Can't find Bonjour printers

[PhilthyM]

I have recently freshly installed Leopard and upgraded to 10.5.8 before attempting to print on my Mac Pro.

When I tried to add my printers it found nothing. I also have a Mini on 10.5.8, on which I deleted both printers and they were both located and added straight away. This seems to suggest the printers themselves are fully accessible and advertising themselves appropriately.

Having spent the afternoon searching for answers, about the only hint was to change to a static IP, rather than use DHCP. After doing so, one of my printers showed up immediately, but then OS X could not resolve what drivers to use. It still didn't find the second printer.

We have four 10.5.8 Macs and two 10.4.x Macs on the network. All except the Pro are happily using both printers, so it must be something dodgy on my Pro, just no idea what.

Anybody able to give me some pointers as to the things to check, please? I've got the firewall set to allow everything and I've got print sharing turned on. All the Macs and printers are on the same subnet. I'm out of ideas!

Edit: I should add that the printers' web interfaces are fully accessible, and of course they ping fine.

Thanks

Phil

 

[MisterMe]

...

When I tried to add my printers it found nothing. I also have a Mini on 10.5.8, on which I deleted both printers and they were both located and added straight away. This seems to suggest the printers themselves are fully accessible and advertising themselves appropriately.

....

Whenever you ask for help with peripherals such as your printers, you should give the manufacturer and specific model of the peripherals. This means that you should give the manufacturers and models of your specific printers.

 

[PhilthyM]

Fair enough, thanks for the tip. I guess I presumed the printer models did not matter, since they work on all other instances of OS X, both Tiger and Leopard find them both.

Anyway they are a Brother MFC-425CN and an HP Colour LaserJet 2600n.

 

[MisterMe]

Fair enough, thanks for the tip. I guess I presumed the printer models did not matter, since they work on all other instances of OS X, both Tiger and Leopard find them both.

Anyway they are a Brother MFC-425CN and an HP Colour LaserJet 2600n.

I don't know about the Brother, but I do know about HP and about your specific model HP printer. HP requires that you download and install a driver for your printer. I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to locate each manufacturer's respective websites and to download each respective printer's drivers.

 

[PhilthyM]

Subsequent to my last post, neither printer appears when I click to add a printer. The LaserJet did appear for a while, but it's no longer being found. The Brother has never appeared.

While I appreciate the advice about drivers, we're not yet at that point. The printers are simply not being detected, so the question of drivers is secondary.

This morning I did a fresh install of 10.5.6 on my laptop and both printers showed up immediately. I have a vague feeling that this is something about 10.5.8. All other machines already had the printers defined before going to 10.5.8. I wonder if there's something about adding them for the first time that's problematic?

 

[MisterMe]

... I wonder if there's something about adding them for the first time that's problematic?

It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.

 

[MKSinSA]

While I appreciate the advice about drivers, we're not yet at that point.

I'm no techheadie genius, but if I understand things, the driver is what lets you see the printer in the first place so there's never a time it's irrelevant. Were I you, I'd double-check the disks/downloads to make sure they're meant for 10.5. The other computers might be set a tad more forgiving.

The only thing I recall with printers (and this is old info and possibly outdated) was that we had to make AppleTalk active or for some reason it messed with them. Of course that was pre-Bonjour so that's nothing to take to the bank.

Wish you well on that and Cheers!

 

[PhilthyM]

It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.

Steady on fella. You're ready to say this is something I'm doing wrong? Based on what evidence? And even if it is, how about offering advice instead of criticism?

I'm no techheadie genius, but if I understand things, the driver is what lets you see the printer in the first place so there's never a time it's irrelevant. Were I you, I'd double-check the disks/downloads to make sure they're meant for 10.5. The other computers might be set a tad more forgiving.

The only thing I recall with printers (and this is old info and possibly outdated) was that we had to make AppleTalk active or for some reason it messed with them. Of course that was pre-Bonjour so that's nothing to take to the bank.

Wish you well on that and Cheers!

I agree that the drivers will be required to make the printers work, but they don't appear to be required for Bonjour to make them available, if that makes sense.

Here's the deal, which I've tried to explain, but MisterMe would appear to rather criticise me than read properly...

I installed vanilla 5.6 on my MacBook. I go to Add Printer and almost immediately both printers show up as type Bonjour. If I select either one, I'm then prompted for the drivers. So the point is they are recognised BEFORE installing drivers.

I installed vanilla 5.6 on my Pro, did a few things, set it all up, then later upgraded to 5.8. Subsequent to that I've gone to Add Printer and they don't show up. I then went to the HP site, downloaded the correct driver, ran the installer, and still the LaserJet doesn't get detected. Now MisterMe helpfully tells me I'm doing something wrong. And he could be correct. But i have no idea what it might be. And I was kinda hoping, being as this is a forum and all, that somebody might be able to give me a few ideas on where to look next.

 

[PhilthyM]

An update for anybody who is still following this...

I recently installed Windows 7 under VMWare on the same Mac Pro - it found and installed both printers without a hitch. Since everything is virtualised and Win7 is finding the printers, that makes it even stranger that OS X won't.

 

[PhilthyM]

OK, doubt anybody cares, but just to close this off...

I'd rebooted several times, flashed the printers with the latest firmwares, powered cycled the entire network etc etc. No way were these printers going to appear.

Yesterday I tried once more... no joy. I had Windows 7 RC in VMWare and added both printers and they came straight up.

Today, for no obvious reason, I thought I'd have another go and they were there almost instantly! Why? Who knows? And I didn't have to load any drivers!

I'm none the wiser as to what the issue was, nor what resolved it, but both printers are now working on 10.5.8.

 

[Cannedkoala]

I've had the same issue. I have a Brother laser printer and an HP ink-jet attached to my router.

On 10.5.7 it found them straight away, automatically located some drivers and they set up and printed fine.

Recently though I had some trouble, they were still listed but wouldn't print. So I cleared them, but wasn't able to re-add them because they wouldn't appear. I never really considered it was because of 10.5.8 but I guess that's plausible.

I left it on the dialog where it used to find them straight away, and they did appear after a while. Once they set up they still wouldn't print though. Works fine from other comps though. So atm they aren't set up and I just plan to fix it someday...

 

[PhilthyM]

Despite the earlier post where somebody tried to tell me it was my poor workmanship, I remain convinced there's something slightly unusual happening in 10.5.8. Mine are now working, but I still can't say for sure why! Good luck with yours.