Xmsteel

Q: LaserWriter Select Not Printing?

Hi,

I have a LaserWriter Select 360 connected to my macintosh classic via printer DIN-8 Serial. It seems to work, because when I go to print, a box comes up saying how many prints I want, etc.

When I click "OK", it then shows a box saying "To cancel printing press so and so". Nothing happens. I waited about 5 Minutes, and tried to cancel the printing. The computer froze and I had to switch it off. I tried again, waited 30 minutes, same thing.

Does anyone know what is wrong, or how to fix it? Thank you!

Macintosh Classic, Windows Vista, Windows Vista, iOS4, System 7.1

Posted on Feb 14, 2011 7:02 PM

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Q: LaserWriter Select Not Printing?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Appaloosa mac man,

    Appaloosa mac man Appaloosa mac man Feb 15, 2011 9:47 PM in response to Xmsteel
    Level 5 (4,330 points)
    Feb 15, 2011 9:47 PM in response to Xmsteel
    Xmsteel,

    The first thing to do is look in your preference folder in the system folder. Look for the Laserwriter 8 Prefs file and move it to the desktop. Then restart your computer. The system will automatically create a clean copy in the Preference Folder. That may be all that is needed for the two to resume talking to each other. Start there and post back.

    Jim
  • by Xmsteel,

    Xmsteel Xmsteel Feb 16, 2011 8:13 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Old Hardware
    Feb 16, 2011 8:13 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man
    Hi,

    All I have under the Preference folder is "Finder Preferences" and "Users & Groups File Data". Also, The OS was wiped and installed before I had the printer, if that makes a difference.

    Thanks for the reply.
  • by Appaloosa mac man,

    Appaloosa mac man Appaloosa mac man Feb 16, 2011 11:38 PM in response to Xmsteel
    Level 5 (4,330 points)
    Feb 16, 2011 11:38 PM in response to Xmsteel
    Xmsteel,

    What system are you using on the classic? It sounds like you need a clean install of your system software. There is a way to trigger a startup page without using a computer connections but i do not have the printer service file handy.

    The delay and then freeze could be due to the lack of proper files and the system is looking for the files.

    Do you have install disks or is the computer something you picked up second hand?

    Jim
  • by Xmsteel,

    Xmsteel Xmsteel Feb 17, 2011 9:41 AM in response to Appaloosa mac man
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Old Hardware
    Feb 17, 2011 9:41 AM in response to Appaloosa mac man
    I was running 7.0.1, but about a week ago I had a Apple Reseller do a clean install of 7.1

    I also do not have a mac with internet connection to be able to transfer files, unfortunately.
  • by Appaloosa mac man,

    Appaloosa mac man Appaloosa mac man Feb 17, 2011 1:12 PM in response to Xmsteel
    Level 5 (4,330 points)
    Feb 17, 2011 1:12 PM in response to Xmsteel
    I see your note that you are in Washington State. In Seattle, go to RE-PC for recycled Mac resources. We are near Spokane. We closed our Mac store but we have leftover items. The e-cycle shops in town, except Goodwill, are great to work with for finding old Mac stuff. Goodwill just puts it out on the floor and it goes randomly. Salvation Army has a better auction system but less traffic.

    What you want is an old SCSI zip drive or CD-ROM drive to use for booting externally. Without Laserwriter8 and Laserwriter8 Prefs, you will have problems talking to that printer.

    Jim
  • by Xmsteel,

    Xmsteel Xmsteel Feb 17, 2011 1:42 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Old Hardware
    Feb 17, 2011 1:42 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man
    I live in Tri-Cities, WA. In the benton county. I go to a place called Alpha Computer Center. I'm sure they could fix it up for me, but they would charge me about $70 for labor.
  • by Appaloosa mac man,Solvedanswer

    Appaloosa mac man Appaloosa mac man Feb 17, 2011 1:57 PM in response to Xmsteel
    Level 5 (4,330 points)
    Feb 17, 2011 1:57 PM in response to Xmsteel
    Been there many times. They fixed some laserwriters for me and sold me a zip drive and Filemaker for Windows 95 back in 1995.

    The key is to find someone with old SCSI hardware.

    I have a daughter in Richland. If you are not in a hurry, we have olds and ends available. We still use a 360 regularly. Look at my profile and email me for details. Bottom line for other mac users reading this post, find a user group and look for alternative help. The files will fit on a floppy disk in a SASE.

    Jim
  • by Xmsteel,

    Xmsteel Xmsteel Feb 17, 2011 2:46 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Old Hardware
    Feb 17, 2011 2:46 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man
    I have emailed you. Thanks!
  • by Appaloosa mac man,Helpful

    Appaloosa mac man Appaloosa mac man Feb 19, 2011 11:50 AM in response to Xmsteel
    Level 5 (4,330 points)
    Feb 19, 2011 11:50 AM in response to Xmsteel
    Xm,

    Found out that my daughter was coming to the big city so we met her this morning and I sent a disk home with her. It has Laserwriter 8, Laserwriter 8 Prefs and Laserwriter Utilities so you can turn the startup page on and off.

    The floppy drive in the Quadra 700 did not like the IBM formatted disk. I tried to reformat it to Mac 1.4 but it still did not like it. I put the disk in the G3, formatted it, put an old disk in the 700, moved files to the G3 hard drive and then copied the files from the G3 to the new floppy disk. The reason for sharing this is to alert you to the fact that the disk is fine but some older floppy drives only like disks that they formatted. If the disk does not load properly on your classic, find another old mac and reverse the process I went through.

    I just about sent you another classic to play with but I ran out of time to test it. It was given to us by a recycler here in town.

    Hope this gets you back in business. My favorite system for that computer is 7.5.3. If you need to update we could maybe arrange a zip disk with a full system backup. Keep me posted by email to save the discussions space for general/public information.

    Jim
  • by Xmsteel,

    Xmsteel Xmsteel Feb 19, 2011 12:41 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Old Hardware
    Feb 19, 2011 12:41 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man
    Thanks for all the help, I have emailed you again to explain further. Hopefully my "free" printer wont turn out to be hundreds of dollars!

    Thanks,
    Adam