I lost the connection between my computer and my wireless printer, I haven't been able to get it back

[Rocky7895]

I lost my connection between my computer and my HP wireless printer. I haven't been able to get it back

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately this is not a PC to Wireless Printer Forum.

But I will try to assist anyway.

Your printer must be on the same network as your computer.

Check to see that the PC is still on your home network.

If you open your router 192.168.1.1 enter you network name and password for the router. If you see the printer and the PC then I would do a refresh of all three devices. Turn off the router, printer and PC then turn router, printer and PC back on.

Try printing again.

Good Luck

[7e18n1]

Did you reinstall the printer’s driver?

Printers connected to a network should be assigned a static IP address. If you didn’t do this you may have to reinstall the printer’s driver on the computer to get the printer working again.

[John_Getzke]

The simplest and first step you should try is reinstalling the printer software with the latest update from http://support.hp.com. This process will rebuild your lost connections to help your computer find your lost printer.

As it has been mentioned whenever working with wireless printers it is best to assign your printer a static IP Address.  This will help your router maintain an accurate IP Address table and avoid it distributing the printers current IP to a different device in the future.  When those IP Addresses change the connected computers depending on them get confused and lose the ability to communicate.  You want to keep your wireless printer in the same place to minimize these disconnections in the future.

If you post for us your VZW broadband device we could try to look up the steps to help you accomplish this procedure.  Otherwise you will have to work with the manufacturer of your router to complete the configuration.

[7e18n1]

John, did you mean this response for me? For the record, any TCP/IP network printer should be assigned a static IP address. The issue is not unique to wireless printers. Also, all you have to do to fix it is change the driver’s PORT in Printer Properties to the new IP address.

[John_Getzke]

Must have hit the wrong reply.  My comment was posted for the OP.

While it is true that you can modify the port to match the new IP of a network printer, often times you cannot update the scanning software that is associated with the given printer.  This is often the case with HP printers and the HP designed scanning software.  The best and most consistent way to correct an IP issue is still to uninstall and reinstall everything with the latest software update from HP. 

[7e18n1]

Thanks, that’s why I asked!

The AIO Printer’s scanner software is an OSI Layer 7 application with no access to lower level transport layers. It must use communication services provided by Windows, ultimately: Device Manager > Imagining Devices > AIO Printer. Perhaps the scanner’s software wasn’t sending to the computer before the DHCP Server changed the IP address?

My experience is that people tend to become frustrated when the printer stops working and they have to keep reinstalling the printer’s software to get it working again. That’s why the recommend solution is to use a static IP address.