Printing with HP Laserjet 5L

Question

Level 1

0 points

Printing with HP Laserjet 5L

Cannot print more than 1 time with HP Laserjet 5L unless I reboot machine (which is very inconvenient). Additional print job(s) will queue up but will take forever to spool and eventually after about 30 minutes it quits trying.

I know printer is old - but it works fine (on my old PC...)
Using printer cable (not USB port).
Print driver being used is HP Laserjet 5L - Gutenprinting 5.2.3
It appears on the HP site that there isn't a driver for this for mac's.

Just installed Snow Leopard (but same problem existed in 10.5)... was hoping the update might miraculously fix - haha.

Any suggestions?? Thanks VERY MUCH in advance for any and all help.

iMac (July 09), Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Dec 15, 2009 5:52 PM

Reply

Answer 1

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Dec 15, 2009 8:30 PM in response to jb2510

Clarify - you're using Windows Printing, or, you're using a USB-parallel adapter cable?
If you're using a USB-adapter cable, this is happening because parallel was a bidirectional comm port - but the USB-parallel doesn't do this properly. Get the alternate USB driver "usbtb."
http://buymelunch.org/printing/usbtb/

Reply

Answer 2

jb2510 Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 16, 2009 6:48 AM in response to greg sahli

I'm not sure what you mean by "Windows Printing"... I am using an old printer cable (serial or parallel.. whatever.. that I've used forever)... printer doesn't even have a usb port.

Reply

Answer 3

mobiltom

Level 1

0 points

Jan 24, 2010 12:45 AM in response to jb2510

There is no Apple Macintosh Computer with a Parallel Printer Port.
So you either use a USB-to-Centronics-parallel-printer-cable or you don't actually have an Apple computer.
If you use the adapter cable it would help to know which one (vendor, name of the cable).
My father is using such cable to connect the Laserjet 6L (almost identical to your 5L) with his iMac 20" 2,66 1066 running Snow Leopard 10.6.2

Try deleting the printer from the systems settings printer page. Restart the computer. Re-install the printer connected to the IEEE 1284-port (the cable should be autodetected by MacOS).
Try sending small amount of pages. The printers memory is very limited and MacOS send highdef printing data ...

Reply