Canon is telling me its printer is having trouble in my system because of a new energy saving feature in Maverick which lowers voltage to USB ports after even a brief period of inactivity, and that the computer therefore cannot see the printer connected to the port. The suggested fix (from Canon) is to turn off the power saving feature in "hardware settings," which I don't find. Does this all sound possible?
Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)
Hmmm, the only Energy Saver I know of is the Pane in System Preferences - see screenshot. There is nothing there having to do with USB ports (unless they are suggesting that you not allow the screen or hard disk to sleep). Now, that is not exactly my area of expertise, so I'm not sure if they're blowing smoke or not, but I find it a bit suspect. I have a Canon printer, but I usually have it turned off since I don't need it all that often. If that is an option, I would try that first. I will also try to get our Canon guru's attention.....
Or are you talking about a Macbook Pro?
Never heard of that before. Does your Canon printer itself have any power saving features that can be turned off? My HP printer does and I turned them off.
photoboydc wrote:
Canon is telling me its printer is having trouble in my system because of a new energy saving feature in Maverick which lowers voltage to USB ports after even a brief period of inactivity, and that the computer therefore cannot see the printer connected to the port.
There is a known issue with Canon scanners that don't have their own power supply and rely on the USB port power. When the Mac enters sleep mode and you wake it, the scanner does not "wake" and you have to unplug the scanner USB cable and reconnect to get it working again. But there is no such issue with Canon printers that have their own power supply, so unless you have a Canon printer that does not have its own power supply and is using the USB port to power it, then I would say that you have been lied to.
When you are able to print to the Canon, open System Information (located under Applications > Utilities) and select USB in the left column. The top right pane will show all USB busses on your Mac and the Canon will be listed under one of these busses. The next time you have trouble printing, do the same action and check to see if the Mac can "see" the Canon.
Thanks for stepping in - much appreciated!
There is a known issue with Canon scanners that don't have their own power supply and rely on the USB port power.
I didn't know there is such a thing - a printer without its own power supply?
babowa wrote:
I didn't know there is such a thing - a printer without its own power supply?
I've not seen one, but since we have scanners that can work off USB and there are models of printers sold in other countries that we don't see in Oz, then I didn't want to assume that such a printer does not exist.
I have a Canon scanner that is USB powered but not a printer. Never seen one
energy saving feature on USB ports?
