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Printer won't work at all!! Apple care no help.

C

computerjunkie

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 31, 2008
59
0
I have an issue with my brank spankin new 24 inch 2.8 iMac. My printer won't work at all. Its an HP LaserJet 3200 which is the all in one deal...basically a fax machine and printer...although you can scan to file (but I don't ever use it). Anyway, I can't get it to work AT ALL.

I searched the forums here and did find where poeple where having issues trying to scan while having the printer attached via USB to an Airport Extreme, or Time Capsule. BUT, I am connecting via USB directly to the iMac and not even trying to scan...just print for goodness sakes.

Here is what I have done. I hooked up the printer and tried to install it. OSX finds the printer, searches and finds the correct driver (it shows the name and model of the printer and even a little picture of it) and tries to install the driver. It says something like "searching for installable options" or something similar. It shows the blue and white horizontal "barber pole" while doing this and never stops. It just goes on like this forever.

So, I went to the HP website and downloaded an updated driver for this specific printer, and obviously for OSX. Installed that and no change. The only other thing I can tell you is that when I first try to intall the printer, as soon as it finds it (before installing the driver) the printer spits out one page of gibberish and stops. Subsequent attempts to print do nothing. Oh and the only way you can even try to print is by clicking "configure" while it is in the endless loop mentioned above.

Three calls to apple care yeilded no results, but I did follow their instructions and tried several times to reload the driver. The final thing they said was to re-install OSX which I did. Since it was a new computer with nothing on it, I even did the "erase and install" of OSX.

Long winded post I know, but I wanted you all to have all the info and see if anyone had any ideas for me to try now. Thanks so much.

Regards,

G.
Apple Care Failure
 
Ever thought it might be the printer? USB cable?

Applecare doesn't support your printer. They support your computer. This sounds like a driver or printer issue to me.

This printer looks to be pretty old, it is very possible there is something wrong with it. Have you tested it on another computer?
 
ichiban said:
Ever thought it might be the printer? USB cable?

Applecare doesn't support your printer. They support your computer. This sounds like a driver or printer issue to me.

This printer looks to be pretty old, it is very possible there is something wrong with it. Have you tested it on another computer?
Click to expand...

Yes I have tested it, as I was thinking the same way you are. First way was to simply plug the USB cable into my IBM laptop...prints perfectly. Second way was to plug it back into the iMac and bootcamp my way over to Windows XP...again prints flawlessly.

So yea it does sound to me like a driver issue. And I suppose your right in that Apple does not support my printer...nevertheless I think it should work. Or at least I think it could work.

Regards,

G.
Philosopher
 
I have a similar issue with my Macbook (running Leopard).

HP All-In One printer. Almost every time I go to print I get a kernel panic and I have to hard reboot.

Started ever since my HD died and I restored from Time Machine.

It's annoying and I have tried to fix it but nothing so far. The drivers from HP were last updated in 05.

The only positive is that I print something about once a month so I am just waiting for my new IMac. :D
 
What a coincidence. My HP All-in-One J5780, just stopped printing. It was printing fine and hour ago. Using HP Printer Utility to print test pages works flawlessly, but when I try to print from Pages v.3, I see it process the page and reports 100% complete but then I just just get an endless spinning barber pole and no response from the printer! No luck wireless or by USB.

It's sort of thing that keeps from recommending Macs to any friends.
 
kironin said:
What a coincidence. My HP All-in-One J5780, just stopped printing. It was printing fine and hour ago. Using HP Printer Utility to print test pages works flawlessly, but when I try to print from Pages v.3, I see it process the page and reports 100% complete but then I just just get an endless spinning barber pole and no response from the printer! No luck wireless or by USB.

It's sort of thing that keeps from recommending Macs to any friends.
Click to expand...

It should be the sort of thing that keeps you from recommending printers that come from companies too incoherent to produce proper drivers.
 
Sayer said:
HP printer are always giving trouble on Macs. Printers have become so cheap lately that its almost easier to throw it out and get a new one if it acts up.

Anywho try GIMP print drivers for OS X instead: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gimp-print/gutenprint-5.0.2-ub.dmg?download

They are made by other people and thus tend to actually work.
Click to expand...


Well I am not a printer expert and know even less about drivers but...I went back to install the printer again simply using the drivers within OSX. Except this time I decided to select a different driver choice. I had been previously selecting the one for HP LaserJet 3200. There were some variants of that but with "gutenprint" (or something like that) out beside them. I have no idea what "gutenprint" is, but I selected it and it worked. I only need to print (no all-in-one functions) so I will be leaving well enough alone.

Regards,

G.
 
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