One morning suddenly, out of the blue, my reliable canon all in one stopped obeying my command sent over a wifi network. I tried printing from multiple devices. But the promising employee in my home office won’t budge.
After checking with techie friends and online, I reset everything to get the printer back to its earlier setting, lest anything accidentally was changed (since my 10-year-old too occasionally prints her school projects). Hopeful me gave a print command of the invoice I’d to send out that day. NOPE… I had to outsource printing while the printer was undergoing investigation and home remedy. Then I called up Canon Customer Care. The tech support, on the phone, patiently guided me to their routine investigations for a good hour or so. I had another meeting to get to, the issue still unresolved. Canon executive very courteously agreed to disconnect to allow me to get to my meeting and call later. The next day another about an hour later, the techie suspected that there could be a network card issue, since all else failed. BTW he requested another test, which I could not fulfill – using iPhone’s wifi hotspot to test if the problem is with the printer or with the network. Unfortunately, my iPhone 7 has been giving problems with hotspot (well, that would be another long post – on apple ‘geniuses’ at the genius bar. I’ll stick to the printer issue in this post).
Now you have to appreciate that my printer is just a couple of years older, just out of warranty and already had undergone a surgery with its motherboard replaced under a year ago. I made my contempt of the situation I was made to face by the company I trusted so much twice, obvious. First occasion was when we moved from Australia to Singapore. I had to junk my fully fit printer just because it was impossible to find compatible cartridges in a different region. A highly patient and empathetic executive on the other side of the line suggested that as a last check, the printer could be examined at the service center. The printer was sent for a check, only to get a reply a few days later that it is in perfect running condition. They had even printed from it as a proof.
So what’s the problem at my place? The only other possibility was in the broadband connection. So I called Starhub and had the broadband checked. I was repeatedly told that ‘if you are able to access internet on other devices, there is no issue with the broadband. Common Sense, right? Wrong…
I called up Canon again and the genuinely supportive tech support took me through an elaborate process, even testing this time on hotspot (I used my older 5S this time). IT WORKED! The printer worked in a long time and I was thrilled. Upon asking, the techie informed me that the internet requirement on certain devices may be specific. And hence it may happen that you may get wi-fi internet on your computer or laptop but not on the printer. (I realized that my chromecast too, had stopped working around the same madly busy period)
With this conclusion (with evidence) I confidently went to Starhub this time. Only to be directed to Dlink – the router provider. (Yes, there’s a third party in this game of ping pong). On persisting with them on the problem and that the solution could be at their end, the ‘not-so-courteous’, ‘not-at-all-patient’ yet very capable tech support helped identify the problem.
The problem was in a simple ‘FirmWare’ Upgrade. And was solved in a simple, half an hour long, over the phone guidance.
So if you are in Singapore and face a problem with your wifi on certain devices, before you consider ‘replacing’ devices;
- Check that your Dlink firmware is up to date
- In case you need a tech support;
- Call Dlink – 65014280
- Call Starhub – 1633
- Canon – 67998888