This article describes how to install a printer on a computer running Mac OS 10.5 Leopard. This article is specifically about installing Window Print Services-based printers. OIT is currently migrating all printers from a Unix-based LPR management system to Windows Print Services. By Fall term 2009 we expect all printers to be converted to Windows Print Services.
- For more info for setting up Windows Print Services printing on other operating systems please see this article.
- For more information on the migration to Windows Print Services or directions to install a printer not yet converted (LPR directions), please see Additional Information.
- If you are having problems with a printer you have already setup please skip down to the Troubleshooting portion of the article.
- OS: MAC OS 10.5 (Leopard)
- Name of the Printer you are trying to connect to, i.e. USS2 or geog-color
- The make and model of the printer you are trying to add, i.e., HP Laserjet 4250 or Ricoh Aficio 2060
- Starting from your Mac OS desktop go to the upper-left corner of your screen, and click on the Apple icon.
- Clicking on this icon will bring up a drop-down menu. From this menu you need to click on the System Preferences option.
- A new System Preferences window will appear on your desktop. From here select the Print & Fax icon.
- The Print & Faxwindow will appear; click on the + (plus) sign in the bottom left corner to begin adding a new printer.
- You will now be looking at a window with many icons at the top; click the silver globe icon labeled IP.
- The content of the window will change to show six seperate fields that need to be filled out before the printer installation can proceed.
- From Protocol select Line Printer Daemon - LPD
- In the Address field enter "oitps1.psu.ds.pdx.edu"
- In the Queue field enter the name of your print queue, In this example I use "uss2" (this is not case-sensitive but must be exact otherwise)
- In the Name field you may enter anything you want, usually it is best to enter the Queue name because this is the name you will see on your computer when you look at it in your printers list.
- In the Location field should enter the room number where the printer is located.
- Finally in the Print Using field you will select the make and model of printer you are adding from the drop down menu.
NOTE: If you do not know the printer type or you do not need extra, specific printer options you can select Generic Postscript Printer as in the image above. Options like duplexing, customer paper sizes, or input trays usually require you to know the correct make and model of your printer.
- Click Add to complete the process and your printer will now appear in the Print & Fax list of available printers (see screenshot from Step 4).
- Close the Print & Fax window.
- To test your new printer, open either Word or TextEdit and type something, such as the word "test."
- Now attempt to print the document to your newly added printer. If you have more than one printer, make sure you pick the proper one in the print dialogue. If it prints you have successfully added your printer, if it doesn't not print procceed to the Troubleshooting
While adding a printer is a straight foward process there is a chance of running across a problem. Below are some steps you can take to fix this.
- Remove and re-add the offending printer. Use steps 1-4 to return to the Print and Fax window, then highlight the printer to be removed and click the "negative" (-) symbol next to the plus (+) and the printer will be removed.
- When adding the printer back make sure you have filled out every field correctly. Pay special attention to making sure you have entered the correct information in the Address and Queue fields. Also if you have not selected the exact model of printer from the drop down Print Using list, make sure to select the correct printer model.
- Check with someone in your office who uses Windows (Xp or Vista) to print to the printer. If they open up the printer from their windows print menu do they see any stalled or failed jobs stuck in the queue? Can they Print? If they find something stuck have them delete the job out of the queue, by right clicking on the job and selecting Delete from the drop down context menu.
- Finally check the printer itself, is its error light on? is there a jam?
After preforming these actions if you are still experiencing problems proceed to the Further Assistance portion of this article.
- Technical Administrators: to see a complete list of the printers that have been converted to the WPS so far please go to Oitps1 and login with your Odin credentials.
- To see a list of Printers currently in process for conversion from LPR to WPS please check this article
If you are still having problems getting your printer installed please collect the following information.
- The name of the printer you are trying to connect to
- The reasons you cannot connect to the printer, i.e., error messages, the printer making noise but doesn't print, etc.
Once you have this information, please call the Help Desk at 5-HELP(4357) while in the front of the computer you are having troubles printing from and they will try and help you work through your issue or send a tech up to your location for further assistance.
