Canon IPF 8400 Connection Problems

[Mary K]

I recently purchased a new Canon IPF8400 printer, and when I installed it on my Windows 7 64Bit desktop via USB 2.0 everything worked fine.  I added a few custom papers, printed profile targets and send them off to have custom profiles made, and began printing after I received the profiles. 

I added all the paper information to the Status Monitor so I could maintain a record of media/ink usage and cost after everything was set up.  I had no problems after that, and continued to easily make prints. 

Some days later, the Status Monitor quit working, so I called Canon support to see if they could help me fix the issue.  When I told them that I was connected via 15 foot USB, they told me that the cable was too long, and suggested the I connect via Ethernet.  So we uninstalled the printer driver, and reinstall the driver with the printer directly connected to the desktop via Cat 5E cable.  Sure enough, the Status Monitor started working again.  Happy ... ended the conversation with the technician.

Later that day I sent a print to the printer, but nothing happened.  I checked the printer queue, and the print was sitting there, but the printer was grayed out.  I called back tech support, and after reinstalling the printer driver a few times, the technician suggested I turn off my firewall (I use Bitdefender), and the printer showed up.  Thinking once again that the issue was cleared up, I bid my farewell to the tech support guy.

I found out how to go around the Bitdefender firewall, but the problem came back ... printer grayed out and print hung in queue.  I had several large canvas wraps to make, so I uninstalled the printer and reinstalled via USB (still no Status Monitor), made my prints, and headed to the OBX to deliver the pieces and take a little vacation.

When got back I reinstalled the printer via Ethernet, and the problem was back ... Status Monitor ok, printer grayed out!  Called Canon support, and this guy immediately told me that I should have connected to my network router, which we proceeded to do in short order.  Same result.  This time the guy had me trying all sorts of things, but nothing worked until I disabled the firewall once again (we had tried this several times), and the printer showed up.  I sent a small print to the printer, and it worked, as did the Status Monitor.  Goodby, tech guy.

I put in a roll of 44" paper and sent it a 24 x 36 print ... nothing happened.  Printer grayed out, print hung in queue, but the Status Monitor works!

I uninstalled Bitdefender, restarted the PC, checked for the printer, and it was still grayed out,  but Status Monitor was still working ...

This morning I installed the printer via USB, but left the copy that is connected via my network as well.  I have printed several prints with the USB printer, but the Status Monitor still doesn't work.  The network printer is still grayed out, and the Status Monitor works.  I can see the print info from the USB printer on the Status Monitor if I open Status Monitor with the network printer! 

This is starting to bug me.  Has anyone had this problem, and if so, have you resolved the issue?  Any suggestions?  I'd prefer not to call Canon support if I can fix this myself.

Thanks,
Mary 

[I.T. Supplies]

Mary, this is what our Canon tech told me.

I would say with the USB issue it is a cable length issue, sending data is working but receiving it back is the issue...

As far as the grayed out printer when connected to a network cable I have seen this, and specifically on windows 7/8 64bit and it is actually more of a Microsoft issue and I did find a fix that has worked out for others with a similar issue.

In windows go to devices and printers, right click on the printer and select "Printer Properties" then click on the "Ports" tab and once there click on the "Configure Port" button, at the very bottom of this screen is a check box for "SNMP Status Enabled" and by default that is checked, if you uncheck that box that should take care of the issue.

Hope this helps fix the issue.

[Mary K]

I tried the recommended fix, and the network printer continues to be grayed out, even after a restart.  But thanks for the response.  I'm thinking of changing my office around so that I can use a shorter USB cable at this point, although I dread doing that.

Mary

[enduser]

There are USB cable extenders that work.  We use one sucessfully.

[Mary K]

Well, the problem seems to be resolved at this point.

I uninstalled the printer and all related software, and I uninstalled Bitdefender.  I downloaded the latest version of Bitdefender and installed.  After disabling the Bitdefender firewall I reinstalled the printer via Ethernet connection to my router.  After turning the firewall on everything worked.

The only problem after that was that I lost all of my custom papers.  They still resided in the printer, but failed to show up in the Media Configuration Tool.  I tried to restore them to the computer by updating via the Media Configuration Tool, but that didn't work.  I called Canon support about this, and was told that there is only a one way communication, and that is from the computer to the printer.  Papers on the printer cannot be synced with the computer.  However, you can save your custom papers to a file via the Media Configuration Tool so that they can be reinstalled.

Mary