idea, can not find the printer connected.   Piece of junk, back to HP I  guess.

[Phrio]

My MX922 went offline after working fantasic for a few months. After some reading and trying everything else to fix it,  I realized my router was the issue, not the printer. I simply rebooted my router and my printer came back online. I guess after not being used for a certain amount of time, my router (RT-N66R) stops sending signal. Rebooting is only temporary im assuming, if i wanted to fix this problem permanetly I would have to disable that feature via router settings. Since I forgot my user and password to access my router settings, I would have to reset my router and reconfigure it. I'd rather stick to rebooting for now... hope this helps anyone

[spirestocks]

For NETGEAR, the login user is: "admin" and the pwd: "password". For other routers you may be able to look online.  The solution I discovered was going to the advanced tab [192.168.1.1/adv_index.htm] for NETGEAR routers> Setup> LAN setup and assigning the current working IP address, after printer initialization, to the MAC address and name of printer, so that the router reserves the IP address for printer and does not dynamically drop or add the printer with a new ip address which does not coincide with port and IP address that the printer was previously using.  If you do have to re-install drivers and go through process, make sure you reset the LAN settings on the printer touch screen; otherwise, the new port and ip address assignment will not take.