Wheelman

OK I've got this fantastic printer now for my digital camera pics but I can't get it to work! Everytime I print a pic from the Mac it gets about 20-50% through then stops saying the printer has stopped communicating with the computer. What is going on? Any bright ideas?

Scrappy2

I've recently got one of these on my Mac as well - absolutley stunning pics! What type of mac do you have - old or new? Do you have any other USB devices connected? Do you have the latest USB Driver software?

Wheelman

I'm running a 7600 with 128mb RAM, OS 9.0, a G3 card and a USB card that functions fine with my compact flash card reader. I've tried the printer just printing text and it was fine although when I selected 'high quality' for text (which puts the printer in to 'photo' mode) it errored again part way through the page. Any ideas or is it the printer at fault?

Scrappy2

Have you got the latest USB drivers from the Apple Site? You need these especially if you have a third party USB card. I can't think of anything else - maybe try re-installing the printer software. I haven't had any trouble with mine - I have an old style (beige) G3 with a third party (belkin) USB Card.

RichB

Shot in the dark here but have you got virtual memory on and/or file sharing? If you have an older style Mac then I would at least trying turning both of those off.
Also, try putting the printer in the other USB slot. You may need to reconfigure the printer driver to reflect the port change.

Other things than can cause weirdness on macs are more than around 500 files in a folder and low disk space/memory.
Check no other picture programs are hogging all the memory.

RichB

Another thing now that I have reread your system spec. You may want to try upgrading from 9.0 to 9.0.4 or 9.1 which ever you can get hold off. I seem to remember quite a few problems with the initial release of 9.0 and to be honest, the 7600 is getting on a bit and combining that with a G3 card any problems that *might* happen probably would.

Scrappy2

Agree with RichB as above, upgrade to the latest System Software - I've just dug out the USB adapter card installer software - can email it to you if you need it.

Wheelman

Scrappy, yes please, chris@clubsubaru.com. I know the 7600 is getting on but it's all I've got! I have just got OS9.1 so I will try an upgrade tonight.

Keep those helpful suggestions coming everyone.

Cheers

Chris

Scrappy2

u have mail...

Wheelman

OK, installed OS9.1, virtual memory off, tried booting up without any non-Apple extensions. Printer will now produce 95% of a 6x4 photo print (file size 9mb) but still crashed at the end saying it has lost communication with the printer. Tried the other USB port, same problem.

My thoughts,

a) something wrong with the printer
b) USB card can't handle the throughput
c) MAC isn't up to the job (but why does it work up to a point)

Help!

Wheelman

ttt

RichB

Do you have another USB cable you can try?
You don't have a screen saver that tries to kick in do you? (look at Energy saver)
You're not running low on disk space?

Whilst printing, go into the finder and choose about this computer from the Apple menu, how much memory is the printing app using and how much free memory does it have? Try upping the memory partition if possible.

Try running disk first aid/Norton.

I would suggest removing any the prefs files associated with the printing app and desktop printers prefs but I would doubt that would help... (Clutching at straws here!)

Try removing the G3 card and reseating it, try the memory as well and the ribbon cables going into the h/d. Last resort this one...

All just thoughts, no real idea on this other than faulty printer and/or OS issues.

The fact it does work for a while suggests that something is trying to kick in like a screen saver. It is not trying to connect to the internet is it?

Good luck...

RichB

Just another thought... Make the size of the paper 10% bigger and keep it as white space, that way the printer will print the imge and fail in the white space just a thought....