Question/help with computer (laptop)/printer...

[one_voice]

I'm an idiot when it comes to tech stuff. Yesterday, out of the blue my printer started going offline. I got it back on last night--well my husband did--and it's off again today. I googled but some of the things they said to do I couldn't...for instance changing my port. I couldn't because the "port button" wasn't clickable.

I have a HP Laserjet 3055...any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

edited to change subject line.

[REP]

1. You might have to reinstall the driver for it

Either go to HP's website or Google "HP laserjet 3055 driver (operating system goes here)".

[one_voice]

2. Thanks...

I'll give it a try.

[HopeHoops]

3. Unplug the power cable from the printer and do a full shutdown on the laptop.

Restart both and try again. Sometimes the memory just gets "stoned" or something and there's no explanation for it. If that doesn't work, they yeah, reinstall the driver. Always try the simple solution first.

On Edit: There is a "Computer Help and Support" group. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1095 I'm a host of the group and check it regularly, as do many others. You'll get all kind of conflicting advice in there, but something someone posts is generally the solution.

[one_voice]

4. Thanks...

I wasn't sure if it would be seen in the Computer help forum. So just download/reinstall a new driver. Great..I'll probably screw that up. But I'll give it a try...

[HopeHoops]

5. NO NO! DO the power down and restart first - much easier and it might fix it.

[one_voice]

6. I did that earlier...

I powered everything down and rebooted...it came back and then went offline again. Just tried again, same thing happened, came back ready, printed a test page and it went offline.

[HopeHoops]

8. Well, go for the driver then.

[one_voice]

9. I don't know if this matters...

but the computer that won't print is my laptop. It's a wireless connection to the printer. The "main" computer, prints fine.

[HopeHoops]

10. That pretty much rules out the printer as the problem.

Have you tried a direct USB cable laptop-printer? It will probably treat it as a second printer (putting a 2 after the name), but if you can print by USB then something in the driver settings may be what's screwed up.

[one_voice]

12. Thanks I will try that next..

appreciate all your help!

[HopeHoops]

13. Yeah, but remember the post about checking the "work offline" box.

If that box is checked, your documents will just back up forever.

[one_voice]

15. I responded to that post...

see down thread. When I try and print I get a message that says and unknown error occurred. I hate being tech illiterate, every time I think I'm doing ok, something like this happens.

[HopeHoops]

16. "An unknown error occurred" - OH yeah, now THAT'S descriptive!!!

Don't you love computers.

Solution: "Find the error and correct it"

You aren't illiterate. That shit happens to everybody. I've been working with the things since the late 70's and I'm STILL confounded by things like this. I can usually figure it out, but it takes a lot of time and testing in some cases.

[one_voice]

17. LOL...that's what I thought...

an error message with a number or something would be helpful. I can usually google that and figure it out from there. One time my whole system crashed and I got it up and running again, without any help. I read the books, I went on another computer and looked stuff up...took my all night long but I did it. I was so proud of myself, then this..a printer won't print and I can't figure it out. LOL...ain't life grand.

[Old and In the Way]

7. When you go to print, a printer icon should appear in the start menu.

If you double-click (left button), it should bring up a printer window utility. If you check the menu, you should see find a command that will show the "printer offline" checkmarked. Uncheckmark this and it should run. It might be right click on the printer icon, so check it that way as well. Not sure why the printer would default to offline mode - there should be a way to change this in the printer default settings...maybe under the Control panel/Printer menu?

[HopeHoops]

11. Good point. My wife's laptop does that (reason unknown) but others don't.

[one_voice]

14. Not sure if I'm looking in the...

wrong place, but I clicked on printer, and then right clicked don't see where I can uncheckmark this. I can see where it says offline..but no place to uncheckmark. I'm sorry if I seem dense...

[Old and In the Way]

18. Where it says 'offline'...is it in a drop down menu or someplace else?

if it's in the menu, try clicking on that menu item...it may change to 'online'.

[Old and In the Way]

19. I see that you are printing via wireless....

When you click on the document/print menu, you have an option to tell it what device to use to print. Does your printer show up as an option? In my printer options, I can print to a .pdf file, a fax, a Windows XPS document, or my HP 2600 printer. That printer is available through an IP assignment on the wireless network. If you don't have the printer showing in the options, I think you'll need to add the printer via the Control panel option on your laptop. If it shows it, but it is faded out, I think you need right click on the icon and turn it on or follow the instructions if you get an error message.