HP OfficeJet Pro 8500A looses network connectivity

Question

Hello community,
Got a strange thing setting up my brand new OJ 8500A: Connected the printer via LAN cable to an AVM 7270 router. Assigned a fixed IP on the router, using the printer’s MAC address (printer has automatic IP). Connecting the cable, the printer got it’s IP and I could install the printer driver on the connected PC’s without problem. Printing and scanning to disk worked fine and accessing the EWS was no problem.
But after a time (this is now between 30 sec and 2 min of idle time) the connection is lost. The port shows active on the router, but EWS can’t be reached and the printer does not reply pings. If I try to scan from the 8500A to the disk (server) I get a non-connectivity error message. Printing from a PC is not possible (says printer not available).
To get out of this I have to restart the printer or disconnect the LAN cable, re-connect, wait until the link is re-established and can do all (print, scan, EWS). After some time, (with the printer not being used) the connection is lost again.
I then changed to wireless. Here is the same issue – the connection restores if I disable the wireless link and re-establish.
There is no firewall except the AVM hardware firewall between the printer and the server. Scanning to disk after re-establishing the link always works and the printer replies ping requests from various sources. But it falls asleep soon thereafter. Both LAN port and WLAN have been confirmed to work for other devices (laptop computer).
Am kind of desperate and hope somebody out there can help. Searched the forum but not successful. Appreciate all help.
Thanks, Eric

Answer 1

Got some new info to share:
First, let me explain the details of my network: The network is based on a AVM 7270 (Fritz!Box Fon WLAN) with firmware 74.04.88. Several workstations are connected to this router: WinXP home, WinXP Pro and one Win7 are present. A Synology 107+ disk station running DSM3.0-1342 is connected and used as NAS. The HP8500A is connected (typically) via LAN (WLAN is possible and even more stable - just don't want to keep WLAN continuously on). The 107+ and the HP8500A have fixed IP’s defined on the AVM 7270 (via their MAC addresses). The computers use DHCP.
No connectivity problems are known in the entire network. It is running stable and reboots of router and NAS are done only on firmware upgrades or power failures. The 107+ holds the directory where the HP8500A scans network scans onto. The HP8500A was purchased in Germany the week prior Christmas. Installation of the software using the supplied CD was problem free. The HP8500A works fine (so printing or scanning from a PC, but also scanning from the printer to the NAS), as long as all is done right after start of the printer. After a while (this is 10 sec … 30 sec via LAN or 1 … 20 min via WLAN) the HP8500A is no longer reachable from any of the PC’s (no printing, no web service), but also fails to connect to the NAS for network scans. When I get the connection failure message and I ping the printer, it returns the first of the 4 pings. The remaining 3 fail. If I ping right again, all 4 pings fail. If I ping a few minutes later, the first ping is returned, the other ones fail. If I wait longer I realized that the connection is restored after some time (>15 min), but still not lasting.
When I connect my laptop (WinXP) directly to the HP8500A (all fixed IP’s), the connection remains stable. Printing to the printer or scanning from the printer to the laptop is enabled all time.
When I connect my laptop and the HP8500A to a Netgear DS108 hub (without the AVM 7270), the connection remains same stable as the direct connection between laptop and printer.
When I connect my laptop and the HP8500A to an Eumex 704PC LAN router (my previous (and still backup) router), the connection is stable.
When I connect a.m. configuration to the AVM 7270, the problem re-occurs. If I disconnect the AVM 7270, the connection remains active.
Right now I have the original configuration restored (HP8500A connected via LAN to the AVM 7270). The connection fails as described above. But periodically it seems to wake up (see also above). Print jobs that are spooled suddenly are executed. Unfortunately this is not predictable – can take 15 … 30 min. But I have got all pages printed after some while…
This is the reason why I think this particular issue is not driver related. Scans to network (Synology NAS) do not use the Windows platform – and are affected too. There seems to be an incompatibility between the HP8500A and the AVM 7270. This incompatibility seems not to exist between the HP8500A and the older models Eumex 704 or Netgear DS108 (simple hub, no router). HP service states they have 6 HP8500A printers stable running in their network (have no info about details). But obviously there must be a number of customers without problems. So, what makes the combination of HP8500A and AVM 7270 instable? And is the AVM 7270 the only router that shows this problem – this forum indicates several other configurations that also drop connection. Is there a protocol detail where the AVM 7270 cuts the connection as it may feel intrigued? Is it the AVM 7270 that stops talking to the HP8500A or is it the HP8500A that stops talking on the network? Why is always the first ping returned with normal response time?
Lots of questions. Maybe there is somebody out there that can arrange these puzzle pieces into a picture…
Best regards
Eric