Printers disappear

Question

Printers disappear

My question is similar to others but also different. About 2 weeks ago I did a clean re-install of Snow Leopard including all the updates. I have a Brother 5340D and an Epson 2880 printer and an Epson scanner. Printer drivers were updated and both working normally. They are not on any network - USB cables are plugged directly into the iMac port. All three show up in the System Profiler window indicating that they are indeed connected.

Yesterday both printers disappeared from all print dialogs and I cannot re-install them. The Print & Fax preference window is empty. When I click the "+" button the Add a Printer dialog appears. Both printers and the scanner show up here. When I click on one of the printers and choose Add a dialog pops up asking if I want to download and install software for the printer. When I say Install, Software Update goes out and updates the drivers and says "successful". Choosing add again repeats the process. Trying to reset the "printing system" by Option clicking the "+" button does nothing different.

Why is this happening? Do I have to reinstall Snow Leopard all over again?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jan 24, 2015 5:27 PM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Jan 25, 2015 6:38 AM in response to justmyname009

Reset Printing System

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Answer 2

Jan 25, 2015 9:58 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks, Eric. However I have tried this several times and as I said initially, this process does not work for me. Even though the link you sent is for Mountain Lion, I assume the process is similar. The "Set up a printer" link does not work. There are no printers in the list to begin with (see the screen shot). The system does appear to reset but trying to add the printers back repeats the process described above.

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