C4599 installing fine -- disappeari​ng within a day or two!

Question

Hi all!  I just bought a C4599 (have been an avid HP printer lover for over 10 years) and excitedly set it up and love it but I am having a recurring problem that may force me to return it for a different printer.      I have contacted HP tech support via email and rec'd very sparse help, thus far so thought I'd try here.  I *DID* search the forum and found one problem similar to this one but it hadn't yet resolved into a solution and it was a little different (he was saying his printer continues to work fine but only his scanner disappears -- in my case the entire printer disappears).
So here's the config:
(1) C4599
(2) Toshiba laptops, both running Vista (one is my wife's, one is mine) -- though there are certainly differences between the two from personal use, I do all the updates/maintenance on them (and they are identical models) so from a hardware point of view they are identical and from a software point of view they are nearly identical (with regards to service packs, drivers, etc)
(1) fairly experienced computer guy (prior retail bench-tech, current software engineer) -- not saying I know it all, no way!  
The initial install and results:
  1)  Installed the printer via USB using my laptop, worked great -- configured printer to operate wirelessly on my LAN via DHCP
  2)  Removed USB cable and ran setup software again -- this time changing the setting to use the now wireless printer -- worked great!
  3)  Ran the software on my wife's laptop, setting the wireless printer up -- worked great!
  4)  After about a day I notice, when trying to print, the printer is no longer among my printer choices.  It's simply not there.   The HP Digital Imaging Monitor also says it's not there.
  5)  My wife's laptop shows it is connected to the printer just fine, and prints successfully.
  6)  I notice that in the NETWORK panel (on my laptop) the printer is still there -- but rebooting my laptop does nothing.
  7)  I reinstall the software on my end, printer is found -- works great!
  8)  Problem repeats several times on both of our laptops over several days.  Each time the symptoms are pretty much exactly as described above.  Each time one laptop can still use the printer, while the other can't (but don't read that to mean that never do both laptops see the printer, they DO!  Once I newly install the software on the ailing laptop, BOTH LAPTOPS CAN THEN SEE THE PRINTER -- AND USE IT!  But it's just a matter of time before one of them "loses" the printer... and sometimes both of them lose it).
  9)  I then changed the printer to a static IP that I know for sure no other device on my network will contend for (it's outside of the DHCP pool and everything else on my network is DHCP).  This did not resolve the issue, within a day or two the printer disappeared again.
 10) I emailed HP tech support and received a length document outlining how to open ports, disable security settings, etc.  While this seems helpful, it seems odd to me -- I would think that if I can see and use the printer (including scanner) with no problems for a day or two then things like closed ports and too tight security settings wouldn't be the problem -- but what do I know.
 11)  So I proceed with step 1 of the email from HP and at step 2 I am told to: 
b. Then perform the below steps to scan using Embedded Web Server.
1. Open Internet Explorer browser.
2. Type the IP address of the HP All-in-One/ print server (as taken from the
Configuration page) into your browser.
3. Press Enter.
NOTE: Java must be installed on the computer. If you are using Windows XP,
it may be necessary to obtain the latest version of Java.
4. The Embedded Web Server will appear.
5. Select Scan, which displays the following options: Image Type, Image
Format, Document Size Adjust the settings accordingly.
6. Click the Scan button.
 12)  However, after doing all of the above and getting to step 5, I see NO SCAN "button" -- in fact, nothing really says "scan".  The web server page looks nice and has areas for me to see the wireless configuration (and change it) and do a few different things and the page looks complete --- but no "scan" function can be found.  I know the scanner normally works, though, b/c I have used it successfully a few times.
After emailing the results back to HP 3 days ago and not receiving a response, I'm getting to the point of giving up -- I'm much too busy to deal with a printer that needs to be reinstalled every day or two and return periods nowdays on most computer stuff is 15 days so I'm getting ready to just take it back in a few more days.  I'm hoping you guys here can help me fix this!  (PLEASE)   
I know this is length but was trying to provide as much relevant info. as I could think of.  I appreciate any feedback that might result in this problem being fixed.
Thank You,
Bane
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Answer 1

Hi Bane,
First off, the C45xx series of printers do not have a scan feature from the printer's internal web server. Sorry about the bad advice from HP on that one -- they should know better.
Next, what firewall are you running on your laptops? I'm wondering if the network port used for device discovery is blocking the HP software access to your LAN?
When you lose the ability to print, can you still browse the printer's internal web page? Also, when you lose the ability to print, does power cycling the printer help at all?
I know you set a static IP address for the printer. Have you considered setting a DHCP reservation for both the printer and laptops so that your router always assigns the same IP address to the laptops?
Finally, what brand of wireless-router are you using? Are you using encryption?
Regards / Jim B / Wireless Enthusiasts
( While I'm an embedded wireless systems engineer at work, on this forum I do not represent my former employer, Hewlett-Packard, or my current employer, Microsoft )
+ Click the White Kudos star on the left as a way to say "thank you" for helpful posts.