Printers won't work with my G5
 

I've used 5 different printers, 3 of which were brand new, with my g5 mac running panther and with every printer, there have been streaks on the page. Mostly, the black ink comes out fine, but the colored ink has sreaks in them.

I've downloaded different sets of drivers, used 2 different USB cables, created a second user account and printed from there, and none of those things have cured the problem.


Currently, I am using an HP color inkjet cp1700 printer and it's practically useless for me since I am experiencing this problem.

Anyone?

Have you tried:
1. replacing the ink cartridges
2. printing under another user?
3. Are you printing over a network and is there a printer spool on another machine?

I print to a variety of HP and Epson printers at work via USB and the network. Everything works fine but they all run thru windows machines so sometimes there are errors if I try to print postscript images etc.

what applications are you printing from?

What is unusual about your environment? Is it excessively humid, dry, hot, cold, are you subject to high magnetic fields, is your electrical power unusual in some way, is your altitude particularly high or low, etc.?

Trevor

yes, replaced ink cartridges in each printer

yes, created another user and printed from there--nothing

no, printing locally via USB (I also tried 2 different USB cables)

I've tried printing from firefox, preview, photoshop--- all the same results

nothing unusual.

In fact, the printer worked fine at one point, then all of a sudden it started to print weird, then I tried another printer--- same thing, then ANOTHER printer--same thing.

I've used the Canon i250, Epson Stylus Color 980, Epson c60, HP cp1700, and all the same thing

Are you placing all of these printers in the same location? What else is near that location? Anything radio-related? Anything water-related? Anything electrical?

What event occurred (even if it seems unrelated) before the color started streaking? Did a new water cooler get installed? Did you install a reverse osmosis water filter? Did a new photocopier get installed? What?

Trevor

Yes, all printers are placed on my desk and are plugged directly into the wall. I'll try plugging it into my UPS to see if anything changes

And no new event occurred-- the environment was the same before and after the problem.



If this helps, this is how it looks:
http://img88.exs.cx/img88/6848/badprint17ed.jpg
http://img88.exs.cx/img88/6003/badprint27du.jpg


And I just repared all color profiles and the problem is still there.

It almost looks like the print heads are misaligned. But on all printers that would be quite the coincidence. What about the file types you are printing? I assume you have also tried different images, cleaned the print heads and run printer self diagnosis options? Also what resolution are the images and are you printing them at actual size? Paper types? I have seen streaks similar to that (not as uniform) happen on some things I printed from an Epson1500(?) thru the Epson RIP from Quark.

I just aligned, cleaned, and deep cleaned the print heads--same thing.

I'm printing mainly .html, .doc, and .jpg files and use different resolutions and types of paper when doing so.

Can you test one printer on another computer? A Mac w/Panther would be best, but at least if you try another computer it could eliminate somethings depending on how it prints.

I tested 2 of them on PCs and they were fine

Try different paper or at least try printing on the other side of the same paper.

Try THIS Printer Setup Repair. It will sometimes perform miracles with stubborn printer problems.

Looking at the 'banding' on your samples (pretty fuzzy, too, your camera shot, I guess) - I would usually say this is a hardware(printer)/driver problem, but if you get the same or similar results with different printers, I would look at the type of paper that you are using. Have you tried several different brands of paper? - this would be a lot less time consuming that trying a multitude of different printers/software setups!!
Try a reinstall of OS X with an Archive and Install option... or...
If these ideas get you no good results, then backup/format/reinstall...

I very seldom recommend this drastic step on a Mac, but why not make sure your OS X cannot be blamed? The G5 itself without software does nothing for any printer, and could not be the cause of this type of problem.

^tried the printer repair-- nothing


I'm holding off on the format for a little first, because it's very time consuming to backup-restore

that's how my epson prints when the Print Settings are set to high-speed proof, instead of high-quality.

tried different settings-- same thing

Then it could be the paper that you are trying. Try different (brand) paper. How does photo quality paper look? Have you used name-brand printer ink cartridges?

It's (close to) impossible to have different brands and different generations of printers share this same problem, except for the fact that they all use the same software in the OS X - CUPS...
If the Printer Setup Repair utility did not help (did you go through ALL the options including installing your present up-to-date drivers afterwards?) then an Archive and Install option through the OS X Install will be your next task. That will help if the OS X is contributing to the problem. The Archive and Install option does not erase your drive nor need reinstall of your other software in most cases, as it will keep your user settings.

how do I do this? I've only been a mac user for about 5 months.

What do you want to do? Most office supply stores sell a variety of brands of paper you could try. If you are asking about the system reinstall, then you will need to find your OS X install disk, probably has disk #1 somewhere on the label, along with the directions to restart with the disk in the drive, while holding the letter 'c'. Follow through to begin the installer. When you get to the screen to select the volume to install on, click on the options button, and then choose the Archive and Install option, and make sure that Keep Your Settings is also set. Then just continue with the install, which should take about 20 minutes on your G5. After completion, the Installer will force you to restart (or restart automatically). When you get back to the desktop, reinstall your present printer driver, and you should be done.

This is the big clue that it is a problem with the Mac or its configuration! Stop suggesting to this person that he screw with the printer itself. It has to be something simple. I wonder if it's the printer language? PC's don't use postscript I don't think.

In other words, Delta is in the right direction... but if it were me I would delete my printer drivers and reinstall them before reinstalling the entire operating system.

Windows/ PC absolutely uses Postscript.

Do you have anything set with Colorsync? I have not used Colorsync but perhaps if you are using Colorsync something with that is screwing things up??

did it 3 times