What does PRINTER OFFLINE in STATUS mean?

[news.rcn.com]

I have a feeling this is a very basic question which has been answered
hundreds of timed before but does anyone know what PRINTER OFFLINE means
under STATUS on my LaserJet working under XP on LPT1?

The print jobs show as being offline although there is nothing in the
settings which mandates this: The USE PRINTER OFFLINE line in FILE shows no
check mark and putting one in and the removing it doesn't make the job print
or make the printer do anything. Print jobs just stack up in the printer's
box and nothing prints. pressing the print button just makes it print a test
page and still nothing prints thereafter. Needless to say, restarting the
computer does nothing and nor does deleting all jobs and reprinting nor
pressing RESUME nor turning off the printer and turning it on again. And
this problem has only started in the last few weeks so it cant be anything
to do with it not being the default printer (which might also do this now
that I come to think of it). I originally thought that this was something to
do with windows having detected that the printer was out of paper but this
doesn't apply either. I did find that the memory was mysteriously set at 767
kb when there is about 4 meg of RAM in the printer but correcting this
didn't fix the problem either

 

[ftran999]

I have a feeling this is a very basic question which has been answered
hundreds of timed before but does anyone know what PRINTER OFFLINE means
under STATUS on my LaserJet working under XP on LPT1?

The print jobs show as being offline although there is nothing in the
settings which mandates this: The USE PRINTER OFFLINE line in FILE shows
no
check mark and putting one in and the removing it doesn't make the job
print
or make the printer do anything. Print jobs just stack up in the printer's
box and nothing prints. pressing the print button just makes it print a
test
page and still nothing prints thereafter. Needless to say, restarting the
computer does nothing and nor does deleting all jobs and reprinting nor
pressing RESUME nor turning off the printer and turning it on again. And
this problem has only started in the last few weeks so it cant be anything
to do with it not being the default printer (which might also do this now
that I come to think of it). I originally thought that this was something
to
do with windows having detected that the printer was out of paper but this
doesn't apply either. I did find that the memory was mysteriously set at
767
kb when there is about 4 meg of RAM in the printer but correcting this
didn't fix the problem either

Is there a light on the printer which indicates if it is online or not?
Usually steady=online, blinking=offline.
When you say "pressing the print button just makes a test print...." do you
mean pressing a button on the printer itself? Can you print a test page
from the printer configuration under Windows? Do you get any error
messages? I'm not sure if this will help, but just for the sake of it you
could try replacing the cable or trying unistalling and reinstalling the
printer.

 

[Mr. Meany]

I have a feeling this is a very basic question which has been answered
hundreds of timed before but does anyone know what PRINTER OFFLINE
means under STATUS on my LaserJet working under XP on LPT1?

8<

Hello,
Have you gone into your Printers & Faxes section in the Start Menu, and
right-clicked on your printer name in the list, and selected 'Use Printer
Online'?
It can still be the Default Printer (always is, if it's the only one
installed) without necessarily being 'Online'. But it HAS to be set to
Online, if Windows is to spool the print job to it.

hth

 

[news.rcn.com]

Baffling one, possibly caused by the LPT1 plug becoming disconnected?