Printing woes

I open up the printing icon, click the plus sign...and nothing. Nothing shows. I have a WiFi connection with my Linksys G, and my HP desktop, through an ethernet connection is also hooked up to my HP printer. My old pc laptop found it just fine. My MBP does't recognize anything. I went on the pc into the control panel and added the OS X and 515? Don't have a clue as to what that means. Also changed to print sharing. Told to go into the terminal and type up some gobbily gook and it asked for a password. It wouldn't even type. God...there has to be an easier way. I know many people have asked, but it seems to friggin difficult. I'm thinking I'll just do all my typing on the pc....I hate to do that, because I enjoy doing work on my laptop.

I open up the printing icon, click the plus sign...and nothing

Click to expand...

You're in prefs, click in 'Print & Fax', then click plus and nothing happens?

A new window should open up. If not, there's an OS problem.

It would also be handy if you gave us some information about what MacBook Pro / OS you're actually on. Your post is just a rant - not a methodical post to help us diagnose and solve the problem.

Well, I disagree with your assessment of it being a rant. Yes, I'm frustrated, but that is only because I have used pc's for over 20 years, and it is a little frustrating trying to figure out something that is very different from what I am used to. I have a new MPB with Leopard. As far as methodical...it is somewhat difficult to be precise and methodical, when I don't have a clue as to what I am doing. And, after reading many other posts by new individuals to macs....I'm definitely not alone. Yes, the new window does open up, but it doesn't provide me with any information.

jacintosh said:

Well, I disagree with your assessment of it being a rant. Yes, I'm frustrated, but that is only because I have used pc's for over 20 years, and it is a little frustrating trying to figure out something that is very different from what I am used to. I have a new MPB with Leopard. As far as methodical...it is somewhat difficult to be precise and methodical, when I don't have a clue as to what I am doing. And, after reading many other posts by new individuals to macs....I'm definitely not alone. Yes, the new window does open up, but it doesn't provide me with any information.

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Please don't start new threads when you don't get the answer you want in existing threads on the subject.

You're making us reinvent the wheel rather than just working with us in existing threads.

Sorry, I also am not forum proficient. That response was intended for, what I thought was this sight. When I was unable to find it, I did post it on the site that I knew I could find. Didn't mean to be redundant.

jacintosh said:

Sorry, I also am not forum proficient. That response was intended for, what I thought was this sight. When I was unable to find it, I did post it on the site that I knew I could find. Didn't mean to be redundant.

Click to expand...

I have to apologize too as I was confusing you with another member. Normally, I'd be a little more tolerant. See my post in the thread linked to above - and let's pick up this discussion on that thread.

I don't understand why my Mac doesn't find my printer. It found my router just fine. I tried going into the printer utility and after clicking manual, it asked for my ip address for my hp printer....I can't find it, and I don't know if that even will work. When I did the add printer to my pc, I didn't click the automatic config which normally does the virtual usb port....I was told to add the tcp/ip one? I just don't know what to do. It asked for the ip address....do NOT have a clue. When I plugged my printer directly into my computer, via usb cable...bam! It came right up after hitting the plus sign. So....it apparently is compatible...it just isn't reading whether it's the ip address or I just don't know.

I'm running Leopard and I'm having the same problem. A couple of days ago I looked in Finder and there were both my other computers. But that only lasted that day. I didn't do anything different that day that I don't do every day. I was using Tiger on a macbook and all was fine... No problems... Wished I knew what was up with Leopard...

I guess

I'll just have to connect my laptop to the usb cable if I want to print. Macs just don't talk to pc's. Oh well.

Did you install Bonjour for Windows as I suggested?

There is a great guide for setting up network printers that's really simple:

Networking Printers FAQ

I just used it the other day and it works like a charm. Trust me, I thought it was a hopeless cause to try and get my Macs to print to the printers connected to my PC, but after following that guide, it worked instantly. I felt so stupid for not having found it earlier

Continued printer frustration

Well, I got my Mac to see my hp printer. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an updated driver. So I installed the generic driver and my printer started spitting out blank pieces of paper like it is possessed. Arrrrrgh! I went on the internet, and I couldn't find a 5700 series driver for my MBP.

What exact model HP? Deskjet 5700?

Found this for the 5740. Not sure of your exact model.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=219&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=&product=357202&lang=

So far, HP network printers on a mixed network have been my biggest frustration with Macs. HP has told me they don't support that kind of setup and I can't seem to extract the driver out of their local printer utility. Its irritating that HP would make such a simple concept this complicated.

-MikeM

I'm using an HP 2710 on my network via an Airport Express. I just used the generic HP driver and it works fine. My network includes 1 Windows XP (SP2) machine and 5 Macs

In my experience, HP has been far superior to the old Epson(s) I used to use.

Very very frustrating. I hook my mac up to the printer through a usb cable, and it works fine. Shows the cute little pic of my hp deskjet 5740, and there is zero problems. Under windows workgroup, it shows office computer, I enter password, and bingo...my deskjet....however, I add generic driver and it starts printing blank pages like there's no tomorrow

HP is a late comer to supporting both Mac's and Linux. Even with some of their early drivers that did support multiple OS's, many of them did not support networking on either the Mac or Linux. Or only supported sharing the printer in a single OS (though not documented and you didn't find out until you called tech support with the problem).

I was prepared when I bought my MBP due to all my experimentation with Linux. Went through similar frustrations then. And I know you don't want to hear it, but if you haven't been able to get it working with cwa's printer faq, it may be time for a new one. Didn't even try putting my less than 1 yr old printer/scanner on my Mac. Never could get it to work with any flavor of Linux. It's still sittin' on the floor in the office closet. Went out and bought a new printer that was network ready, had drivers for both windows and mac, hooked it up to my router and haven't looked back since.

With a usb cable connecting to my computer, how can I get my printer to connect to the router? Is there an adapter that connects to the end of the usb cable? I think, the fact that the printer is connecting to the pc, is causing the problem. I need to somehow hook it up to the router. When I hook it directly to my MBP, it works flawlessly.

Yeah, that was the problem with some of those older HP drivers. I've had a couple of them in years past. They did everything great until you wanted to share the printer on a mixed OS network. I was always using Linux back then. Got the printer to work in either OS. But share it from a Windows box to a Linux box or vice versa was a no go. So everytime someone else wanted to print, I was having to reboot back into the other OS it seemed.

To connect a USB printer to a router, you have to have a router that includes a print server and has a USB connection on the router. They're getting hard to find. And when you do find one, it'll be about the same price as a new network ready printer.

Or you can do as I did this time around, bought a printer that is network ready. It has both a USB and an ethernet port. Also, had sworn off HP printers a while back, but ended up with this one. A year ago, it was a $280 printer. Bought mine right after the new year models came out for $150. It's worked flawlessly across both my Win and Mac machines until my upgrade to Leopard. HP has already come out with new drivers for Leopard, which I installed just a couple of days ago. But, have not tested everything yet. It looks like it will still not advise me which color ink tank is empty on my Mac.

For me, this was a good option. Got a network ready printer, 6 individual ink tanks, a photo quality printer for not that much more than the price of replacing all the ink cartridges in my then current printer.

My old computers and stuff like this, I look around for a family that really can't afford to buy this kind of thing to give it to or sell for a just a token payment. That really helps take the edge off the new piece I had bought and brings a smile to someone else. Those smiles are worthwhile.

Thanks for your response. I'm thinking about getting the Airport Express. I think that might work.