print output from canon pixma mp500 is shrunken to quarter page

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Level 1

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print output from canon pixma mp500 is shrunken to quarter page

We have a canon pixma mp500 which is connected to USB to my imac. We access it through bonjour shared from my laptop and my husband's laptop, through our home airport wifi. We have had this setup for years and had no problem. All of a sudden about a week ago, anything that was printed from the laptop (powerbookG4) has been printing on only a quarter of the page...top left quarter, to be specific. I have tried to adjust print settings, but can't figure out how to get it to print normally. I even tried removing and adding the printer in the printer list of the PB but no luck. Meanwhile, printouts from the imac are fine.

(We haven't tried the mac book pro yet because it is in for tuneup)

Thanks for your advice!

Powerbook G4, Intel imac, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Leopard on Powerbook, Snow Leopard on imac

Posted on Mar 8, 2010 11:59 AM

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Answer 1

PAHU

Level 6

16,723 points

Mar 8, 2010 2:29 PM in response to shalinini

Reading your post it sounds like the PBG4 could be using a different driver to the iMac sharing the printer.

To check the driver versions, open Print & Fax, select the MP500, click Options & Supplies and select the General tab. Make a note of the driver version. Then click the driver tab and make a note of the driver being used.

Both Mac's should show the same thing. If there is any difference, then this could explain the shrunken output.

Just to check, are both Mac's running the same version of OS X?

If the drivers appear to be the same, as a test you could connect the PBG4 to the MP500 via USB cable and see if the same shrinkage occurs.

Pahu

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Answer 2

shalinini Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 8, 2010 3:46 PM in response to shalinini

Thanks Pahu,
Both the PBG4 and the imac are using the same canon mp500 driver. I have not tried a direct usb connection to the PB, but as I said, it was working fine until last week, and I haven't really done anything differently. Anyway I will try it directly and let you know.

In the meantime if you (or anyone else) has any other suggestions, do let me know!

Thanks again.

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Answer 3

LilyLC

Level 4

2,834 points

Mar 8, 2010 6:01 PM in response to shalinini

It is possible that a preference file or something on the PB is amiss.

Consider booting the PB with the Leopard Install Disc by holding down the "c" key.
Select a language.
Go to the Utilities menu and select Disk Utility.
In the left pane, click on the hard disk.
In the right pane, click the First Aid tab and near the bottom, click Repair Disk.
If there are any errors, see if Disk Utility repaired them and re-ran the test that finally reports zero errors.
Then re-boot the PB normally.
Go to the Utilities folder, launch Disk Utility and then, Repair Disk Permissions.

HTH

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Answer 4

shfocus

Level 1

0 points

Mar 8, 2010 6:40 PM in response to LilyLC

It is also possible that printer setting (main screen of mp500) are set to L size, which would be photo size printouts! Go to settings and change the paper size to A4 again and make sure to save the preference. This often happens to my mp500 and seems like a default option... Good luck!

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