HP DeskJet "takes a hike" . . . kinda

[RHPConsult]

Our HP/DJ 970cse has had its drivers trashed and reinstalled via Printer Set-Up Utility several times in the last few days  . . . without discenible success.

Here is how it behaves.

1. I ask it to print
2. Absolutely nothing transpires
3. I open Printer Set-Up and there it is, on the roster of printers
4. I click on its name in the list . . .
5. Its screen appears, showing Jobs Stopped
6. I click on Start Jobs and the progress bar begins to move, but
7. Wikthin 5 seconds it reverts to Jobs Stopped
8. Again, and again, and again

I then trash Printer Center Prefs, and delete all printers/drivers on the list

I reinstall the two printers (having in previous iterations also downloaded new drivers) all to NO avail.

Nuthin'.

All connections are sound/solid. No other error messages are received.

Any ideas?

HP's Users forum is huge AND murky . . . almost a million postings, but <2000 members. What's that all about?

I thought so!  

[sandbox]

Can you do a walkup copy?
Copy will let you know if the (standalone) printer is working, eliminating a hardware issue.

[Xairbusdriver]

Does your printer have a "manual" paper feed option? If it's selected ( probably by a cat ), and you don't feed it paper, the printer may just sit there and act like a pile of "dead" bolts! No dialog asking for paper, no blinking lights, nothing! My laser doesn't 'panic' and do the "Stopped Printing" routine, but one of the Epsons does, even tough I don't even know how to access the "Sheet Feed" slot! Only way I discovered the problem was to look in the Print Setup... menu.

[pendragon]

My Epson will do as you described if the paper feed tray width adjustment is too narrow/tight. Solution: widen the paper feed. Of course, how that relates, if at all, to your machine, is another matter known but to the gods.

Also, you might try shutting down the printer, waiting five minutes, and then restarting the printer.

And finally, what results do you get when you connect the printer directly to the computer?

[Paddy]

Hmm...this particular thread is from FIVE years ago, but sounds like it's exactly the same problem - and there is a solution provided too! Involves going into the terminal, but pretty simple:

http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-6483.html

BTW, the 970 isn't a copier/printer - it's just a printer, so can't do a copy to test the hardware. And if memory serves from my 960, there is no manual feed/paper feed button on the HP printers of that class. My Canon had me utterly befuddled with that little (probably cat-caused) glitch; I hadn't known the button existed until it got pressed accidentally.

[gunug]

If you've tried to do the manual print feed test and that doesn't do it and none of the above help I'd say:

1) bad, refurbished, or incorrect print cartridge.

2) full diaper and sludgy capping/wiping mechanism (that is a big clog of ink in the area where the cartridge head
"lives" when it's not printing and the absorbent cloth underneath that area).

I've "fixed" HP printers in this situation but taking them apart, washing the capping/wiping mechanism in a sink wasting
lots of water, and then digging the extra ink out of the diaper and washing it out.  Unfortunately the one's I've fixed "so
far" haven't been 970 models which seem to go catatonic when their capping mechanism and diaper are clogged!  I suspect
that HP knows of a fix for the catatonic state and chooses to have us all buy another printer.  Old style, mainframe style
inkjet printers didn't have these problems and were easily fixed but more modern, cheap one's are meant to be thrown
away!

[RHPConsult]

Bingo, Paddy. Thank you so much.

I could have written tosk's query. It tracks my problem exactly/precisely

For the record, this is an inkjet printer and it was far from cheap when I bought it several years ago. When it works, and it's never had a clogged "anything", its output has been consistently excellent, making the present circumstance all the more puzzling.

"Yes", it works just fine when attached directly to my iMac, and so for awhile did it after first failing to do so through the AEBS from only Lil's G-5. Then it went south for both Macs. If anything's clogged it's the Airport's pipe, whatever and wherever that may be.

Now all I have to do is get comfortable with Terminal!

Time will tell.

And, again, thanks, Paddy. Right on!

I hope.

[Gregg]

QUOTE(RHPConsult @ Jun 26 2007, 05:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Now all I have to do is get comfortable with Terminal!

Time will tell.

I hope.

Oh no!

What do you have?

[RHPConsult]

QUOTE

. . .have?

Angst, schmang-st.

Well, I tried Terminal (with the advice of my-son-the Linux-expert). He noted the 2d command from the MacOSX thread was short "one super-operator-do", which we duly inserted. For the record, the "1st one" produced a log of, conservatively, 500 errors across every printer known to Hewlett or Packard or their lineal descendants. The second one, zilch. So he said, "Try it".

Nevertheless, the same error inside Set-up Utility's workings remainn, after two restarts of the Mac and the DeskJet.

My son said the reason it worked with direct attachment to my iMac, and not at all via Airport, is because the connections (inside the DeskJet) are not the same.

He speculates that it has suffered an electronic failure. So I'll have to decide when we return home – from the First Annual Meeting of TeeEss' Senior Caucus, Ohio Division, Meeting in Sugarcreek, Ohio – whether to go shopping or tolerate a direct connection, until the problem metastasizes . . . or whatever.

Mid-July I'll probably be looking for TS advice on the best color inkjet . . . as if that hasn't already been answered herein about twice a year.

Later . . .