Computer Repair Experts in Phoenix, Arizona. my PC Techs Presents:

Are you experiencing problems with your HP printers, especially HP LaserJet printers, where they are constantly rebooting over and over? If you look closely at the screen just before the reboot you may see a message pop up “Service Error 79”.

We have noticed this happening in a few offices, where all of the HP printers on a network would reboot over and over and pop-up the Service Error 79 message. We tried all of the recommended steps we could find, such as:

• Unplugging the printer and plugging it back in
• Updating the printer firmware
• Restoring to factory defaults
• Cleaning out everything in the print queue from all network attached computers
• Turning off all computers on the network
• Changing IP from static to DHCP and back again

None of the above steps fixed the issue. However, we did notice that the printers would reboot over and over again and crash with the Service Error 79 message only when plugged in with an ethernet cable or if they were connected to Wi-Fi. When taking them off the network they did not reboot. When plugging them into a computer directly with a USB cable they did not reboot.

We’re talking about a mix of different LaserJet printers, at least 4 different models were doing the same thing.

Finally, we found out that a single setting on the printers was causing this. We went into the webpage for the printer, into the network settings, advanced, and disabled the “WS Discovery” service. It took several tries because we’d have to pause while navigating the site each time the printer rebooted (once every 10 seconds or so).

But ultimately if you wait until right after the printer reboots and comes online, then check mark the box to turn off WS Discovery and apply, it should fix the issue.

So far we’ve applied this “fix” to several HP printers and it has solved the issue in all cases.

A client recently reported a problem with 10 user laptops. Users could receive email, but sending email resulting in a 550 5.7.1 error via bounce back. Accounts were configured through Outlook 2010 with SMTP to a corporate Exchange server.

Interestingly enough the laptops were connected to the internet with Verizon 4G modems. They were able to download files, surf the internet, and do pretty much everything else as normal. No settings on the laptop, Outlook 2010, or the Exchange server had changed from one day to the next.

We ruled out the Exchange server by sending from Outlook Web Access as the user. We ruled out the user SMTP account by sending from a stand-alone desktop machine as the user. We then ruled out the laptops themselves by connecting them to a hard wired LAN connection and sending from Outlook 2010 without any problem. The only time we experienced the 550 5.7.1 error was when connected using Verizon 3G or 4G.

Could these recent problems with the Verizon network have something to do with it? We updated the VZAccess Manager software to the absolute latest version (Help / Check for Updates). During that process the firmware of the device was updated as well.

Surprisingly, after the Verizon software and modem updates it was possible to send email again. Hopefully this helps anyone else who is having trouble sending email through SMTP while connected to a Verizon 3G or 4G modem. Upgrade your modem!

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