Communication Error with Canon MP560

Question

OK, it took me weeks about 4 months ago to get my printer set up to work wirelessly. It has been fine ever since but tonight I am trying to print a PDF file and sometimes the printer will print 1-2 inches of the page (very slowly), once it even printed 3/4 of the page before stopping...then gives "A communication error has occurred. Error Number : 306 A communication error has occurred. Make sure that the printer is plugged in, powered on, and properly connected to your computer. Then try printing again." Any ideas what is going on? Of course it is connected because it prints part of the pages. Queue Name: CanonMP560_series_3ADD850000001; Driver Version: 10.26.1.0; I tried printing an email to be sure it wasn't the document and the email only printed about 1" also and then quit with same error. It took me forever to get this set up correctly and worked beautifully for 4 months and I have changed nothing on my computer. Any ideas what is causing this? I am not techy so all help is so appreciated. Can supply any info you may need but be specific as to where I can get that from. Thanks and hopefully I can get some help!

Answer 1

Gary Schnetter wrote:
Pahu...You helped me a lot when I set this up wirelessly. I just can't understand why this worked perfect a week ago and no changes, etc., and now only prints 1-2" and errors out and ejects paper.
I'm not sure either. If you have Software Update set to run automatically, then there was an Airport Client Update 2009-002 in December. But apart from that, I cannot see any recent update that could have been applied that would have stopped this from working.
I think there could be other factors, not related to the Mac, that could be causing the issue. Have you added any other devices to your wireless network recently? Or has the location of the printer moved compared to last week? Or has something like a piece of furniture been placed between the printer and the wireless router?
I updated my software with no problems and then tried the 1.0 network update and don't know about that...it was weird the way it came up behind and I had to search to find the set-up, then said installed software but asked if configured and I said yes and then searched for printer and couldn't find it (is on and had just tried printing before that). So went back to Help and started going through this long set-up and I said "no" and x-ed out of that.
I've never used that MP Driver v1.0 install myself. My MP980 installed fine and has kept working on wireless without no loss of connection. So I don't know what you should have seen during its installation. It certainly doesn't sound like it worked correctly. But note that it is an add-on to the Canon v10.xx driver - not a full driver itself. So the Canon 'CUPS' driver would have needed to be installed and working for the MP Driver to complete its installation.
Went to print again and same issue - printed 1-2" and errored out. I do have 2 printers to select from. I know one is with the old software which I can tell because I followed your instructions about the Options/Supplies. I am selecting the one that shows the new software. Don't know how to delete one of the Printers, or maybe I need to get rid of them all and redo that???
It is interesting that only one of the drivers appears to have updated to the latest version. I would have expected both to have updated to the latest version (assuming that both are the printer queues for the MP560, as opposed to one being the scanner queue and the other being the printer queue).
At this stage I suggest we sort of start again and reset the printing system (Control-click in the Printers list and select Reset..). This will remove all printer queues but not the associated printer drivers.
With both printer queues removed from the Printers list, restart the Mac and then add the network printer again. Remember that when you add the network printer, it can take several seconds for the printer displayed as 'canonijnetwork' to appear.
Is it a real pain to just go USB? I can't stand setting this up, but if not too hard to do and if that will work would probably be best. This wireless stuff is way over my head I guess.
The USB connection is usually a sinch to configure. And if this new network printer queue still fails then it is worth trying the USB printing - even if just to prove that you can print a whole page.
If you just connect the MP560 to the Mac via USB cable, the printer will automatically add to the Printers list. You should not need to do anything additional to get it connected and working.
Let me know how it goes and reply if needed.
Pahu