None of our HP printers work woth 10.6

Andrew to the rescue. Thanks....

HP Mac Architect wrote:
David,

Just to jump in here for a second (and thanks to Eric for being so helpful), what is the IP address and subnet mask on your computer (you can get this in the Network System Preference). From there I can tell you what a good IP address to set on the printer would be.

Alternatively, you could turn on BootP on the printer which should enable it to get an IP address from your router if it is not currently configured.

Andrew,

I am very grateful for your help--

Is it okay to post my IP address publicly? Otherwise, I can send it to you privately, or perhaps you could explain how to turn on BootP?

By the way, I don't have a router. The 4050N and a cable modem are both connected to an Asante Ethernet hub, which is connected to the computer.

David

David,

If your IP address starts with 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x then its fine. If it doesn't and you are concerned about security we can figure something else out.

Just trying to help.

Andrew

HP Mac Architect wrote:
David,

If your IP address starts with 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x then its fine. If it doesn't and you are concerned about security we can figure something else out.

It's of the pattern 69.xxx.xxx.xx.

By the way, even though I said I didn't have a router, I notice from System Preferences>Network that underneath the subnet mask, there is also an IP address for a router.

David

OK, and what is the subnet mask, this will be enough to go off of.

Just trying to help.

Andrew

Duplicate message, now deleted--please ignore.

Sorry for being abrupt, but the first thing you should check when upgrading to a new generation of an OS (Windows or MAC OS) is to check whether periphereals also have updated drivers. Unfortunately HP is one of those giants lazy with updating their printer drivers, and are going on slowly. I have 3 HP periphereals, a 3800 scanner, which (surprisingly) works with the old driver, HP D2460, which has a driver update released a week ago (did not work with Tiger and Leo driver), and HP laser P1005, which works with an older driver, the one released 2 years ago! (version 1.0.4), after its installation Software Update detects an Apple update for HP printers, v. 2.2
Some say generic drivers also work. You should check this option too. You should also try Gutenprint (includes support for SOME, not all, HP printers; and also the generic UNIX support known as HPIJS, google for it).
As always so far, a new generation of MAC OS has such problems during the first 3-4 months of their lives, and – frankly – I do not hold Apple responsible for this shallow behavior of HP.

HP Mac Architect wrote:
OK, and what is the subnet mask, this will be enough to go off of.

Just trying to help.

The subnet mask is 255.255.254.0.

David

David,

I must say, that is an interesting setup. Since you are on a Class A network somewhere, and have a rather huge subnet mask, you have 32,768 possibilities for your printer. That being said, I'll narrow it down a bit to help you.

Assuming your device is on 69.A.B.1 (and I don't care what the actual values of A and B are, but they will be somewhere between 0 and 255), I suggest you give your printer an IP address in the range 69.A.B.2 - 69.A.B.14. This will keep it relatively close to the IP address you have on your computer. If you can't find a free IP address in that range, you will do best to keep your printers IP address set to 69.A.B.x. Also make sure the A and B are the same as on your actual computer.

If your printer has an IP address like 192.0.0.192, you simply will not be able to print to it. If you can enable BootP on your printer, you may be able to get it to pick up an IP address automatically.

Good luck, and report back your results.

Just trying to help.

Andrew

Cattus,

I just want to point out the problems on this thread (at least the last several pages) are due to the lack of AppleTalk, a feature Apple dropped. I won't try to change your mind about HP, but the drivers you suggest won't be any better then the one HP is providing.

Just trying to avoid confusion.

Andrew

Message was edited by: HP Mac Architect

OK, new poster. I have read this thread through to the end, yes it's 3 am. I have an iMac that I use at home and I have the following setup:
Verizon router:192.168.1.1
dLink wireless print server:192.168.1.5
several machines besides my iMac hanging off the router, 2 tivos on wireless, and a Lenovo latop:192.168.1.4

As with everyone else, I installed OS 10.6 AND iLife '09. I'm an all in kinda guy I guess. The printer I have hooked up an HP5610 all-in-one to the dLink shows up on a port name as dlink-fcb02b_9103 from a windows test print. The windows box works fine to print.

I have tried using all of the various HP Jetprint, LDP, and straight TCP/IP protocols, used countless foomatic and HP sanctioned drivers, and the best result I can get is a spooling message that goes nowhere, or a host busy will retry in xx seconds. I even got an HP software update while wading through this thread, and hoped that it might solve the driver problem. Finally I was able to open a terminal window and ping the top level IP 192.168.1.5, and I get packets sent and received until I kill the terminal window. It was not obvious to me that I could reconfigure the printer's IP Add'y since it's really not hooked up like some of the networked ones i this thread, but please tell me what I need to do at this point to get a printout with the setup i have, if possible. I could go get the printer and bring it up and hardwire it, but this is not an option I can do other than as a diagnostic.

Any Andy or other help appreciated at this point.

Stan

Andrew,

Any word yet on future HP-native drivers for the Color Laserjet 1500L or Officejet 7110? I downloaded the latest 2.2 drivers from Apple, and our printers are still a no-show. Why did these printers get overlooked, when much older printers (such as the Laserjet 4M) are supported?

Amy,

I have some bad news for you. Neither of those products (the Color LaserJet 1500L or the Officejet 7110) made the transition to Intel. We dropped support for them with Tiger for Intel. They were not supported under Leopard, and will not be supported under Snow Leopard.

The reason you find much older printers (such as the Laserjet 4M you mentioned supported) is because these are PostScript based devices. PostScript provides a common language that printers speak and its Apple that really provides the drivers for these, all printer vendors do is provide a text file that describes the features in the printer.

In ordered to lower the cost of printing devices PostScript was removed (and has never been in most Ink based devices) since it takes a computer on the printer to process PostScript. Over the years the way we address printers on a USB bus changed, and the print system in Mac OS X has changed significantly as well. Every time these changes occur, there is really no new work for PostScript devices. Every time these changes occur, we pretty much have to write the printer driver over again for not PostScript devices. So the item that drove the cost of the printer down is also what drives the cost of supporting the printers up, and drives vendors (not just HP) to drop printers over time. The cost of continually writing drivers for these old printers is simply too much.

While I know this doesn't take the sting out of having devices that are no longer supported, I hope it explains part of the reason that companies (like HP) make the decisions they do. And trust me, I understand your frustration. Having something that was working stop just because you upgraded some software never really sits right. Just remember, under the hood, Snow Leopard is really a fairly major upgrade.

Just trying to help.

Andrew

Stan,

The HP Deskjet 5160 is no longer supported under Snow Leopard. If you're talking about the HP Photosmart D5160, then it is. In either case, printing to a print server generally requires some sort of compatible version of the driver on the Mac. Under Snow Leopard I have seen many reports of people without updated printer drivers having problems with print spoolers (and don't worry, many who do have them are having issues as well).

If you have the Deskjet, my suggestion would be to try and install the 10.5 drivers and see if you can get them to work. There will be issues with printing from 64-bit applications, but there are work arounds in this thread. As they are at least Intel native, and designed for your printer, they would be my first choice. If it is the Photosmart, then the In-OS drivers should work.

Now as far as setting up the print queue, I am unfamiliar with the router you have. Do you remember how it was setup in Leopard? Have you tried setting it up using IPP (under the IP section)? Your device should be routable, so it is hopefully just a matter of getting it configured right.

Just trying to help.

Andrew

Andrew -

Sorry it was hard to tell what printer. It's an HP 5610 Officejet all-in-one, which is listed on both the HP and mac sites but in an interesting twist, has not been compatibility tested with the dlink DPR 1260 wireless G print server.

I am now considering a mac base station with USB as a backup plan, per a suggestion by one of my coworkers to try to get the thing to print.

In the interim, I will try to revert to the 10.5 drivers to see what I can do. Can I load the old OS CD and or just go download the latest 10.5 drivers and cludge it that way, or do I need to overwrite the whole OS?

Thanks for Helping

Stan