Network Printer Problem

BauerHaus · Apr 22, 2008

I just bought an HP L7580 All-In -One printer/fax/scanner etc. I have connected it to my router via ethernet, which is connected to my Dell Inspiron 1000 Laptop PC via ethernet.
My iMac (which is in another room) has found the printer (wirelessly), with no problem. The problem is, when I click the print button, on the Mac, to print a document, everything begins to work properly, but the printer starts spitting out blank pages, and continues to spit them out, until I press the "cancel" button on the printer.
Anybody ever heard of anything like this?
Thanks, in advance,

Steve

cwa107 · Apr 22, 2008

BauerHaus said:
I just bought an HP L7580 All-In -One printer/fax/scanner etc. I have connected it to my router via ethernet, which is connected to my Dell Inspiron 1000 Laptop PC via ethernet.
My iMac (which is in another room) has found the printer (wirelessly), with no problem. The problem is, when I click the print button, on the Mac, to print a document, everything begins to work properly, but the printer starts spitting out blank pages, and continues to spit them out, until I press the "cancel" button on the printer.
Anybody ever heard of anything like this?
Thanks, in advance,

Steve

Yep, sounds like it's using the wrong driver. Did you download and install the HP-supplied driver?

BauerHaus · Apr 22, 2008

I used the supplied install disc on the PC. I didn't do anything on the Mac. The printer showed up in a list. The printer DID come with a seperate disc for Mac install. I'll try loading it on there.
thanks,
Steve

cwa107 · Apr 22, 2008

BauerHaus said:
I used the supplied install disc on the PC. I didn't do anything on the Mac. The printer showed up in a list. The printer DID come with a seperate disc for Mac install. I'll try loading it on there.
thanks,
Steve

By default, Mac OS X will use a generic Postscript driver for networked printers that it doesn't have a driver for. Since most printers these days are all but brain dead (they rely on the software almost exclusively to format print jobs), the generic Postscript drivers don't work well (or usually not at all). This is why you're getting the blank pages.

BauerHaus · Apr 22, 2008

Hey,,,thanks for the info. I'll load the disc on the mac tonight.
Thanks very much.
Steve

BauerHaus · Apr 23, 2008

CWA107,
That did the trick. Thanks very very much.
Steve

cwa107 · Apr 23, 2008

BauerHaus said:
CWA107,
That did the trick. Thanks very very much.
Steve

Cool, no problem :Cool:

BauerHaus · May 14, 2008

Well, you won't believe it, but my iMac lost the printer, so I reloaded the install disc and the printer started spitting out blank pages again, so I downloaded the latest drivers from HP's website, and it's still spitting out blank pages. I did NOT totally remove the software from the Mac, before doing all the above. Maybe I should have. I'll try that tonight. Any ideas? :Oops:

Thanks,
Steve

cwa107 · May 14, 2008

BauerHaus said:
Well, you won't believe it, but my iMac lost the printer, so I reloaded the install disc and the printer started spitting out blank pages again, so I downloaded the latest drivers from HP's website, and it's still spitting out blank pages. I did NOT totally remove the software from the Mac, before doing all the above. Maybe I should have. I'll try that tonight. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Steve

Check the driver settings and see what it's using. Look in System Preferences => Printer & Fax => click the printer in the left window pane => Click Options & Supplies => Click Driver tab. Make sure it's actually using the HP driver and not "Generic Postscript".

BauerHaus · May 15, 2008

Well, I totally uninstalled the original software (which is what I SHOULD have done to begin with), and reloaded the disc, and it works fine now. Thanks for the help.

Steve