canon MP830 printing text skips in stripes since an OS update, what to do?

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canon MP830 printing text skips in stripes since an OS update, what to do?

Can print test page from utilities OK. Not all applications, but have not yet figured out which work anymore, i.e., most applications fail although inadvertently I printed successfully but did not write down which app & print config worked. Failed apps include: Word, textedit, Safari. Have tried various driver settings and tried both Canon and Gutenprint drivers with same results. Sometimes Preview works and sometimes not; have not, yet, figured out when it works. Problem seemed to have started about the time of the 10.6.6 (or 10.6.5) update.

imac 27" I5, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 12, 2011 8:42 AM

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Answer 1

PAHU

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Mar 12, 2011 5:00 PM in response to oldmacgeek

Since the issue appeared to commence after the 10.6.6 update I suggest you repair the disk permissions and also reset the printing system.

*How to Reset the Printing System*

1. Open System Preferences > Print & Fax
2. Move your mouse over the Printers list
3. Hold down the Control button and click the mouse
4. Click the "Reset printing system ..." popup
5. Restart your Mac

This will remove your print queues but not your printer drivers. So you will only need to add your printer queues again.

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Answer 2

oldmacgeek Author

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Mar 12, 2011 7:06 PM in response to PAHU

Did as recommended, i.e., reset printing system. Then tried print my test PDF file using Preview, but it failed as before. Then reset permissions. Then successfully printed the PDF file with Preview. BUT then tried printing similar test file in Word and got same bad result. Then again tried the PDF file in Preview and it failed again. So I got one successful print after resetting permissions, but then could no longer get successful printing. Any suggestions?

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Answer 3

PAHU

Level 6

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Mar 13, 2011 1:21 AM in response to oldmacgeek

Can you give some more information about the "same bad result". Does the print job reach the printer but doesn't print at all or it does print but with the wrong data? Or does the print job cause the print queue to pause or error?

If it is the latter then you could look at the cups error log. This can be accessed via the printer queue. With the print queue open, select the Printer menu and then Log & History. This will open the Console application with the cups error log selected. Here you will see the print job number in square brackets and all the entries associated with that print job number. One or more of these will start with an E, indicating an error. This will give some clues as to what is going wrong.

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Answer 4

oldmacgeek Author

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Mar 13, 2011 8:08 AM in response to PAHU

File to print looks like:
Line 1
line 2
...
line30

Printed on paper (where blank means nothing printed):
blank
blank
line 3
line 4
blank
blank
line 7
line 8
blank
...

And the lines printed are sometimes cut off with the top line missing some pixels on tope, then a whole line, then bottom line missing pixels on bottom.
Another possibly related issue is that after I repairing permissions, I tried it again without doing anything in between and many of the same files had to be repaired again.
No errors were found in the cups error log related to printing.

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Answer 5

PAHU

Level 6

16,705 points

Mar 13, 2011 2:25 PM in response to oldmacgeek

From your description it really sounds like you have a print head issue with the black nozzle group, even though you mentioned the internal test prints being okay. I would be inclined to perform a full head clean which can be done via the Canon IJ Utility.

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Answer 6

oldmacgeek Author

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Mar 15, 2011 7:11 PM in response to PAHU

Not only have I done full head cleaning, I've replaced cartridges and still have the same problem. The most annoying thing is that printing sometimes work, but I have not narrowed down to determine when it does work. For awhile I thought that printing would work ok when I printed from a pdf, but if that ever worked, it does not work any more.

I appreciate your help and hope that you have more ideas for me to try. In the meantime I am concerned that I cannot get repair-permissions to hold, so I don't know whether that impacts the printing.

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Answer 7

PAHU

Level 6

16,705 points

Mar 16, 2011 1:42 PM in response to oldmacgeek

oldmacgeek wrote:
I appreciate your help and hope that you have more ideas for me to try. In the meantime I am concerned that I cannot get repair-permissions to hold, so I don't know whether that impacts the printing.

The permissions is a concern. Given that you could get a print last time you ran it then it would suggest that it is impacting the printing. I'm not sure what you need to do to make the repair stick. If you are running 10.6.2 as your tag suggests, then a suggestion would be to download and install the 10.6.6 Combo update. If you are already running 10.6.6 then I would still recommend running this Combo update as it can resolve permissions issue for an existing system.

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