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Brother printer offline problem

Tags:
  • Configuration
  • Brother
  • Printers
  • Windows 7
Last response: in Windows 7
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May 3, 2011 7:02:28 AM

Hello,
My printer Brother DCP-375CW is stating it is offline and I can't print.

More about : brother printer offline problem

May 3, 2011 7:28:30 AM

Wake it up by pressing the power button. Your PC will then find it to print to.
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June 6, 2011 2:19:20 AM

Best answer selected by milloy36.
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February 26, 2012 9:36:12 PM

I had a similar problem with my Brother MFC-5890CN printer connected to my home network. It would show its status as Offline. Sometimes it would print after a VERY long delay (20 minutes or longer) but usually I simply got printer errors.

My network consists of WinXP and Win7 Dell laptops both with wireless connections, WinVista HP and Win7 Dell desktops both with wired connections along with a Cisco-Linksys router and the Brother network printer described above.

I tried a few of the simpler solutions given in the forum postings, located a Microsoft FixIt tool for network printer problems, and even tried the built-in troubleshooting tool. Nothing solved my problem.

The problem seems to have begun when I attempted to fix a problem with slow internet access. I took some steps to identify better DNS Servers than the "Obtain DNS server address automatically" default that I was using and entered those DNS Server IP addresses in the TCP/IPv4 settings for the network interface cards for the various computers in the home (both wired and wireless).

My solution was to:
1) Use the default of "Obtain DNS server address automatically" for the network interface card TCP/IPv4 settings
2) Go into the Device Manager and under Imaging, delete all copies of the Brother printer. I happened to have four of them (that could be a contributor to my problem). While deleting those devices, I also uninstalled the printer driver.
3) Remove all copies of the Brother printer and faxes from Devices and Printers
4) Restart the PC
5) Then, reinstall the Brother printer software and follow the instructions to restart the PC.

In summary, I put everything back to the state I had before I began changing the IP addresses of the DNS Servers including a clean installation of the printer software. I don't yet know what was really causing the problem, but everything is working now.
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February 27, 2012 3:19:00 AM

Since creating the previous posting, I have put my earlier DNS server settings back into the router and that had no negative impact on my ability to print over the network. The routers settings I have now are the IP addresses of two good DNS servers and the address of my router on my home network. Everything continues to work just fine.

I suspect that the problem was my entering of DNS server IP addresses for the TCP/IPv4 settings of the network interface adaptor in each individual PC. I know that those settings alone cause a print job to be delayed by about two minutes. Earlier, I had also left out the address of my router from the router DNS server IP addresses, so I suspect that my computer could not locate the printer on my home network. The multiple imaging device entries under Device Manager was likely also causing some trouble since the PC might not know which of the four imaging devices it should use.
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August 30, 2014 11:37:17 AM

For Brother MFC 8460 N and HL 4040DN computers, they both went offline on 8/28/14, coincidentally with some Windows security updates (Windows 7). I resolved the issue by tweaking the configuration of the ports. Highlight the icon in the device window, right click, click Printer Properties, be sure the IP address appears in the Printer Name or IP field (get it from printing out your properties from the printer menu). If this doesn't resolve it, then change the Protocol from LPR to RAW. I only needed to make the change on one of our network computers, so it solves it for W7 32 bit and 64 bit OS. Good luck.
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August 31, 2014 4:11:42 PM

Dennis Vennen said:
For Brother MFC 8460 N and HL 4040DN computers, they both went offline on 8/28/14, coincidentally with some Windows security updates (Windows 7). I resolved the issue by tweaking the configuration of the ports. Highlight the icon in the device window, right click, click Printer Properties, be sure the IP address appears in the Printer Name or IP field (get it from printing out your properties from the printer menu). If this doesn't resolve it, then change the Protocol from LPR to RAW. I only needed to make the change on one of our network computers, so it solves it for W7 32 bit and 64 bit OS. Good luck.


This is exactly what happened to us! Windows did their update two days ago and I haven't been able to print since. I just tried your fix, but it didn't work. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers, rebooted everything. Nothing is working.
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September 10, 2014 2:52:03 AM

I've found a quick fix is just to restart the router. I've been told that for security purposes the ip address changes often with wireless printers and if your not constantly connected to the network your computer doesn't update with the changes. When you restart your router the IP address syncs with your computer and your back on the network again.

I also don't really understand what I just wrote but it seems legit!
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September 30, 2014 4:39:05 PM

The issue is a Windows update problem. There is a hotfix. Took me a couple of weeks to figure this one out. Brother Tech's didn't know about it. Kaspersky Tech's either.

http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2961042/en-us

hope this saves someone a bunch of time.
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October 6, 2014 10:08:22 AM

My problem is similar... I am on Windows 7, so the hotfix referenced above is not for me. I have a static IP assigned to the printer. After a period of inactivity, the printer shows as OFFLINE. I have to power cycle the printer, then the document prints without a problem. The thing is, it defeats the point of having a wireless printer if I have to get up and walk to the device before I can print anything.

Any new advice on this?
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October 6, 2014 10:28:48 AM

Michael_F said:
My problem is similar... I am on Windows 7, so the hotfix referenced above is not for me. I have a static IP assigned to the printer. After a period of inactivity, the printer shows as OFFLINE. I have to power cycle the printer, then the document prints without a problem. The thing is, it defeats the point of having a wireless printer if I have to get up and walk to the device before I can print anything.

Any new advice on this?


I spoke too soon the other day. The hotfix did not solve all the problems. After a few hours went by, the printer went offline again. The only difference now, is if we cycle the printer off /on it will print the waiting job. I am still working on a fix. The brother tech team was NO HELP!
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less than a minute ago

milloy36 said:
Hello,
My printer Brother DCP-375CW is stating it is offline and I can't print.


I have a Brother DCP-J4110DW printer. It has both a sleep mode and an Auto Power Down ' feature' which operates about an hour after the machine goes to sleep.. I had the same problem of it going offline until I discovered the Auto Power Down was set to 'On'. Changed it to 'Off', the machine goes to sleep but does not go offline, ie it wakes up and prints even after a week of inactivity.

On my printer the Auto Power Down is accessed via the touch panel on the printer. I had to find this in the Advanced Users Guide.
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