Brother MFC-j870DW printer scanner will not work in 8.1

tacit

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I have found that my Brother print scanner will not function in 8.1

I have a desktop running 8.1 and a laptop running 7. Both have the drivers loaded for the Brother printer.
The desktop is connected to a wireless router with a LAN cable, the laptop is connected wireless.
On the desktop I can PRINT to the printer but the scanner function returns a message that "cant find the printer"
On the laptop I can print to the printer and also scan without problems.

After several emails back and forth to Brother support the issue was not resolved.

I had a spare hard drive which I loaded windows 7 on in the desktop and loaded the printer driver also.
Under windows 7 the printer and scanner functions work perfectly on both machines leaving me with the impression that windows 8.1 printer/scanner drivers are not capable of running the scanning function.

Anyone else come across this problem?
 
I show that there are 8.1 drivers available at Downloads | MFC-J870DW | United States | Brother Make sure you are using the proper ones for the OS install (x32 or x64).

If you do the Full software install. Then when you scan to the printer when it is connected to the Wifi network, it should work. Also keep in mind that the majority of wifi printers, will only work on a wireless-b/g wifi network.
 
I have downloaded the drivers.... installed them... uninstalled them I can't count how many times.
Updated the firmware on the printer.
If I ping the IP address for the printer it shows it is loaded.
The router shows it is connected.
The laptop running windows 7 works perfectly on the same network, on windows 8.1 I can only print..... not scan, when I try a message pops up, can't find the printer.

Thanks anyway
 
You have to install the Full software, not just the driver. Also make sure the default printer is not the one that Windows 8 sees as a Network connected, which is what the printer will show up as. Once you install the software and connect to the printer through the software setup, everything should work fine.
 
Sorry, I meant the complete software. I first installed it from the original cd that came with the Printer, then I downloaded the complete Full Driver & Software Package which has been installed and removed several times. latest 02 June 2014

My default printer is a Samsung laser

The scanner is loaded as an imaging device in device manager.

This is the message I get when I try to scan from either the printer to the 8.1 or from Control center 4 to the scanner

no print.JPG

Funny it works fine on the laptop using win7
 
You only have to install the software once. It is either with the DVD or the software download. Suggest you remove all and any installs of the printer software, just chose one method for the install, which I would suggest using the one from Brother's website.
 
1 opened CTRL panel...uninstalled Brother printer from imaging devices
2 opened CTRL panel /devices and printers ...removed Brother printer
3 opened CTRL panel/programs and features .... uninstalled Brother Pro Suite

REBOOT

4 Checked router,, Printer is available 192.168.1.24

5 Tested laptop printer and scanner options work fine

6 Checked to make sure no Brother printer in imaging devices or device manager

7 Ran setup on downloaded Brother Software Suite

REBOOT

On Desktop opened MS Word sent a print command to printer... worked fine.... always has

Opened CTRL CENTER 4 (Brother) issued a scan command......

wait for it


MFC-J870DW cannot be found.

BTW the scan function using the I Print and Scan app works fine on my Blackberry Z10 and my Ipad
 
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An email from a support person at Brother, suggested trying "Windows Fax and Scan" to see if the scan function worked that way.

Yes it did, It was suggested it might be twain problem, It was also suggested I contact Microsoft and see if they can solve the problem.
 
I just installed windows 10 preview, installed the Brother Software and the scanner functions fine.
 
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