I connected my Brother HL-2140 printer to MacBook Air and all seems fine till I try to print. The print job sits in the printer. I have uninstalled the printer, restarted and rebooted the computer, all to no avail. Will this printer work with the MacBook Air M3 or not?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.6
The HL-2140 is an older USB printer. This model does not support Apple's AirPrint technology. The latest printer driver appears to be for macOS 10.15 Catalina:
https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hl2140_all&os=10060
A Catalina driver may work with a few following Mac operating system versions as well, but it would be entirely experimental.
If necessary, other experiments could possibly include using a Linux-based Raspberry Pi print server with AirPrint-like capabilities connected by USB to the printer.
The HL-2140 is an older USB printer. This model does not support Apple's AirPrint technology. The latest printer driver appears to be for macOS 10.15 Catalina:
https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hl2140_all&os=10060
A Catalina driver may work with a few following Mac operating system versions as well, but it would be entirely experimental.
If necessary, other experiments could possibly include using a Linux-based Raspberry Pi print server with AirPrint-like capabilities connected by USB to the printer.
Had the macOS 10.15 Catalina HL-2140 driver (https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hl2140_all&os=10060) been tested? Since this is not a supported macOS Sonoma 14 driver, it is quite possible that it does not work, especially not via USB.
I guess that you have tried to reset the printing system and to re-add the printer:
Reset the printing system on your Mac to solve a problem – Apple Support (UK)
Add a printer to your printer list so you can use it on Mac – Apple Support (UK)
If nothing else helps, you may have to look for another solution or workaround. Perhaps, a special print server in order to allow an otherwise unsupported printer to be used with a modern Mac (or iPhone/iPad) in an AirPrint-like way.
Techguyuk mentioned a Raspberry Pi 3 in connection with a Kyocera laser printer.
Can’t print with iPadOS17 - Apple Community
Tesserax reported about using a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ for an old HP LaserJet printer.
Can I connect my laser printer to my netw… - Apple Community
You confirmed that you have the most recent driver for Brother and have tried reinstalling it? How are you connecting, via a USB cable or via WiFi?
I am connected via cable to the MacBook Air. I do suspect that the new computer might not work with the old printer. As far as I know, I have the most recent driver for Brother -- but how would I check that?
Connecting Brother HL-2140 printer to MacBook Air
