Snakebit Friend (Rant)

I think that means the printer is not connected to the wifi. Should be easy to make that connection again, same way it was done initially.
 
braumeister said:
I think that means the printer is not connected to the wifi. Should be easy to make that connection again, same way it was done initially.
Click to expand...

He doesn't use wifi to print. The printer is connected to the PC with a cable.
 
I vote for hardware failure for his printer but let us know!

EDIT: did you try a different USB cable?

have him bring both the cable & printer to your house for testing.
 
ncbill said:
I vote for hardware failure for his printer but let us know!

EDIT: did you try a different USB cable?

have him bring both the cable & printer to your house for testing.
Click to expand...

I was originally going to include, as part of Plan B, to have him bring only the printer to my place. But you are right - he should also bring the cable so we can test it on my printer.
 
RetiredAndLovingIt said:
I googled it, tons of people have this problem for various reasons. I'd reset the printer to factory settings and reinstall from there with the supplied CD if he has it.
Click to expand...

The factory reset, if it is as simple as just disconnecting the power cord and cables and holding the power button for 20 seconds, seems pretty easy. But I have seen other instructions which include finding and entering an IP address and signing into the maker's website, something which appears to be a major PITA. I can relay this quick reset info to SBF"s friend when he comes to his place Monday night.

I do have the CD which came with my printer (I have the same one he has, thankfully), in case I need to use it. I didn't need it when I installed my own printer because the PC itself allowed me to select it (or the PC figured it out itself). I doubt SBF can find his copy of the CD, though.
 
scrabbler1 said:
I was originally going to include, as part of Plan B, to have him bring only the printer to my place. But you are right - he should also bring the cable so we can test it on my printer.
Click to expand...


Is your snakebit friend PC running Windows?

I've used this with success:

https://mikesmagicbox.com/

Sometimes for whatever reason the print queue stops working and this programs often clears things up. May be worth giving a try.
 
Updates on SBF's printer problems.

Last Monday, his friend Bob came over and tried to fix it. He seemed to be more knowledgeable than me. He knew about the factory reset and tried it. No help.

SBF brought the printer and USB cable to my place earlier today. I hooked up his printer to my PC (my USB cable) and I tried to print something simple, a document I had just printed before he arrived. Same error. It seems his printer is telling whatever PC it is connected to that it is offline and won't print.

There is a help document in the HP website, something I didn't try last time, which mentions, among other things, the possibility of that "printer offline" message and what to do about it. That's my next move, if Bob is unsuccessful when he goes to SBF's house again Monday night.

I had some trouble printing myself after I detached his printer and reconnected my own printer. Egads, was SBF's printing problems contagious? I was able to get mine working normally after some minimal effort.

To be continued......
 
Sounds like it just needs a dose of the swaps.

Wouldn't it be easier to just buy a new printer? rather then burn up a lot of time trying to fix it?
 
My heart goes out to those with printer offline and print device problems. Sometimes it's easy - delete the bad document in the print manager, or sometimes it is awful to solve. Counld be the printer (failed), print manager, driver, port, app, who knows?

Cheap printers get recycled instead of wasting days on that.
 
More updates on SBF and his PC and printer.

I was at his place Friday morning and tried to get the printer working. I uninstalled the printer software and tried to reinstall it, only to encounter a "could not install printer software due to error." I tried this a few times, getting the same error. This made any of the "fixes" undoable because the software had to be already installed to try them out. ARRRGGHHHH! Why is this happening?

After an hour or so messing with this, I returned home. I then thought of using the original CD which came with my (identical) HP printer to install his printer. He has one, too, but has no clue as to where it is, as he got his printer 9 years ago, not long after I got mine.

But......

He called me a few hours later to tell me his PC won't power up again! This was the problem he had back in September and October. The power button simply won't work. Twice he brought it to a local repair center and they got his PC working again, without replacing any parts. But whatever they did, it didn't fix the problem long-term. I think the problem is with the power supply unit, as I have had problems with my previous PC's power supply units over the years.

So we can't do anything about the printer until the PC itself gets fixed. I suggested he bring the PC to a different repair place. He has some other friends coming to his place in the next few days to check out his PC. I won't see him this week due to Thanksgiving, so he will have to wait nearly 2 weeks before I return.

Unbelievable.......
 
I recently bought DW a nice little Lenovo Chromebook for $99 and a printer can be had for less than $100, so rather than fart around with old equipment and waste your time why not just replace both the laptop and the printer for $250 or less?

Life is to short to waste time like what your friend is doing.

P.S. DW's new Chromebook connected to our printer effortlessly.
 
pb4uski said:
I recently bought DW a nice little Lenovo Chromebook for $99 and a printer can be had for less than $100, so rather than fart around with old equipment and waste your time why not just replace both the laptop and the printer for $250 or less?

Life is to short to waste time like what your friend is doing.

P.S. DW's new Chromebook connected to our printer effortlessly.
Click to expand...

I have floated the idea of getting a new printer. He seems open to it. I think getting a new PC because his current one has a bad power supply (a fairly cheap part) is overkill.
 
But even if it only costs him only $50 to replace the bad power supply in his current PC does that really make sense if he can get a new PC during Black Friday for $100-150?
 
pb4uski said:
But even if it only costs him only $50 to replace the bad power supply in his current PC does that really make sense if he can get a new PC during Black Friday for $100-150?
Click to expand...

And, what's your time worth. If money is an issue for SBF, maybe you should just kick in a few bucks and make a new computer happen. It's not like you time is free, not to mention the aggravation. Might even get a few of his friends to kick in to help. I'm guessing everyone has had enough of this.
 
A new PC is a last resort.

Not to hijack my own thread, but for a little while today I thought I caught the snake-bit bug from my SBF. MY HP printer wasn't working today, the same printer he has. I was getting similar, but not identical error messages he was getting. Unlike him, I was able to, with some difficulty, reinstall my printer's software. But I was still getting a printer error - not the "printer offline error" SBF was getting. HP's print/scan doctor diagnostic program wasn't helping. The PC couldn't communicate with the printer, at least cleanly.

I then tried a System Restore, one of the solutions I was going to try with SBF. I chose a date just before last Friday, the last time I printed successfully. And it worked! I am printing normally again. I am soooooo relieved.

I now feel somewhat optimistic that System Restore will work for him, as long as he has a restore point before the last time he printed okay. Of course, this assumes he can get his PC working again.
 
OMG The time I wasted viewing this thread is greater than the effort and $ to buy up to the date equipment.
 
Printer Driver Fun for $50, Gene.
 
foxfirev5 said:
OMG The time I wasted viewing this thread is greater than the effort and $ to buy up to the date equipment.
Click to expand...

foxfire5: this is one of my favorite threads. Don't pick on scabbler1! It's a great story, and that's the point.
 
A couple of things...


I had a problem with my very old computer... seems an update got 'stuck' and would not complete... took it in for repair and somehow it finally 'took' and worked fine for awhile...


It now works very intermittently... I can turn it off and then back on and it will work... but a day or so later it is stuck again...


SOOO, bought a new computer... and it seemed to work for awhile... but then seemed to go into a coma instead of sleep... it would eventually wake up but you never knew when... and go into the coma again...
 
I buy a new high end Dell laptop computer every couple of years or so. I don't travel, so I have $$$$ to spend and for some reason a new computer floats my boat. I give the previous computers to Frank (after restoring the software to "like new" condition), and he gets a kick out of that. As for me, I love configuring a new computer and finding out what it can do, and how.

Perhaps that's the reason, but I never have the weird computer problems so many ER forum members have! Or maybe it's just the luck of the draw.
 
Texas Proud said:
A couple of things...


I had a problem with my very old computer... seems an update got 'stuck' and would not complete... took it in for repair and somehow it finally 'took' and worked fine for awhile...


It now works very intermittently... I can turn it off and then back on and it will work... but a day or so later it is stuck again...


SOOO, bought a new computer... and it seemed to work for awhile... but then seemed to go into a coma instead of sleep... it would eventually wake up but you never knew when... and go into the coma again...
Click to expand...

Being concerned that a recent Windows Update may have caused my printing problem (not necessarily my SBF's problem), when I was prompted to do another WU last night, I suspended all Updates for 7 days. A WU occurred after last Friday morning, when I last printed successfully, and the printing problems I had on Sunday. I am concerned that allowing WU again will add the same update which prevented me from printing. Doing the System Restore set my PC back to the day before I last printed successfully.

So I have to keep suspending WU in order to keep my printer working? Or is there a way to prevent the specific update, if I can figure out which one it is, from getting downloaded and installed?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
A Friend in need , how can I help
2 3 4
Replies
82
Views
4K
ivinsfan
ivinsfan
M
Karma? A Chilling Story
Replies
19
Views
3K
marko
M
T
Any Leap Year Babies out there?
Replies
12
Views
340
Ronstar
Ronstar
G
Renovating and selling a home out of state
Replies
21
Views
558
folivier
folivier
R
Ex Spouse Filing For Social Security Question
Replies
8
Views
843
Teacher Terry
Teacher Terry

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom