Brother HL 5250DN networked printer causes HP A6152N PC to crash

[Bassman8724]

My Brother HL 5250DN networked printer causes HP A6152N PC to crash when anyone on my Home Network sends a print job to the printer, including me. No BSOD, screen goes blank and starts the reboot process. Original OS was Vista when problem started a year ago, upgraded to Win 7 Ultimate x86 but still having same problem.
Using the latest Brother full driver software package and BRAdmin Profesional.

Can anyone help please?

Bassman8724

 

[Vir Gnarus]

You say this is a networked printer, but how is it networked? Is it connected directly to a PC and then shared through that PC? Is it directly connected to a router? Is it wifi? Please explain further on this.

I do see in the syslog that no BSOD does occur but rather immediate restarts. The only way I could see this happening is from hardware failure of some sort. To be sure, you can go to Start Menu then type "Advanced System Settings" and select the available option. Then go to Settings button under Startup and Recovery and uncheck the box that says "Automatically restart" and make sure the box for writing an event to the syslog is checked. Then restart the PC and then try to provoke your system to crash again in the same manner. If a BSOD still does not appear, then we are most certainly dealing with a hardware issue here.

My only speculation right now as to why a printer would cause this is if there's a direct connection from the PC to the printer and either the port on the PC or the printer is causing a short, which typically will reset a PC. If the printer is directly connected to the PC, like through a USB port, change the port that's being used, or change the PC that it's directly connected too and see if the same symptoms occur.

 

[Bassman8724]

My PC is directly connected to a Linksys Wireless WRT54G router. All other PCs connect via WiFi. I just installed a D-Link ethernet adapter card in the A6152N instead of using the onboard network adapter and it still crashed. So I can rule out a incompatablity with the network adapters. Also unchecked the Automatic Restart and did not make any difference.

 

[Vir Gnarus]

I am very certain there's a short occurring here somewhere, but exactly where I cannot ascertain. These are not BSOD crashes, they are power failures causing immediate system shutdown/reboots. Since you've changed the network adapter, we can rule out your PC being the cause.

I recommend doing some network changes here. Hook the printer directly to the PC and see if print jobs will cause it to short. Try changing the port used on the router that the PC is directly hooked too. Try hooking another PC up to the router directly while the printer is on the network via the router.

Basically you want to try and perform a number of permutations of your network design to see if the printer is the cause of the short or the router. Of course, you can always just get replacements of each, but that's a bit of a caveman way of doing things and can get costly.

 

[Bassman8724]

I have finally been able to come up with a work-around for my problem but, I still don't know why it is happening.
I now believe it is a power surge that my Brother HL5250DN printer is causing when it is either sent a print job through the network or by pressing the GO button on the printer itself. My fix is to connect the power cord to a different electrical circuit by running a extension cord across my room to a different AC outlet. Why the printer causes my PC to crash is still a mystery to me!

I want to thank Vir Gnarus for his help with this.

Basman8724

 

[Vir Gnarus]

You'll want to get a replacement for it as its sounds very well like the printer is defective. That, or there's a problem with the outlet that you plugged the printer into originally. Check reviews from other people as well concerning their printers to see if anyone else is experiencing the same with that particular model. Test the outlet with appliances and whatnot to see if there's an issue with it.