HP Printer Errors... is problem in printer, driver, network?

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Level 1

8 points

HP Printer Errors... is problem in printer, driver, network?

Suddenly my MacBook Pro (2020, Catalina) stopped talking to my networked HP OfficeJet Pro 8100. I reset the network yesterday and it printed fine, then today the same thing happened again. Keep getting error messages in Console similar to:

Missing value on line 5643 of /private/var/spool/cups/cache/job.cache.

Can’t open “/private/var/spool/cups/tmp/0b6fb61cf41bf.”

Queue sometimes says unable to find printer, printer in use, printer idle. I delete queued jobs, turn off and on, etc. Then suddenly it will print normally as if nothing happened. Drivers are up to date. Network diagnostics show no issues. Does this just mean my printer is on death's door?

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Dec 29, 2021 6:57 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

140,123 points

Dec 29, 2021 9:10 AM in response to amblerj

I suggest you set up your Macs for IPv6 set to Link-Local only. This allows MacOS to use Bonjour Discovery protocol to locate devices by name.

Then set up the Printer again. wait for MacOS to "fill in the blanks" and supply information derived from your Network. Your Printer(s) should now be shown as Bonjour printers. Select by name (not IP address) and Do NOT take the default "AirPrint Driver" if there is another HP Driver available -- use the HP driver if possible.

________

<< DHCP IP addresses >>

if the first suggestion does not solve it, DHCP on the Printer could be the problem. If you can, I suggest you use the Printer's on-board control panel to assign it a MANUAL IP address.

If your computer is at 192.168.0.9, use something less than 255 that will never get handed out using DHCP, such as 192.168.0.120

It should be the same in the base octets, and different in that last octet, but less than 255.

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Answer 2

Dec 29, 2021 7:39 AM in response to amblerj

If your printer occasionally gets lots, that is not an indication that it is near death.

How is it connected to your network { Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB, other} ?

{Manual IP address, DHCP IP address, other}?

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Answer 3

amblerj Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 29, 2021 9:15 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I uninstalled and reinstalled the printer, no luck. I downloaded the HP Easy Start driver and tried to install it. It detected the printer in the network but then I was met with a spinning wheel of nothing.

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Answer 4

Dec 29, 2021 10:01 AM in response to amblerj

I have an HP 2550 color laser printer (Network Printer, connected by Ethernet, postscript and PCL capable) that has been printing steadily for a decade. if I have IPv6 enabled, the printer shows up as selectable in the list of available printers to be added as a Bonjour Printer. (Bonjour uses IPv6 link-local to find these devices and services).

If I wait a Moment after selecting it, Add-A-Printer queries the printer, finds the appropriate driver, and selects that Driver it in the window.

If I run HP easy start, NOTHING is found.

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Answer 5

amblerj Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 29, 2021 8:55 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Printer connected to network by Ethernet, laptop connected wirelessly, DHCP IP address.

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Answer 6

amblerj Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 29, 2021 10:04 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Interesting... I was able to run HP Easy Start and it recognized my printer easily. Then spinning wheel. If I quit I was met with a choice to close/cancel, continue (which only led to more time on the spinning wheel) or Go to Software Download, which led to a warning about unauthorized extensions. So this time I took a chance and clicked that, and did a one-time authorization. Driver downloaded! And now I can print just fine (in fact, jobs seem to load faster than they had in a while, guess I hadn't noticed they were slowing down) with ONE exception: Adobe Acrobat Reader won't print. No big deal, I use Preview more often than Acrobat anyway, because I have found the new version of Acrobat annoying in other ways too.

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HP Printer Errors... is problem in printer, driver, network?

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