Apple Mac Blues
September 9th, 2010
by Gwyn Headley
Managing Director
Tags: Apple, iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Macintosh, OS 10.6, printing, problems, Snow Leopard
Geek stuff here: yesterday we bought a new 21.5″ iMac from the Apple Store in Regent Street.
It won’t print.
This morning we gave up and called Apple Care. We spent 2 hours and 10 minutes on the phone with them without any solution. The guy admitted he was completely baffled. We still cannot print from the iMac.
We have a Konica Minolta Magicolor 2450 and a Toshiba e-Studio 16s networked in our London office through AirPort Extreme. We have no problems printing wirelessly to these printers using a MacBook Pro on 10.5.8 and a MacBook on 10.5.8.
We copied data and settings from the MacBook to the iMac using Migration Assistant. The PPDs were not copied across.
We downloaded new PPDs from Konica and Toshiba and installed them.
The iMac will not see either of the printers which are on an AppleTalk Local Zone. The Add Printer option on the 10.6 iMac has “Default | Fax | IP | Windows” while the 10.5 MacBook Pro has “Default | Fax | IP | Windows | Bluetooth | AppleTalk | More Printers” and the two wirelessly networked printers appear under the AppleTalk window.
We connected each printer directly to the iMac using an ethernet cable. It still wouldn’t see them.
What are we doing wrong?
Apple’s Tech Support guy said that Apple only supported USB printing. From the great pioneers and advocates of WiFi (I bought an Apple AirPort 10 years ago) that comes a little hard.
We figured out a convoluted workaround. By checking Sharing Printers on the iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pro, we can finally see the printers, but this means we must have two computers running in order to print. Not a satisfactory solution.
Anybody got any bright ideas?
We’re taking it back to the store this afternoon, because of the multi-coloured stripes across the screen. Apparently the graphics card has collapsed. Not an auspicious start.
The replacement computer is installed and the problem solved. It seems that OS 10.6 no longer supports AppleTalk, and the two printers are on an AppleTalk network.
So I took a hammer and crowbar to the printers and forced them to reveal their actual IP addresses — not the strange 010 ones they coyly disclose in their printouts, but the more familiar 192.168.001.038 and 039 types.
Then I added the IP addresses in the Line Printer Daemon protocol. Result: instant, seamless printing.
I dunno, getting a valid IP address from a printer is like trying to get PIN numbers out of the teenagers we keep in the cellar.
RE: New Macs and printers… I had the same issue… and I have four printers and one scanner… While I am still having issues with the scanner… the printers are all up and running. Apple tech did not help me much either.. but here is what I found on my own. Snow Leopard changed all the setting for printer interfaces.
My printers are Epson and they finally re-formulated their drivers to work with Snow Leopard. None of the
software discs which came with your older printers will work with S.L. You have to keep going to the
printer website and look for S.L. printer updates… when these are properly downloaded and installed the printers will work .. but let me know if you find a good scanner driver.. I am still having a bit of an issue with that piece of equipment.