SOLVED Canon MG6860 Stops Printing

[Andrew Varley]

Hi All

I have an intriguing problem.

My brother has a one year old HP 27” All-in-one, and his wife a new HP 15” laptop, both running OEM Windows 10, not upgrades. They were using a Canon MG6860 printer, all connected wirelessly via a Linksys modem/router.

About 10 days ago, after working flawlessly for the previous 7 months, suddenly the desktop will only print about 20% of a page, pause for a few seconds and then the partly printed page comes out. If it was a 3 page doc, then one partial page and two blanks.
The print job stays in the print queue, no error message of any kind, on PC or printer
The laptop sees the printer as ready, but either has the same problem or gets a printer not found after a long delay.

No overlapping print jobs from other devices.

Meanwhile ALL the Apple devices, 2 iPads, 2 iPhones on the same wireless network can print everything.

Initially I thought it was the printer, called Canon, got a very helpful tech called Francis.
Over a few phone calls we upgraded software & drivers, re-installed printer and all software on both computers, twice on the PC, reset the printer to factory default, reset wireless on printer many times and checked Printer Firmware was up to date.
Going to the IP address of the printer which produces a status page for the printer, worked about 10% of the time. But most times, produced a blank page. When it did work it gave a Signal Strength of 73% and Link Quality of 62%.
If someone from Canon reads this, Job No: 00503980.


OK, maybe the Router is the problem, it is old, maybe tired.
Purchased a new TPLink modem/router, middle of the range, set it up, reconnected everything, STILL not working. Returned that modem and swapped it for a powerful TPLink dual band, set it up, STILL not working.
I am convinced it is a faulty printer, returned the printer to retailer with case number for testing.
At the same time my bother went out and purchased a new Canon MX926, which I installed yesterday, EXACTLY the same problem.


I have eliminated the printer, the router, the computer and don’t forget it all worked for 7 months since the printer was bought and all Apple device print to both printers

A very smart IT gentleman I know had a suggestion, is it possible this was caused by one of the many recent Windows 10 updates. Patch Tuesday, 14 March 2017

I rang Microsoft and explained my suspicions, asking if anyone had an idea which update may have caused it, because I will happily uninstall it.

I had an hour long conversation with a young lady, who kept leaving me on hold, to finally come up with;

There is nothing in our Knowledge Base about this and both printers are not compatible with Windows 10. (Canon has specific Windows 10 drivers for both), I suggested this may be a new problem, but she wasn’t interested. If someone from Microsoft reads this Case No: 1379923550



I am at a loss at the moment, any suggestions.

One thing I haven’t tried is a Window 7 or 8 computer, will do.



Thank You

Andrew

 

[Ian]

Welcome to the forums Andrew .

You've done the right thing - via a thorough process of elimination, it looks like the problem may indeed be with Windows 10 or the related drivers. Hopefully if you check back with Canon in a couple of weeks, they'll have had further reports with that same printer.

Are you using the official drivers from the Canon website for your printer, or the ones that Windows auto-detects? It may be worth switching things around and try the other one - for example, if you're using the official drivers from the Canon site, try uninstalling them (first in Device Manger > Printer Properties > Driver > Uninstall, then via Settings > Apps > Uninstall) and let Windows auto-detect the MS certified drivers.

Are you able to connect the printer via USB to your PC and see if it works that way?

 

[Trouble]

The last time this happened to me, it was because the installed printer was using one of those mystery Windows Printer Ports that Windows seems to like to use.
I've found that in a lot of instances, the Windows Printer Ports or those installed as part of the proprietary printer software / driver packages are not always optimal.
What I did to resolve it was add a Standard TCP/IP printer port using the IP address of the printer.
On some printers it may be necessary to add one additional configuration item to the TCP/IP port. Switching the port configuration from RAW to LPR and adding a port name of PORT1 or something of your choosing.
There is a walk through here
http://www.tp-link.com/us/faq-929.html
Which may help, although you don't have to go through the whole add a printer thing, just to add a new TCP/IP port. You can add it from the already installed printer properties page from the port tab.
You will need to know the actual address the printer is currently using, which you should be able to get by manually printing a printer configuration page or a printer network configuration page.

Then you should probably go to the printers browser page (IP Address) with your browser and set the IP address statically so it doesn't use DHCP and change it on you and then.....
Go into your router's DHCP configuration and exclude that address from being handed out through DHCP.

 

[Andrew Varley]

Thanks Trouble
That is a good idea to give the printer a static IP, well above any that could be used by other devices

Thank Ian
I have no doubts that the printer will work perfectly with USB or ethernet, but in this situation, it has to work Wireleessly due to the problem, there is only one point where the modem can connect with a line shared with an alarm.

 

[Andrew Varley]

I owe Microsoft an apology
Not caused by an update,
No updates installed since the probblem started
I put in an Netgear AC1200 Dual Bandmodem router and gave printer a static IP.
Signal Strength and Link Quality have improved
Moved some devices to the 5ghz, printer and some devices on 2.4ghz.
Now main Desktop is printing, all apple devices are printing and laptop is still having problems, but works if moved closer to the modem.
Why the two TPLinik modems didn't give any change is a mystery.
Thanks for your assistance
Andrew