For Those Of Us Who Are Still Using AppleTalk Printers...

[Bruce_F]

I'm still waiting for the cable to arrive. I went to RadioShack but they wanted too much for it. I bought one online... then I got an email telling me it's on back order. It was supposedly shipped yesterday.

I'll get back to you when I have had a chance to check it out.

[Mayo]

The cable that I ordered from Amazon arrived yesterday, quicker than I expected...

[Bruce_F]

I just canceled my order. My original order was placed on Aug. 30th. I was told on Wednesday, the 2nd, my order was shipping that day. I called again this morning and was told it was still on back order but might ship today.

What a PIA!

I guess I'll just go back to RadioShack. At least I'll have it and I can always take it back if it doesn't work.

[Mayo]

Was that an Amazon order Bruce?

[Bruce_F]

No, I tried ordering direct from a company, paying through PayPal. Supposedly, they are refunding my money... soon.

I just got back from Office Depot with a USB to parallel cable. I have tried everything I know to get my printer to work but it's not even seen. I give up, for now. I have to get to work.

I haven't seen anything from Apple about this except for one lame bit of advice: Use a computer with an earlier OS. That IS an option once I can get my desktop computer running again. Right now, I have no space to set it up.

Let me know if you get yours working.

[Mayo]

Bruce, here is the MacInTouch Web page where I found quite a bit of info about this issue... The info about the Belkin adapter can be found under Aug. 4, 2009.

" I bought a Belkin USB-to-Parallel-Printer adapter cable (P/N F5U002v1) from Fry's for ~$20 and connected the printer to my Airport Extreme wireless router's USB port, then created a new logical printer in the usual way, specifying the generic postscript printer driver, and it all worked perfectly, from both my OS X 10.5.7 and Snow Leopard systems..."

Apparently there are other solutions, but I am going to give the adapter a try first.

UPDATE:  After I posted the above I was perusing The Apple Blog via NetNewsWire and I discovered that they had published an article today about the options for printing using an AppleTalk printer and Snow Leopard. One notable factoid: not all parallel-to-USB adapters will work. Bruce, was your adapter the Belkin that was recommended on MacInTouch? If not, that may be why it didn't work for you...

[Bruce_F]

I just got off an hour and a half phone call with Apple, trying to resolve my printer issue to no avail. I talked to two different people. Reinstalled software, Restarted, Reconnected, Rebooted... you name it.

In the end, technician number two said he would take this issue to the real experts and get back to me next week.

We talked about the cable maybe being a problem. He said he had seen the same article using the Belkin cable. I am going to return the "Ativa" cable I bought and get the Belkin cable to see if it makes a difference.

Computers can be so much fun!

[Mayo]

Another success story posted on The Apple Blog:

"I just received the Belkin USB-to-Parallel cable (F5U002v1), plugged it in and added it to my list of printers in “Print and Fax” in the System Preferences and my HP Laserjet 6MP is back in business! I’ve never seen such a simple fix. I’ve been using the Assante bridge product; I would have gone to this long ago!"

[Bruce_F]

QUOTE(Mayo @ Sep 5 2009, 02:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Another success story posted on The Apple Blog:

"I just received the Belkin USB-to-Parallel cable (F5U002v1), plugged it in and added it to my list of printers in “Print and Fax” in the System Preferences and my HP Laserjet 6MP is back in business! I’ve never seen such a simple fix. I’ve been using the Assante bridge product; I would have gone to this long ago!"

I have the Belkin cable on order.

The guy quoted about is not using LaserWriter Select 360 which could make a difference.

I found another success story on the Apple discussion board:

QUOTE

I can tell you what I did to make this printer work.

The laserWriter Select 360 has three (3) inputs available, AppleTalk, parallel, and serial. I got a USB to parallel converter (I have Gear Head brand).

Set the rotary switch next to the connectors to 1. This will set the parallel and serial ports to Postscript.

After plugging in the adapter and turning on the printer, you can add the printer in the Print & Fax system preferences. It will show the model of the adapter, not the printer, but you can change the name to anything you want.

Preferences will install a generic Postscript driver. You will need to change the print driver to Apple LaserWriter Select 360 either fax or no fax according the one you have. This driver is available from the Print and Fax preferences.

This works fine for me and is much faster than AppleTalk ever was.

Hope this helps.

This guy is using another (non Belkin) cable.

I tried what he suggested but I'm still not having any luck.

The cable I have now is going back to the store and the Belkin cable should arrive by the 11th.

Meanwhile, I sure would like to hear your success story, Mayo!

[Mayo]

Bruce, I have a cloned Tiger volume on an external drive that I no longer need... I may clone my iMac to it and then upgrade it to Snow Leopard and see what happens. It will give me the opportunity to test the printer without upgrading either of my Macs, which have software that hasn't been upgraded for Snow Leopard.

But first I need to be certain that my scanner will operate properly under Leopard; the scanner is why I have hung onto that Tiger clone...

[Bruce_F]

Here's the latest in my "Printing Under Snow Leopard" saga.

The Belkin cable arrived today and I had three documents to print. I tried connecting the printer to the AirPort. That didn't work, but then it didn't work last time either.

Next, I connected the cable to my MBPro. It recognized the cable and I was able to Add a Printer. Then I got the same results as before with the previous two cables... stalled printer, never getting the printer to respond. Then I remembered my last time with an Apple tech who told me to restart the computer.

This is where it gets weird... I restarted the computer, leaving the first document in the printer cue. When the computer got to the blue screen, the printer light started blinking and the document actually printed before the computer finished starting up. I then tried printing another document and stalled as before.

Another restart and it printed!

I did the same thing for the third document and now I'm really looking forward to my next call from Apple about this mess.

[Bruce_F]

Well, Apple has tossed in the towel on my printing problem.

Ted (the technician) told me that Apple (Snow Leopard) doesn't support my printer any longer. Period. They have closed the book on this.

We discussed how I can send a document to the printer and then restart to make it print. He thought that was interesting but still held to his "no support". I asked him to at least pass the information along to someone higher up.

It appears that anyone who gets an AppleTalk printer to work under Snow Leopard is just plain "lucky".

For now, until I get my G4 up and running again, I will just use my workaround and restart my laptop to print a document. I'm glad I don't use my printer much.

[Mayo]

Never mind...

[Bruce_F]

(to the last reply)

New Development

I looked further into the "Internets" and found more information that shed light on my printer problem.

The most help was to read a post that said if I switch the DIP switch to 4 and turn the printer on, it will print out a configuration page. The information there shows that the LaserWriter Select 360 uses the HP LaserJet IIID engine.

I set the DIP switch back to ZERO and opened the Print & Fax Preference panel to Add a Printer. The list of available drivers didn't include LaserJet IIID but it does have HP LaserJet 3 - Gutenprint v5.2.3

I used that driver and sent a document to the printer. It worked! And, even though the settings are slightly different, I can choose to print manually and use my envelope/manual paper attachment.

[Mayo]

That's great to hear. I was beginning to regret selling my iBook... But I would hate to hang onto a PPC Mac just to be able to use a perfectly good printer.

I deleted my previous post after I realized that you (Bruce) had already visited and posted to the forum that I had quoted in the post...

Fiddling with the DIP switch has helped a number of folks get various printers working in Snow Leopard, along with selecting the proper printer driver.

I'm really glad that I waited to upgrade, and the printer issue is only part of it... If I remember correctly I didn't upgrade to Leopard until 10.5.3; I may do the same regarding SL.