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"Stopped - unable to write print data - broken pipe" Any suggestions?

I have been using Mavericks and recently I've had difficulty printing PDF documents that I receive on-line on my HP Printer. It doesn't happen to all documents, but certain ones and the error message reads "Stopped - unable to write print data - broken pipe". Does anyone have any suggestions. I was told that it is an Apple OS problem and not one of Adobe or of HP. I love Apple, but hate when these compatibility issues come up and it's their fault. It is a WiFi printing connection through my Airport Time Capsule


Looking for any and all help.


Thanks

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3), HP Color Laser Jet Printer: 2605dn

Posted on Jun 12, 2014 1:53 PM

Reply
6 replies

Jun 13, 2014 1:46 PM in response to Jdowens7

These are "generic" things to try. No idea if it'll fix your issue.

Reset Printing System:

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14141


Startup from Recovery partition and repair the hard drive using Disk Utility:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4718

(just read 1st paragraph about starting in Recovery)


Download the COMBO updater and re-update OS X:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1746


Delete and re-Add your printer after each step to see if it fixed it.

Please come back and tell us results - there are other ideas, too (short of reinstalling OS X).

Jan 15, 2015 8:55 PM in response to Jdowens7

I had a somewhat similar issue with my new (quad core) Mac Mini with Mavericks 10.9.5 installed fresh. Every time I tried to print a PDF from Preview it would fail with the broken pipe. The printer is an HP CP2025dn color laser and printing is over my home local area network (not USB.) I tried resetting the printing system and rebooting but to no avail. Also tried every possible connection type (LPR, IPP, Jetdirect, etc.) but all had the same error. I also tried shared printing through another Mac (Leopard) on our LAN but had the same error. That Mac has no problems printing. Go figure. Printing a web page from Chrome worked fine so I did the following as a test and it worked.


Step 1. Reset the Printing System (System Preferences app, Printers & Scanners, then hold Control and click in the Printers area - choose Reset option)

Step 2. Download and install Acrobat Reader (v11.0.10) for Mac and allow it to be the default app for PDF documents

Step 3. Restart the computer (Click the apple in the upper left corner, choose Restart)

Step 4. Add the printer again (Same as step 1 except add ➕ instead of reset.)

Step 5. Open a PDF in Acrobat Reader and print


Success! Even printing the same PDF from Preview works now.


Curiously, I had this same issue one my very early model Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard. I just couldn't recall what the fix was and nobody had this solution in any Apple or other forum that I could find.


Maybe this will help the frustrated souls with this issue.


By the way, this issue doesn't seem to be limited to Apple computers, but also occurs in many Linux distributions (e.g. Ubuntu) and stems from something within the CUPS printing system. That said, I don't know what the fix for Linux systems would be.

"Stopped - unable to write print data - broken pipe" Any suggestions?

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