Laser printer reports "Printer in use"

[iXod]

Brother HL-5170DN (ethernet connected, no wifi) will most times refuse to accept a print job, instead driver queue says
"Printer is in use".

I've reinstalled drivers, and reseated the printer's network card, swapped network cables and ports on the switch. No joy.

I recently replaced the e-net connector (one of the spring contacts had gone wonky) but it worked for months after that.

My question is: this error message by the driver, does this point to the network card or deeper workings of the printer? At what level does it report "busy"? If I disconnect the cable the driver says "Printer not found".

I can sometimes connect via HTTP to the printer and peruse settings, etc., but not when it is reported as "busy".

Thanks.

[dfmischler]

Does it show the same behavior if you connect to it via USB?  Have you tried "upgrading" (i.e. reloading) the firmware?

EDIT: Check this link.  No idea if it might work.

[iXod]

USB interface works without problems. So something e-net related, I guess.

Both ports are on the same removable comm card. When I replaced the e-net RJ45 connector I also checked ESR of the 3 electro caps. One failed test so I replaced it. The printer then worked for several months.

[CJay]

Probably just the NSA intercepting your print jobs, something must have gone wrong their end because it's usually transparent to the end user.

[Whales]

Have you tried a different computer or OS?  That would allow you to rule out drivers.

[iXod]

Have you tried a different computer or OS?

Another comp on the LAN:

"Network host [IP address] is busy. Will try again in 15 seconds" non-stop.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I think next I'll probe some points on the (e-net/USB) comm card. Something is wonky there I think. Might be the caps I didn't replace last time (see above).

[kfitch42]

When the printer is "busy," does it respond to ping? Does it respond to ping when not busy? Are the PC and printer connected to the same switch? Is the printer in the arp cache ( http://www.computerhope.com/arphlp.htm ) when it is busy? When busy, try deleting the printer from the arp cache (assuming it is in there) and see if it reappears in the arp cache after a ping attempt. Does clearing the arp cache change the behaviour?

My next step would be to run wireshark on the computer where you are requesting the print job. This might give some insight into what is going on. Ideally I would try it in at least 3 configurations:

1) Printer disconnected. You should probably see something like an ICMP Host not reachable packet coming from the router.

2) Printer is "busy." Here is the interesting point, do any packets come back from the printer? Does it even establish a TCP connection?

3) Printer is working. Should be a whole bunch of data going to the printer. And maybe some coming back, at least TCP acks, but probably a bit of real data too.

Basically, if packets are coming back from the printer when it is "busy", then it is unlikely to be an ethernet hardware problem. If the printer is completely silent when "busy" then maybe the ethernet is flaky.  My first guess is that this is more of a software issue, but hardware isn't ruled out yet.

[CJay]

Brother HL-5170DN (ethernet connected, no wifi) will most times refuse to accept a print job, instead driver queue says
"Printer is in use".

I've reinstalled drivers, and reseated the printer's network card, swapped network cables and ports on the switch. No joy.

I recently replaced the e-net connector (one of the spring contacts had gone wonky) but it worked for months after that.

My question is: this error message by the driver, does this point to the network card or deeper workings of the printer? At what level does it report "busy"? If I disconnect the cable the driver says "Printer not found".

I can sometimes connect via HTTP to the printer and peruse settings, etc., but not when it is reported as "busy".

Thanks.

First port of call, print a config page from the printer when it's working and when it's not.

Compare the two.

Second port of call, set up a ping -t to the printer IP, watch it and try to provoke the fault if it's not present.

Third, factory reset the printer.

Repeat the above and report back.