I also have had the same problem we have 7 of the 1700n printers and all have this problem. I also have 4 5200n printers and also have that trouble. Dell even replace one of the 5200n printers to fix this but on the new one has the same trouble.

My 1600n is doing that as well. I have the most current firmware and drivers. I am running a Dell Inspirion 6000 Laptop with Windows XP and all the latest firmware and drivers. I haven't called it in yet. It seems to work fine on inital setup but then after 3-4 days the ID disappears off the printer and the utility can't find the scanner on the printer.

Same thing happens on all of our 1600n's (10-12?)  Refreshing from the Scan Manager usually restablishes communication with the 1600, but occasionally we have to delete and add the unit from Scan Manager.  No problem ever on the printing side of things.

It's something we can live with, but is an annoyance.  I'm positive the majority of front-line tech support staff have no idea how the 1600 and its clients communicate over the network, so haven't bothered to call.

I am having the same problem and have reported it to Dell - they gave me the same answer.  I have a number of the 1600's on my network and they all experience the same issue - out of the blue, I lose one or more of the id's.

 

Any suggestions as to how we attack this with them?

There's a lot of problems with the latest firmware update. I had to regress the firmware update to a previous version to get it to work right. In the latest firmware it seems that the Scan feature is practically disabled by default.

I am in exactly the same boat as Gumby7764.

I too tried to update my Dell 1600N with the latest dodgy firmware, and the printer now has no ethernet connectivity at all.

When I try to select any of the "Network Setup" options from the printer's front panel, I get the error message "Network Card Not Installed".

Of course, with no networking, the printer's web server no longer functions, and so the printer cannot be accessed that way either.

And worse still, it is not possible to re-flash the network card firmware via the one remaining option, USB.

In the manual, Dell warns: "Please note that only the printer firmware can be updated via USB, you must have your printer connected to a network to update the network card firmware."

Is there a solution to recover the printer's networking capabilities or has this failed firmware update just gotten me a very expensive Dell-branded doorstop?!


Rgds,
Edwin

I know you're going to hate my reply, but it is the only option.

Call Dell and navigate through the menus to get to Printer support for the 1600n. Once there, explain that you want to have the printer replaced. At this point, I doubt you can reflash the network card firmware.

With the 1600n I had, I got a replacement within 3 days of the request. I originally thought that the firmware update was okay but something else with the printer was causing the network scan feature to not work.

In fact, the network scan feature is completely jackked up by the 3.11T firmware. When I got the replacement 1600n, I applied the 3.11T firmware and experienced the same problem all over again. I strongly recommend against using the 3.11T firmware and to regress to an older firmware.

A03 - 3.11T does not work
A02 - works really well and can be found here: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&releaseid=R119214&SystemID=PRN_LSR_1600N&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=10140&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=2&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=40&fileid=158628

Good luck.

You can call Dell Warranty and extend the warranty for another year for about $100 or so. Go to the Warranty Information tab above and find out the # and so forth. That's a lot less than the cost of a new printer ($400 or so). MD