My Brother 1610W printer won't connect

March 1, 2024 12:16 PM

I have a Brother printer that won't connect either by wireless or USB. I've tried the push button wps setup, attaching it with a usb cord, putting the printer next to the router, nothing seems to work, turning both off for a few minutes - the printer is invisible to the computer. It can't find the SSIDs from local wireless connections, it just sits at 'looking for WLAN' for a few minutes then prints an error sheet. I've reset settings a few times, no change. I will reinstall drivers on the computer, but i feel like the issue must be with the printer as it can't find any wireless connections at all. Is there a reflash option for printers like that? Does anyone have any ideas on this one? The printer is a few years old but was working ok a few days ago.
posted by Sebmojo to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

if it's like the Brothers i've had to work on, i think you have to go deeper into the settings menu and configure the WLAN settings in there first. that's where you'll specify the SSID and password. the thing that's closer to the surface in the menus that seems like it would do this actually only executes a script that attempts to connect to the WLAN setting you've entered into the deeper menu. sorry i'm not remembering the exact wording and nomenclature the menus use.

that said, i also often just end up re-downloading the "Full Driver & Software Package" and running that after deleting the existing printer entries from the Windows Start > Settings > Devices > Printers & Scanners menu because I usually have to fix the printing & scanning on like 4 PCs at once, and I'd rather just kinda pave it over instead of attempting to pick away at each individual machine's setting to tweak it back into working.

after you've got the thing on the wifi, running the Full Driver & Software Package should have a few pages in the wizard where it asks you wired, wireless or USB, and will scan the network to try to find the printer, then set it on the correct software port to make it work.

the download page for that printer, in Win10, is here: https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=eu_ot&lang=en&prod=dcp1610w_eu_as&os=10013
posted by glonous keming at 12:36 PM on March 1 [1 favorite]

If it’s like the brother printer we have it doesn’t recognize 5.0 GHz WiFi only 2.4 GHz. Try switching to see if that works.
posted by Lucubrator at 1:38 PM on March 1 [3 favorites]

I have solved this problem with my brother printer by rebooting the router before.
posted by rockindata at 3:41 PM on March 1

My different model brother has been fussy lately. I've had luck fixing this by loading the printer's ip or MAC address onto my computer in the add new printer option. (You can find this address by going through the on machine menu and choosing to print settings or machine details. Sorry it's from memory as I get the baby to sleep!)
posted by icaicaer at 4:30 PM on March 1

If your router thinks it is being extra SmArT, it may be trying to put 5GHz and 2.4GHz traffic on the same SSID, which can confuse older, slower devices.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:23 PM on March 1

If I were working on your printer, the first thing I would do is uninstall it from Windows, then restart Windows, then use the "View->Show Hidden Devices" option in Device Manager to look for any hidden instances of it and uninstall those as well, then restart Windows again.

Next, I'd factory reset the printer using its own inbuilt buttons and menus. Then I'd search those menus for a deep sleep option and turn it off per this advice from mathowie. Then I'd work through this procedure to connect it to wifi and set up a DHCP address reservation for it.

If I'd got up to the part about picking out my wifi network's SSID and the printer couldn't see any, I'd make sure that either my wifi router was using separate SSIDs for 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands or that any band-steering option it offered for a unified SSID was turned off. I've seen band steering go awry with 2.4GHz-only devices often enough to distrust it.

The main downside of running separate SSIDs on 2.4 and 5GHz is that devices that switch to a new SSID will typically get a new IP address when doing so, which can be disruptive if they're in the middle of e.g. streaming a YouTube video. But most modern devices, operating systems and browsers now handle that better than most of the shit-grade proprietary firmware typically found in consumer-level wireless access points handles band steering.

If I couldn't get the printer to see any wifi networks at all but a phone or laptop sat right next to it could, I'd assume that the printer's wifi hardware had karked it and think about getting that serviced. Given the state of the modern electronics industry, this might well not be cost-effective.

I believe the 1610W has an Ethernet port on it as well, so if I got no joy with wifi and fixing it wasn't a realistic option, I'd probably just wire it back to the router with that. The same procedure for giving the printer a fixed DHCP reservation is as much worth doing on Ethernet as on wifi, and the same instructions will work except that the MAC address you'd use would be the printer's Ethernet MAC address rather than its wifi MAC address. Both should be listed on its network configuration printout.
posted by flabdablet at 9:49 AM on March 2

Response by poster: coming back here, yeah i think the wifi is just borked. it works when i plug it into my computer, I might have a go at plugging it into the router though, good thought.
posted by Sebmojo at 6:16 PM on May 5