HP Photosmart C5100 - Inactive print and scan menus

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HP Photosmart C5100 - Inactive print and scan menus

I've just bought a new mac mini with Snow Leopard installed on it. My HP Photosmart C5180 (connected through USB) has been correctly detected and installed; I can also print without any problem. But the "open print queue" and "open scanners" buttons are not responding.
I've tried to delete the printer and reinstall it but that did not solve the problem.

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.6), HP Photosmart C5100

Posted on Sep 7, 2009 4:01 PM

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Answer 1

pengtao

Level 2

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Sep 10, 2009 3:45 PM in response to chapman07

Does "reset printing system" solve your problem?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3771

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Answer 2

Sep 10, 2009 4:24 PM in response to pengtao

Apple just release Mac OS X 10.6.1 update and HP printer driver updates. Install them and see if your issue persists. Thanks.

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Answer 3

chapman07 Author

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Sep 12, 2009 3:57 PM in response to William Maxwell

I've reset the printing system and updated the drivers but the problem persists.

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Answer 4

pengtao

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Sep 12, 2009 4:35 PM in response to chapman07

Try the command below in your Terminal and try again:
sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Printers

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Answer 5

chapman07 Author

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Sep 13, 2009 5:30 PM in response to pengtao

I don't have such a directory.

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Answer 6

pengtao

Level 2

280 points

Sep 13, 2009 7:36 PM in response to chapman07

Can you please post the output of the command below?
ls -al ~/Library
ls -al ~/Library/Printers

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Answer 7

chapman07 Author

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Sep 13, 2009 10:08 PM in response to pengtao

As you can see no Printers directory in ~/Library:
drwx------+ 24 chap chap 816 Sep 7 21:43 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 36 chap chap 1224 Sep 11 07:29 ..
-rw------- 1 chap chap 15364 Sep 7 21:45 .DS_Store
-rw------- 1 chap chap 82 Mar 13 2009 . .DS_Store_
-rw-r--r-- 1 chap chap 0 Dec 11 2006 .localized
drwxr-xr-x 8 chap chap 272 Sep 7 09:33 Address Book Plug-Ins
drwx------+ 22 chap chap 748 Sep 8 20:58 Application Support
drwx------ 2 chap chap 68 Sep 6 22:06 Autosave Information
drwxr-xr-x 46 chap chap 1564 Sep 13 18:23 Caches
drwxr-xr-x 7 chap chap 238 Sep 3 21:23 Calendars
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 chap chap 102 Sep 13 21:39 Cookies
drwx------+ 3 chap chap 102 Sep 3 23:18 Favorites
drwxr-xr-x 3 chap chap 102 Sep 4 09:53 FontCollections
drwxr-xr-x 2 chap chap 68 Sep 4 09:51 Fonts Disabled
drwx------ 4 chap chap 136 Sep 9 23:05 Keychains
drwxr-xr-x 3 chap chap 102 Sep 7 21:43 LaunchAgents
drwxr-xr-x 8 chap chap 272 Sep 6 19:30 Logs
drwx------ 21 chap chap 714 Sep 13 22:02 Mail
drwxr-xr-x 3 chap chap 102 Sep 12 14:03 Mail Downloads
drwx------+ 119 chap chap 4046 Sep 13 22:02 Preferences
drwxr-xr-x 5 chap chap 170 Sep 3 17:25 PubSub
drwxr-xr-x@ 11 chap chap 374 Sep 5 23:57 Safari
drwxr-xr-x 3 chap chap 102 Sep 7 08:56 iTunes

There is however a /Library/Printers directory:
drwxrwxr-x 10 root admin 340 Sep 11 07:29 .
drwxrwxr-t+ 60 root admin 2040 Sep 7 15:42 ..
drwxrwxr-x 10 root admin 340 Aug 14 13:56 Brother
drwxrwxr-x 4 root admin 136 Aug 14 13:53 Canon
drwxrwxr-x 7 root admin 238 Aug 14 13:55 EPSON
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root admin 0 Sep 11 07:29 InstalledPrinters.plist
drwxrwxr-x 12 root admin 408 Aug 14 13:56 Lexmark
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Jun 28 17:52 PPDs
drwxrwxr-x 34 root admin 1156 Jun 30 22:26 Samsung
drwxrwxr-x 11 root admin 374 Aug 14 13:56 hp

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Answer 8

pengtao

Level 2

280 points

Sep 13, 2009 11:02 PM in response to chapman07

Then run the command below and try again, should work.
mkdir ~/Library/Printers

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Answer 9

chapman07 Author

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Sep 14, 2009 8:17 PM in response to pengtao

Thanks a lot for your advice: it works now!
I'm not sure though why this directory hadn't been created by default...

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Answer 10

Sep 15, 2009 4:55 AM in response to chapman07

I have had problems with my HP C5180. It prints ok, and after some mindless and panic-stricken delete and reinstall printer and queue stuff plus re-installing of printer software from the Snow Leopard Disk optional instal box it will now find the scanner and perform a scan. However, it does not handle OCR, it just takes graphic images. The guidance on the HP site does not discriminate between OCR and image, but it does cite Apple Image Capture and Preview as the options. They both work, but, no surprise, not for OCR.

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