Processing -The printer is unreachable at this time.

[Billtour]

Suddenly, it appears to the software (multiple) that I have printed, but nothing prints. This message appears as the printer state in the printer properties when I do a test print - which does not actually print. Also, the queue shows the job processing forever. Any thoughts?

 

[osprey]

Hard to know what the problem is off hand. Assuming you are running printing with cups, these are things I would try:
- check /var/log/cups/error_log to see if there's any useful info.
- go to: http://localhost:631 in a browser then ->enter root->administration->manage printers -> maintenance-> cancel all jobs -> resume printer (or some path similar to that) and cancel all jobs.
- change the log level upwards in cupsd.conf (default is "warn", change to "debug" and see if more info is helpful when running.)

 

[Brickwizard]

It would help if you told us what the make/model number of the printer is

 

[Billtour]

The printer is an Epson Expression XP-4100 and has been working fine for months. The first sign of a problem was trying to print from a Windows program running under WINE. Now I can't print from native Linux Lite.

 

[Brickwizard]

Try going into the print settings in windows, and disable the printer, then in Lite open the printer manager and make sure your printer is enabled and try to print a page from Lite,
the other thing you can try is disconnect the printer from both the computer and mains power over night to purge its memory

 

[Billtour]

Oh! Printing works fine from our Android phones.

 

[Lord Boltar]

Generally for a printer to work on a Windows program under Wine you need to install - cups-pdf
Then from MS Word, do Print -> Select PDF as printer -> wait for the printing to complete.

 

[Billtour]

Brickwizard: I had close to zero confidence that your suggestion to disconnect the printer for an overnight would work, but it appears that it did work. I have to write that one down. Thank you.

 

[Brickwizard]

Brickwizard: I had close to zero confidence that your suggestion to disconnect the printer for an overnight would work, but it appears that it did work. I have to write that one down. Thank you.

I know it sounds silly, but often works, a modern printer is like a mini computer, feed it too much conflicting information and it will go into a loop it can't get out of, leaving it totally disconnected for at least 4 hrs [longer the better] is the same as switching off a computer and pulling the bios support battery, it discharges the capacitors so the processor forgets everything except it's hard coding. [its one of those engineers tricks your never told about]