Lexmark C500n won't print

I don't know what instructions you are using, but I have a Lexmark 510n printer that works fine. You can install the Lexmark driver, but you will want to upgrade the Lexmark drivers package for OS X. These updates should appear in Software Update once you have installed the driver from Lexmark.

Open Print & Fax and delete any Lexmark entry you now have. The click the button to add a new printer. Click on the Default icon in the toolbar. Your printer should appear in the printer list. Select the printer and wait for the system to auto-select the driver. Click on the Add button.

Your printer should be configured to use TCP/IP printing. I have mine set to use a pre-configured IP address for my home network, but you should be fine setting the printer to use DHCP. If DHCP isn't working for you then configure the printer to use an IP address that is within the range of IP addresses issued by your router. For example, if your router issues addresses between 10.0.1.2 and 10.0.1.200, then configure the printer to use an IP address around 10.0.1.120. Set the printer's Gateway IP address to that used by your router which in my example would be 10.0.1.1. Open Network preferences and see what Gateway IP has been assigned to your computer. That's the one you want. Then configure the TCP Mask (which may be 255.255.255.0) and should also be displayed in Network preferences. After saving that information in the printer you should be able to re-Add it without incidence using the Default option. If you do decide to set up an IP configuration for the Print & Fax, then use LPD, not IPP.

I also just recently purchased my first new Mac, with a Lexmark C500n network printer. The newest drivers from the Lexmark website seem OK, but I just got off an hour and a half with Teck support. The setup for my computer would not work as the PDF document states from Lexmark. We ended up changing the protocol from "IPP" to "LPD", Queue, from "Printer" (or just leaving it blank) to "Port1", Name as "Lexmark C500n", and Print using "Lexmark C500 (CUPS)" drivers. I was getting the same error messages as you when I did the installation as per the Lexmark Website.
Hope this helps.

I think if you read my previous reply you will see I made the same suggestions.

Actually, no you didn't. You started with the presumption that the C510 was about the same as the C500, and sad to say it aint. If you have information about whether the C510 driver can be used to drive the C500, I'd be interested to hear it.

The C500n doesn't appear in Appletalk at all, even when Appletalk is confirmed as being active - both in System Preferences and on the Lexmark's control panel - and the validity of the IP address can easily be checked by attempting to connect to it using a browser, in which case you can check from the job status what is and isn't being printed: which is nothing. OSX does automatically pick up the right driver when attempting to hook into it using IPP or LPD, it doesn't matter what the queue name is, and in my experience when using LPD it hangs if given a print queue, or else causes the printer to be paused if that box is left blank.

On the bright side, the C500n runs USB as well as IP, and the act of connecting it via USB brought it up immediately in the printer list. Opened the queue, printed a test page which flashed across the screen briefly and did sweet FA. pausing the queue enabled me to see it, resuming printing allowed it to disappear again. Looks like it is a driver issue - Lexmark C500 (CUPS) - which is specific to this model and version of OSX: am happily running it on OSX10.3.9 under Appletalk. Maybe there is a way of patching the firmware on the printer itself?

If you have any further thoughts, I'm all ears. Meantime, I'm waiting for a call off Lexmark's tech support, and until then I'll have to run Windows XP under Parallels under which the printer works perfectly, suggesting that the hardware, networking and printer are all 100% ... go figure.