Problem printing to printer attached to a pc over home network

Question

I have a home network with two computers, a Dell running Win XP and a new iMac running Leopard. I have Fusion installed on the Mac running a virtual PC on WinXP as well, so I effectively have 3 computers. I had an old HP printer attached to the Dell that both the Mac and its virtual PC could see and print to fine over my network. I had to replace the printer and now have a Canon MX700 attached (by USB) to the Dell, and am having trouble with remote printing. I was able to "add" the new printer to both the Mac and its virtual pc, but only the virtual pc is able to print successfully. When I try printing from the Mac applications, using the driver for the MX700 printer found during the add printer setup, I get an error message. I then tried a new setup with a generic (Gutenprint) driver, and the printer was spitting out blank pages. Then I downloaded another driver from Canon's website for OS X 10.5, and it still didn't work. (I am not sure if I was supposed to uninstall the previous drivers first, and if so,I don't know how to do that since I am still new to the Mac environment. I just am assuming that the new drivers take over for the former one.) I assume that the problem is a driver problem and not a network problem since the virtual pc on the Mac works fine and my old HP worked fine with the same network setup. Any help?

Answer 1

gosox13 wrote:
Thank you again for sticking with me on this. Frankly, I was very surprised when the Canon did not work even when I carried it downstairs and attached it directly to the Mac by USB. I used the installation disk, which said it installed successfully (after several tries where it kept getting hung up after installing the drivers, and showing 0% completed, requiring me to use force quit to get the setup to stop each time). But as I explained in my prior post, the Mac never found the printer even after the supposed "successful" install.
This is typical when there are too many different versions of the driver residing on the Mac. I will explain my procedure to remove all the Canon stuff at the bottom of this post.
I then downloaded the Mac OS driver from the support page for my printer on Canon's website and ran that driver, but still no recognition. But I am willing to keep trying. I had looked at the PrintFab driver too (which I learned about from one of your other posts), but they are expensive and I probably could buy another printer for the cost of that driver. So I don't think that is an option.
Agree with you re the PrintFab. That is why I think the direct network connection would be best.
You suggest that I try another Gutenprint driver from the Canon list, which I guess I can randomly do, but I noticed that a number of the models listed show the driver as 5.2.3 (the same numbers as the generic one I tried)--does this meand they are all the same? Can I just keep downloading and installing more drivers without removing any?
It is not another version I need you to try. Using the same version, I suggest you try some of the other models that are included with the Gutenprint driver. Ideally, it would be good to know which model of the included Gutenprint drivers uses the same ink tank setup as your MX700. For example, if the MX700 uses BCI8 Blk and a BCI5 Blk and the three 8 series colour (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow), then selecting a model that uses the same setup might work for you. If you check a Canon web site, it would tell you what tanks are used by a certain model that is available within the Canon list.
I am willing to consider the network install of the printer, and that would be a good way to go, but I find Canon's instruction for network installations that came with the printer (which does not appear to consider mixing Macs and Pcs since there are separate instructions for both) a bit confusing. The basic installation of the printer on the network seems easy enough to follow. It is the further instruction for doing something to the "card" for each computer that will be using the printer on the network that I find confusing. I don't know what they are talking about. I certainly don't want to mess up my network connections. Do you know of any better instructions for setting this all up?
The setup is easier than the manual suggests. With the printer connected via USB, you open the Utilities application and select the Network tab. However this does require that you can get the printer to work when connected via USB, so we have to achieve that first.
Again, thank you very much for all your help. (Incidentally, I also discovered I can't use the fax feature of the printer because we have a two-line phone line and when I plug the phone cord into the printer and then out to the phone it eliminates the second line, no ringtone. There is no setting for this on the printer that I can find. But I can live without the fax, just another source of annoyance with this printer).
That would suggest that there is a link from the first phone to the second. Unplugging the phone cable to connect to the fax has broken that loop. You could easily get the phones rewired to suit the fax, but again it costs money so it might not be worth it.
Here is my procedure for repairing faulty installations of the Canon PIXMA drivers.
1. Open System Preferences > Print & Fax. Highlight the Canon printer in the Printer list and click the minus ( - ) button. [You may not have to do this step]
2. Hold Control key and click in the empty Printers list. Click on Reset Printing System.
3. Close Print & Fax
4. Go to Library > Printers > Canon and delete the contents of the BJPrinter folder.
5. Go to Library > Receipts and delete the Canon driver package file, if one exists. The file name will show Canon MX700 xxx.pkg
6. Go to Library > Preferences and delete the Canon folder.
7. Go to HD > Users > Shared > Canon and delete the BJPrinter folder.
8. Empty the Trash
9. Unplug the Canon USB cable and restart the Mac
10. Install the latest version of the Canon driver. Looking at the Canon AU web site it is v6.9.3
11. Once the driver installation is complete, go to Applications > Utilities and open Disk Utility. Run the Repair Disk Permissions option.
12. Reconnect the Canon USB cable. Then open Print & Fax and see if the Canon printer is listed. If it is, try a test print.
13. If the printer is not listed, click the plus ( + ) button.
14. Select the Default view and select the Canon printer connected via the USB port. The Print Using menu should automatically change to Canon IJ Printer.
15. Click Add to add the printer.
PaHu