Print job keeps stopping

I'm trying to print a big mail merge job. It prints up to a certain item and then stops. The little printer icon that pops up in my Dock (i don't know what it’s called—it’s named after my printer) has two tabs, Active and Completed. Under Active it says “Jobs Stopped.”

What does this mean? Does it mean it thinks I stopped it for some reason? I didn't.

Does it think I paused the job? Then why is the Resume button at the top of the window grayed out?

Does it mean it thinks the job is finished? If so, why does it say “Jobs Stopped” (instead of “Completed”) and why is the job name (“Mail Merge”) still in the “Active” list?

The Start Jobs button is clickable. When I click that, it starts the job over again at the beginning rather than where it left off!

Why does the job keep stopping?

This little OSX printer window doesn't show a count of how many pages have printed on the current job and how many remain, something that would be very useful. Is there a way to see this?

eMac 800 MHz, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Oct 15, 2007 1:34 PM

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11 replies

Oct 16, 2007 12:11 AM in response to Timothy Arends1

There are a number of things that can go wrong with a job like this when memory runs short, either in the computer or in the printer. Sometimes you can get more information if you turn on error reporting in the Print... dialog, but often things just quit. You could also use the Console to check your system error logs.

Memory is important for big jobs. If you are doing large jobs on a laser printer, you should max out the memory in the printer. More memory in the computer is a good idea, too, and free disk space.

Nov 27, 2007 3:22 AM in response to Timothy Arends1

Same thing here. Installed HP Laserjet network printers fine. Jobs stop immediately after clicking "print", sometimes with the message:
the process "mdns" stopped unexpectedly with status 1
dunno what is going on.
Printing thru IP does not work either.
Appletalk is on on the printer, but does not appear as such in the Add Printer dialog box (only Bonjour).

Nov 27, 2007 4:29 AM in response to Timothy Arends1

Btw, here is a copy of the console log when this problem occurs:
Nov 27 13:25:56 Karim-Vermaelens-Computer mDNSResponder: CacheRecordAdd: printer.tcp.local. (PTR) got immediate answer burst; restarting exponential backoff sequence
Nov 27 13:25:57 Karim-Vermaelens-Computer mDNSResponder: CacheRecordAdd: pdl-datastream.tcp.local. (PTR) got immediate answer burst; restarting exponential backoff sequence
Nov 27 13:25:57 Karim-Vermaelens-Computer mDNSResponder: CacheRecordAdd: ipp.tcp.local. (PTR) got immediate answer burst; restarting exponential backoff sequence
Nov 27 13:26:31 Karim-Vermaelens-Computer mDNSResponder: CacheRecordAdd: printer.tcp.local. (PTR) got immediate answer burst; restarting exponential backoff sequence

Jan 4, 2008 2:02 PM in response to Timothy Arends1

I just bought a HP Photosmart D7460 and connected it to my wireless network and got the software set up on my mac book pro. I too got the message "The process “mdns” stopped unexpectedly with the status 1" when I tried to print. Called HP, they'd never heard about this apparently but assured me it was a Mac problem, not an HP issue, they also Googled this message and found these Apple message boards. I just disabled my router's (Netgear WPN824) wireless security features (WPA-PSK) and then was able to print just fine.

Jan 7, 2008 10:35 PM in response to sigma0

I've been having the same problem...I just purchased a HP 7260...and the network printing worked using on both my Powerbook G4 laptop and my iMac...until today.

Now I get the same "The process "mdns" stopped unexpectedly with status 1" message, and nothing will print from either the laptop or the iMac. I have a Linksis Router and an Airport (not extreme).

Here's what I've tried:

* repairing disk permissions
* uninstalling and reinstalling drivers (downloaded the latest driver from the HP website)

Now here's what is strange, when I turn the Airport off (just one more thing I was trying), the HP printer disappears from the Print Utility monitor and becomes unavailable in the HP print utility. So, it appears that somehow there's a conflict between the Airport and the printer. I wasn't trying to print wirelessly using the iMac (it's directly connected to the router).

If I try setting up an IP address for the printer, I get the message that the IP address is "busy."

Does that shed some light on the issue? It seems like all of the "...stopped unexpectedly with status 1" problems involve printing via an Airport, but I'm not sure what to do about it.

I don't get why it worked for a week or so, then suddenly, it does not.

Jan 23, 2008 7:10 AM in response to sigma0

I am having exactly the same problem connecting my imac to my HP Photosmart D7460. The software installs ok and the printer connects to the router, but when i try to print it says - the process "mdns" stopped unexpectedly with status 1. Has disabling your printers wireless security resolved the problem? Or have you since found another fix? I am using WEP and am a little reluctant to disable it permanently.

Feb 17, 2008 11:39 AM in response to Paul Schupbach

Ok an update on the G4 iMac: I downloaded the driver from the Epson website, and did a driver upgrade. I then had the choice to set printer up under the categories of "Bonjour" or "Shared Printer" (I had this choice before as well). I chose bonjour, and the problem persisted, so I deleted the printer selection in Print & Fax options in System Preferences, and chose "Shared Printer" as the one to set up, and it prints fine now. This solution may have worked without reinstalling the driver, as I didn't test it prior to re-installation of the driver.

Mar 9, 2008 1:03 PM in response to noah1001

Potential fix for the "process 'mdns' stopped unexpectedly with Status 1" message: try downloading the shareware app 'Printer Setup Repair', and running their 'Reset and Backup' routine. This got my HP 7250 printing. But trying to run either the HP scan software or the HP Ink Widget from Dashboard were not so successful. Got a 'Scanner not found' message.

I then went to the printer, tried doing a manual scan there, sending the scan to my PowerBook. Once again, bingo; this got the computer and printer to communicate properly. The scan was sent to my computer, and now the HP software could see the printer. I've since restarted both my computer and the printer several times; printing and scanning are working fine.

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Print job keeps stopping

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