Apple couldn't help, either on forums or via AppleCare phone line. Epson couldn't help. So I backed up, downloaded the 10.5.8 Combo updater (I had been using Delta updaters through most of Leopard*), and installed over my current system, hoping that would overwrite whatever bad juju was happening with the print library file, and clear up the troubles.
Lo and behold, it did. Printing from any app over the network to the printer@the iMac worked just fine.
So since correcting the 10.5.8 printing problem, I've installed Snow Leopard and then, 10.6.1 on the laptop. The iMac can't take Snow Leopard: it's a last-generation iSight G5 (I tell ya, I was kickin' myself a couple months after buying that, except that in retrospect, the first generation Intel Core Duos wouldn't be able to support 64-bit in Snow Leopard, either).
Somewhere along the way between 10.6 and 10.6.1 (which, from a troubleshooting perspective, is a wide swath of uselessness, but I'm just reporting how memory serves), I found that network printing from the laptop didn't work again This time, however, given the message in the print queue, the reason was apparently different (unless someone at Apple had simply chosen to re-write the cryptic dialog into something very slightly less opaque). Now the printer queue was being paused, whenever a job was sent to it. Every time, paused, repeatedly, over and over.
I seem to remember once when I was able to go to the iMac, found the job in the print queue, and resumed the print queue, successfully printing the job. This of course, required more interaction with the iMac than simply picking up the printed pages from the printer. But in those instances, it was a ham-fisted way to eventually get the same result (ie., walk downstairs to where the iMac and printer sit together, and get the print).
But at least since installing 10.6.1 (another instance of "I'm not sure when," which throws things off), the job never even seems to show up in the iMac's print queue, and resuming the laptop's print queue simply makes it immediately pause it again.
I tried deleting and re-installing the laptop's print queue. Other than changing the printer icon back from the generic icon Snow Leopard gave me on original install, to the one specific to the printer's make/model, this didn't accomplish anything: still no network printing due to an immediate and persistent pause to the queue when jobs were sent to, or present in, the queue.
So I did a Google search with the non-quoted (because including the quotes will make Google think you want the words in that specific order), "printer paused 10.6". I came up with this page, which provided various things to try. The first "Answer" is the one which worked for me, but a caveat: it will delete all your current print queues!
Basically, go to the Print & Fax pane in System Preferences, option-click on the list of print queues, and select "Restart printing system" from the contextual menu which pops up. If you can deal with the caveat above, and losing your pretty printer-specific icon in favor of the generic one Snow Leopard gives you, then you may be in network printing business! I know I am (for now).
Of course, your mileage may vary, depending on your specific printing symptoms and the root cause (correctly communicated to you by the system in a dialog box, or not). If you're still not in business after trying this solution, you may wish to try others on the page to which I link above. If none of those work, you may even want to try the semi-drastic† approach of downloading the Snow Leopard Combo update (though as a write this, there is no such thing, because only the 10.6.1 update has been released, and there is no difference between a Combo or a Delta update for the first one after a major release), and re-install that.
* For those who may be unaware, a "Delta" update simply updates your system from whatever it is, to the next iteration (which in Mac OS X, is like 10.x.1 to 10.x.2, or 10.x.2 to 10.x.3, etc., but never 10.5 to 10.6, because you do need to purchase a DVD for that, which cheap as it may be this time around, is a whole 'nother kettle of fish). By contrast, a "Combo" update brings together ALL of the updates from 10.x.0 through whatever version you're at (in the above example, the Leopard Combo updater re-installed all the most current updates for 10.5, through 10.5.8). A Combo update is a bigger download because it has more data over several versions to update, and you have to find and select the Combo updater for download manually from here, but it's also a better way to squash bugs which might have cropped up from one Delta update to the next.
† As in, not fully drastic, which is wiping your system and re-installing it all from scratch, avoiding even using as much of your old user data as possible, as some of it might again corrupt the printing system. I would recommend avoiding this fully drastic approach if you at all possibly can, because even though you have backups (you do, don't you?), accessing and using those backups from a former user will always be a convoluted system for whatever you're doing, at best. If nothing else besides this option lets you function how you want to, then I urge you to weigh the hassle of having to find another printing solution (like connecting directly via USB, if that still works) versus having to kludge a way to get back to the data in your old user account whenever you need it (not covered here; do-able, but a pain in the tuckus).
In any event, good luck, and I hope my solutions help others, either directly or by educating!
No comments:
Post a Comment