Pixma Printer Trouble

I know this is a topic which has been covered quite a bit already on here but I have a specific problem which I can't seem to find an answer to.

I'm running snow leopard on my macbook and trying to use my new canon pixma mp490.

I have downloaded the drivers from the website and it would appear my computer has successfully acknowledged and added both the scanner and the printer. I can print straight from the scanner and I can scan an image onto my computer but when I try to print an image from my computer I keep getting the error that the printer is "offline". If anyone could help me out here I would be forever grateful.

Hi there,
Considering you're trying to power your scanner from a laptop, this sounds to me, like it could be a power problem, namely that the USB port is not capable of supplying the scanner with enough power to operate properly.

I'd highly suggest that you purchase a powered USB hub and connect the scanner to this, instead of directly to the macbook.

Hope this info helps.

Hi Rottie,

Thank you so much for replying. I'm not sure I understand what you're saying since the scanner works perfectly, it's only the printing part I have an issue with and also the pixma has it's own power supply so I don't see how it needs anything other than information from my macbook? Forgive me, I'm not great with this technical stuff. I will try anything at this point though and I'll definitely give your suggestion a go. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking the trouble to reply.

Thanks again, Wembley.

p.s. that is a gorgeous dog

I have fought this battle recently with both a Canon MP980 and 990 recently.It took me several tries to get both functions working. Sometimes scanning worked and printing didn't and sometimes printing worked and scanning did not.

Unfortunately, I am not entirely sure what fixed it. I had to install the driver several times before I got the right software. IMHO Canon's site does a poor job with both identifying the correct driver and with installation once the driver is downloaded. I have never had to do so many restarts with other OS X software.

On either case, while it can't hurt to try a powered hub, I keep one around for a variety of reasons, I don't think that is the issue here.

Love the printer(s). The software and stability has been junk. I have a MP620.

I guess perseverance is the order of the day, at least I know it's not just me.

mdfuller said:

Love the printer(s). The software and stability has been junk. I have a MP620.

Click to expand...

If you remember the steps to get it started can you post them for the OP. Might save a lot of grief. I can't seem to find reliable, understandable directions. I suspect that the general steps are the same for all of their models.

wembley said:

Hi Rottie,

Thank you so much for replying. I'm not sure I understand what you're saying since the scanner works perfectly, it's only the printing part I have an issue with and also the pixma has it's own power supply so I don't see how it needs anything other than information from my macbook? Forgive me, I'm not great with this technical stuff. I will try anything at this point though and I'll definitely give your suggestion a go. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking the trouble to reply.

Thanks again, Wembley.

p.s. that is a gorgeous dog

Click to expand...

Hi again,

Apologies for not replying sooner, but I've been very busy.

After reading the other posts, I am more inclined to agree that it's likely a driver issue here, rather than a hardware/cable one, but the way I was taught to troubleshoot problems like these, was to eliminate the more obvious causes, before moving on to the seemingly less obvious ones.

Now, moving forward, I have visited the Canon support site and there's a printer driver available there, namely MP490 series CUPS Printer Driver Ver. 10.26.0.0 (Mac OS X 10.5/10.6), which has a release date of 09/07/2009 (US date format, so for us Brits, that'd translate to 07/09/09) and a file size of 9.1Mb.
Is this the driver that you have previously downloaded?

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the driver? Also, remember to physically power down and restart the printer, and also unplug and re-attach the USB cable, so that the printer can be "seen" by the OS. I remember, I had a similar issue with my Epson SX515W, when I first got my Mac Mini and it took a few attempts more than I would have liked, to get them singing from the same song sheet, so to speak.

WRT my dog, She's my baby. That pic of her was taken when she was younger and now, she's going to be four this September. Do a search on my username, and you'll find a few more pics of her, scattered around these forae.

Slydude said:

If you remember the steps to get it started can you post them for the OP. Might save a lot of grief. I can't seem to find reliable, understandable directions. I suspect that the general steps are the same for all of their models.

Click to expand...

That's the problem! I just keep banging away and eventually it works. Way too many things to remember. I have done it like three times. Next time I will write the steps down as people here have had several issues. I have used the wireless and the wired connections on the printer.

I also have a MP 620. The steps to get it working wireless with (at that time Leopard) were mind boggling. Was a bit easier with the newer drivers for Snow Leopard but still took some experimenting.

However, it turned out to be Plug N Play when I installed Windows 7. It was like a miracle - I really didn't have to do anything to get it going wireless for everything. Why is it so easy for Windows and much more complicated for OS X?

I guess the answer is that printer manufacturers have more experience at writing drivers for Windows than OS X.

Regards.

Hi Everyone,

After spending three days on the phone with Canon and getting absolutely nowhere I ended up just connecting the printer to my old macbook which just has ordinary leopard and it worked perfectly first go. Snow Leopard seems like such a minor update I really don't understand why there is such an issue with it. Anyway, I really appreciate all the effort you've all gone to to reply to me, it really has made the whole process more tolerable.

Thanks again, Wembley.

I had the same issue when I first upgraded to SL as well, I have a MP530. I had to install the drivers a few times, then it worked itself out. I have never had any issues with Canon's printers or drivers, always worked for me, save for that one time. SL originally had many bugs, which they still have some to work out now, still waiting for the next update to come out.