Problems printing with Canon IR C2880i

Pahu:

Thanks for the reply back. I do want to be clear in what is going on with my system right now, not necessarily to help me but more-so to help you to help others. Currently, my printing issues seem to be resolved, although I am not sure how or why. Insight would be helpful.

As I mentioned previously, I only began having print issues recently. I do not print everyday as some might do, so an exact timetable as to when the issue really manifested itself in my Macbook Pro is a bit nebulas. Regardless, the point at which I noticed the issue was very recent, within the last week. How that timetable corresponds to the 10.6.4 update, I am not sure. My reference to this upgrade is merely to hypothesize, as many others have done, as to whether this update could be at the root cause, directly or indirectly. I can think of no other reason my system would just "stop" printing, except by just dumb luck as what comes with anything electronic. Sometime things just stop working for no apparent reason.

After reading many of the suggestions you have posted to a variety of folks on this forum, I have done what I can to help resolve my issue - even without completely understanding why I am preforming certain steps. I have removed the printer from the devices available; I have removed/uninstalled the print driver from the Library ("Printers" and "Application Support"); and, of course, I have reinstalled the driver that "used" to work. All of these efforts ultimately gave me the same error box. Please remember that I have NEVER been able to get the original driver for the iR C2880i from Canon to work since we began to use that printer in early 2009. Apparently at that time, Canon's support of Mac and the associated drivers for Mac was little to non-existant. To my knowledge, no such driver specifically for this printer worked on a Mac. Regardless, I was able to find one driver that would allow me to print both b&w as well as color. Since I "found" a driver to work, I never had any need to return to Canon to see if a new driver had been made available for download. So, the driver that I have ben trying to get to work is one that I have used for some time and may be a generic. The title of the file, as it is listed in my "Download" (I keep many, many useless downloads) is "UFR II_V200_MacOSX_usEN.dmg". You may be familiar with this. I am sure it is one that you suggested to someone some time ago, or one that someone "discovered" to work. Regardless, it is a moot point now - it no longer works.

This issue gave me reason to return to Canon to see if a driver had finally been developed. I did download the driver from that site, but it did not work - even after preforming the steps you outlined to others, many times. I would always get a what I have called critical error - a popup indicating that an operation failed (in this case, printing) and that the following report would be sent to Apple. If this report or log is stored on my Mac somewhere, please tell me exactly (very specifically) where to find it and I will send it to you. I tried other random drivers from the Canon list as brought up when I "Added a new printer". Some would bring up the bouncing printer in the dock for just a brief second - cause the printer to move its trays (the ones that prepare to receive the print job), but they only moved for a second and not even a glimmer of life after that. Communication is working, the printer is just not getting the info the printer needs to actually print. Other print drivers caused the printer to spit out 50 blank sheets with one or two filed with binary nonsense. I believe you addressed this issue of lots of blank sheets somewhere else - however, your suggested fix did not help in my particular case.

Finally, you mentioned to another poster in a conversation about Post Script (which I do not have) and a UK version of the Canon iR C2880i driver. I took that link, downloaded that driver and, at least right now, all things are working ok. Both b&w as well as color are printing. Not sure what I am missing out on as far as features - but beggars cannot be choosy. At least I can print. Why this driver works, and not others - especially the US version, who knows. The US file from Canon that I downloaded (that did not work and gave me the same critical pop-up error) was iR-PSv3.10_MacOSX.zip.download. The UK file that I downloaded that seems to be working thus far is PPD MacOSX_Ver290_uKEN.dmg.

Before, I mentioned the 10.6.4 download and the popular forum suspicion that it might have cause this error. You also mentioned a "combo" download in your response to me. As many Mac users do, I conduct my downloads/upgrades automatically when "Software Update" tells me to do so. I vary rarely seek out Apple or any other sight for a specific download. In my quest to prove or disprove that 10.6.4 caused my issues, I went searching for how to revert back to 10.6.3 without my SL disc (which I did not have with me - it was at home, I am at work). During that quest, I found a site that had a 10.6.4 "Combo" that apparently comes with it more files needed to "fix" problems. Those files would not necessarily be needed in a normal Software Update due to file size or the assumption that all of your files were not corrupt. I did download this "Combo" but found the UK driver to fix my problem before the "Combo" finished downloading. I have the file - all 850mb of it, but did not want to install it for fear that it might "unfix" my issue. Your thoughts would be appreciated. I will keep the original 10.6.4 as installed via Software Update untill you suggest otherwise. There may be not difference, as far as print drivers are concerned, with the Combo verses the regular 10.6.4. My only thought would be that the Combo may fix a piece of broken software code, partially causing print issues, not repairable via Repair Disk Permissions.

After your response, I did go back and do something I had not tried - disk utilities. The following are issues that came up during Verify:

"Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Deploy.bundle/ Contents/Resources/JavaPluginCocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/deploy.jar"

Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPlugin Cocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/deploy.jar",

Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPlugin Cocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/libdeploy.jnilib",

Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.

All were repaired successfully. Not sure this long string will help much, but I will provide more specific info if you just ask. Keep in mind that I am not a Software guy, so you may have to be specific when asking.






When I id return

When 10.6 was released, the then current version of the UFR2 driver (a version 1.80) did not function correctly on the new OS. It would install but when you added the printer queue you got an error message stating that the printer model was incorrect. Several weeks after the 10.6 release Canon made available the UFR2 v2.00 driver. This driver was actually created before the 10.6 release so there was no official support for the new OS, however this driver could at least print, albeit there were still some issues with its operation. It also only supported a limited number of imageRUNNER devices so it was not the perfect solution. With my testing I found that I could use the driver to our iRC2550, but our iRC3380 (the bigger brother to the iRC2880) was not listed as a supported model. For this model you had to select a generic UFRII model, listed as "Canon iR C Series UFR II (UK)" for our region. From your information I would suggest that you were using this generic selection, although it was probably the US version (which as far as I understand simply differs with the default paper size - A4 vs LTR).

In November 2009, Canon released v2.05 of the UFRII driver. This was the first official Snow Leopard release and was soon followed by v2.06, that rectified a couple of issues with v2.05. Both of these drivers still did not have the iRC2880/3380 listed as a supported model. The most recent version of the UFRII driver is v2.10 and this version does have the iRC2880/3380 listed as a supported model. As you have seen this driver works with 10.6.x and I would expect it to continue working after you apply the Combo update. I have several Mac's in the office running 10.6.4 that are printing with this driver.

The v3.10 driver you mentioned is a Postscript driver so if your iRC2880 does not have the Postscript kit then it will not work. But if the machine does not have Postscript then you would also not be able to use the Canon v2.90 PPDs you mentioned. I would expect that while you may have downloaded and installed this PPD suite, you probably are not using the PPD for the iRC2880 but using the UFRII driver instead. You can confirm this by opening Print & Fax, selecting the iRC2880 in the list and looking at the pane on the right. In the Kind column will be the driver being used (you can also see this by opening Options & Supplies and selecting the Driver tab). If you see "Canon iR C2880/C3380 UFR II (UK or US)" then you are using the UFR2 driver. If you see "Canon iR C2880/C3380" then you are using the PPDs and this would suggest you do have the Postscript kit in the copier.

So, I think that you should not have a problem with the UFRII driver after applying the 10.6.4 Combo update. If you do then try deleting the queue and adding it back again. If that doesn't help then post the question. I should be able to guide you through the process of getting it to work again.