Mac Brothers unite and help me solve my printing issues!
 

First off here is what I'm running. E-Mac 10.4.2. Installed for 1.5 months.

The problem I'm having is with the quality my printer is producing. It has lines thru it like a print nozzle is clogged. No problem, I run a clean nozzle procedure. Still the same problem. OK so I go get my wifes printer, print quality is still poor.
I have changed ink cartidges in both printers, still no joy. Was working fine one day and next not.

Also, I ran Disk Warrior thinking something was out of wack, No luck.

My guess is that my kids changed a setting accidentally when they were on the net.

Where should I start?

Thanks

Buy a PC. Come to Don's engine pull party on Saturday and I can and will help you with this difficult theory....:)

JoeA

when you say that the quality is poor when switching to your wife's printer, do you mean that it does the exact same thing (with the strikethrough)?

Try unplugging the printer, System preferences -> print & fax, remove your printer, then plug it back in. It should find itself and come back. Don't know for sure if that will fix your problem, hopefully it does.

I couldn't imagine any kid being able to change some setting that would cause such a problem... Apple tries to hide everything that could cause problems. It sounds more likely to be a broken printer than a wrong setting... although switching printers should have been able to verify that.

Page setup can make a big diff.

It sounds like you are running in economy mode.

Stupid question, are you sure that you are using the right paper or did you recently switch brands?

Scott

Joe , I can't go to the dark side. Macs are so much easier for a simple mind like mine. See you saturday.

Bryan, Yes it does the same thing. I have also tried changing USB cord and the port which I plug it into. Will try unplugging / deleting printer and plugging back in.

Stomach, I have tried all different modes, The only way to get a readable print is to use the best mode and it is barely acceptable. Will try switching paper setting but right now am running plain white which is what is in the printer.

What kind of printer are you using? Is the print head built into the ink cartridge or does it have a permanently mounted print head?

LeeH's question is first, then you need to go to the printer manufacturer's site and make sure you have the latest driver.

The OS is the last thing to suspect. Depending on the printer [especially HPs] and application, there can be conflicting dialogs regarding settings. I've also found that in some Microsoft applications, I have better luck with preview>print to smoke out issues buried in multiple settings boxes.

Here is another thing. When I print in color It prints in only Black and Yellow and very poor quality.

Have tried the above suggestions (ending w/ stomachmonkey) and still no change.

Any other thoughts?

Agree with those comments above (except buy a PC). Look under page set-up or in the print dialog box for printer settings. You'll find different settings for printing, plain paper, glossy paper, normal , economy, etc.

Lee, The printers I am using are the Epson Stylus C84 and H.P. deskjet 832. Don't know if the cartidge contains the print head or not. How would I know?

Tech, I have the latest driver for the epson (primary printer) but did not load a driver for the HP ( the computer found it). I will hook the HP back up and down load the latest driver.
If that doesn't work where would I look in the OS for printer problems?

The printer drivers are the suspects. There's nothing in the OS to deal with at all.

If you want to be certain there's no old printer code lying around, you culd look in your Libraries..

Also: just throught of this: do you have Classic running? I've had a couple of instances of OSX apps (PhotoShop) invoking an old OS9 printer driver.

Tech, Thanks I'll check the libraries.

When I upgraded to 10.4.2 I replaced all my OS9 stuff with 10 compatable.

Installed newest driver for the HP and tried printing. The black came out black (with much improvement in quality) but the colors are off. Every other color that black prints in a light magenta.

Any thoughts? Seems odd that both printers would be printing weird.

Is there something that needs to be done within the printer utilities?

Hook the Epson back up.

Find the Epson printer utility, appropriately named "Epson Printer Utility", select C84 from the list.

Click on status monitor, this will show you what the ink level is in each cartridge. If it shows ink levels are okay use the Nozzle Check to print out a page, it prints so many lines in black, magenta, cyan and yellow.

If certain colors are not visible, do the head cleaning, then check the status again. You may need to do this a few times to get it corrected.

Dean, Thanks for the in put. I did that and also the alignment of the print pattern etc. It is just strange that both printers (with new drivers) are not printing correctly. Seems like a computer issue and not a printer issue.

Any other suggestions? I'm almost to the sledge hammer stage!

Hmmmm, I've never had a problem persist after running through the Epson diagnostics and I've only used Epson printers for about the last 10 years. Not sure what else to suggest, sorry.

PC is sounding better every day now!

Jeff, you are lucky that we did not get into the PC vs MAC discussion at Dons! :)

JoeA

No, Joe, you're lucky. ;)

Just when did you need some welding done on your new chopper frame?? :)

Joe

Can't we all just get along?

So how do the printers work on the your wife's machine?

I had the same problem with my Epson all in one last month, called Epson, ran through diagnostics and they sent me a new printer.

How did the pages print with the Epson utility? Did all colors print or were you still missing colors? Have you tried printing out of different applications to see if the problem changes?

Printers work fine on the wifes computer. That's why I think it is a setting in the computer that the kids may have changed.

Dean, When I printed from the from the utilities it was missing colors. Magenta was the only color other than black that printed on the HP and Yellow was the only color other than black that printed using the Epson. And like wise when I printed from other applications.

Sounds like something is corrupted. If it's all apps as well the utilities, maybe try going into the system folder > preferences and getting rid of the Epson and HP inkjet printer preferences. Then try again.

If that doesn't work then I would remove the drivers and all associated preferences, reinstall the printer software one at a time and see where that gets you.

It's strange that it's both printers and each prints black and one other color only.

Jeff,

On a PC I would delete the printer drivers and start again. Would that work on a Mac?

Joe A

Joe - That's kind of the direction I was sending Jeff in. I've seen preferences get corrupted before (not often) but he maybe able to fix the problem there. If not, deleting the drivers and reinstalling should work.

Yes, next step is delete prefs and reinstall drivers. Can you do a PRAM reset at startup on this machine?

You can do a PRAM reset, but it doesn't have much of an effect on OSX.

This is a problem I've never heard of. You might want to check here:

http://www.macworld.com/forums/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=

If something got corrupted, can you use the disk utility to verify & repair? I don't know how thorough it is, but maybe it'll help?

D-oh. Yes, Bryan's got it right: step one is Disk Utility: verify & repair permissions.

I've had so few problems with OSX in 3+ years, I just don't give it a thought. But running the Disk Utility every few months is a good preventative step.

I have deleted and reloaded new drivers for both printers. I just ran ran the Disk utiliy verify and repair permissions. Do I need to restart after?

I also ran Disk Warrior start up disk repair CD earlier on trying to fix this problem.

You almost never need to restart OSX.

You almost never need to restart OSX.

Hey, my man, no need to drag you all the way down to Hicksville where I live. I've got a neighbor who used to be a professional welder (though he has no equipment). Just recently found out my OTHER neighbor has MIG, TIG, and gas set-ups. So I'm covered there.

Just have a bit of forging & grinding work to complete before it's welding time.

I have tried every thing listed above (other than switching to PC and that ain't gonna happen). Is it possible that the two printers I have are not compatable (and don't make a correct driver for) with 10.4.2?

I'm not sure what else to try other than buying another printer. Anybody have any suggestions?

Try a "Genius" at the local Mac store (Chandler Fashion Center). Bring the Mac, the printer, and all of your discs.

Blue,

Did you figure out how to ditch your house guests on the 8th so you can go on the fun run? Lee is going now.

No luck yet. The hordes are descending upon us as the baby shower approaches. :(