Printer Question

[Dave]

I have an old Epson Stylus SX445 Printer/Scanner that has been fine for many years (maybe 14 years.) There was a Windows Update on Monday. Since yesterday it started misbehaving. It was offline and yet it was online. It switched itself off and wouldn't communicate with the laptops or smartphones. Today I updated the driver, turned it on and off while the laptop was on, then reset the laptop. I used the trouble-shooter and it said nothing was wrong. However, the error message I was getting said that the SSID was wrong. I reset the WiFi and re-entered the password. The error message said that the WiFi signal was too low. It isn't too low because everything else works, even at the top of the house. So, I took the printer downstairs and put it next to the WiFi hub. Signal now was excellent. After some weird printing problems, it now works again, but I don't want to leave it there.

Is this WiFi connectivity problem a sign that it is getting too old, or is it just some glitch that probably won't happen again? I've always had more problems with printers than any other piece of tech. I've just bought ink for it so don't want to get rid of it until I've at least used that up.

 

[paranoid marvin]

You say it wouldn't communicate with your smartphones? As there won't have been an update on those, were they still recognising your printer as normal? If they weren't then it sounds like a (hopefully temporary) issue with your WIFI.

 

[Dave]

Actually I don't know if it would communicate with the smartphones or not. It switched itself off yesterday, which isn't the same thing, and I didn't try today. The driver may have been a major issue though as I think it was quite old.

 

[Foxbat]

I’m wondering if an older device needs more bandwidth than more modern devices. It might explain why it worked up close. Could you get a WiFi booster and stick that next to the printer?

 

[Dave]

Could you get a WiFi booster and stick that next to the printer?

That would probably work, thanks. I may still have one.

 

[tinkerdan]

Did you make sure your Microsoft update was complete.
What I have noticed is that if the update requires a reset and update that often the peripherals such as printers are deliberately blocked by your system until the update is completed. This can either slow down the communication or completely cut it off especially so with wi-fi and bluetooth.

 

[Dave]

Now it is working, I'm going to attempt moving it back upstairs to my man-cave, cum office, cum spare bedroom again, and see if it will work again there. Thanks. It might have been any number of reasons.