Rogue Printer Appearing When Booting-Up...

[pip-pip]

Hello
I'm setting up a Mac OSX 10.5.1 and connecting it to an HP Officejet G55 printer. Initially, it wouldn't work with the printer driver supplied by Mac but I downloaded HP-All-In-One software for this printer from Hewlett Packard, ran set-up assistant and now I can print.

In System Preferences under Print & Fax, I have "OfficeJet G55" set as the default printer – and it's the only printer. I have also locked these Print & Fax preferences to ensure no changes are made.

However... when I reboot the computer and go to print a document a new printer has appeared "HP OfficeJet G55" (with 'HP' at the front). This has also been added to the printer in Print & Fax preferences – and even when I manually delete it, it still keeps appearing every time I restart the computer.

It's wreaking havoc as the documents won't print on the "HP OfficeJet G55". Does anyone have any ideas how I can get rid of it permanently from the Print & Fax preferences and also does anyone know why – when this is password protected (i.e. I have to type in my password to make changes), that it overrules this and leaves the lock unlocked...

Many thanks!

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by pip-pip

...

In System Preferences under Print & Fax, I have "OfficeJet G55" set as the default printer – and it's the only printer. ...

The OfficeJet G55 is an old all-in-one, but this is probably not the cause of your "problem." I'm guessing that you have multiple network protocols enabled. MacOS X's automatic network device discovery is very good. Leopard's is great. Your Mac will list a separate instance of your printer over each mutually compatible network protocol. To eliminate your "ghost printer," disable the network protocol that you don't want.

[pip-pip]

Thanks Mister Me.
I agree the way Mac automatically discovers devices is very good - usually. However in this case, it discovered the printer and set it up – but it wouldn't work. It could communicate with the printer (i.e. knew it was there but couldn't send any print commands).

Because of that, I searched the internet for someone who had exactly the same problem and found the glitch could be fixed by downloading the HP-All-In-One-Software.

Anyways, how do I disable a network protocol?

Thanks, PiP

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by pip-pip

... However in this case, it discovered the printer and set it up – but it wouldn't work. It could communicate with the printer (i.e. knew it was there but couldn't send any print commands).

Autodiscovery just finds the printer. You still must use an up-to-date driver. You acquired the correct driver from HP's website.

Originally Posted by pip-pip

Anyways, how do I disable a network protocol? ...

You haven't said which protocols you are using. My advice is to just leave it alone. Having two instances of a printer is not a problem. If you insist on removing one, then you have to identify the protocol you don't want to use with your printer. You may disable it from the printer's walk-up menu. You may also disable the unwanted network protocol from your computer.

I am away from my Leopard machine, but the Tiger uses the Directory Access utility to enable network protocols. Before you turn off something, you should understand what it is and whether or not you are using it for something else. In the interest of full disclosure, I have AppleTalk enabled. My printer shows up twice because it also communicates via Bonjour. Not a problem.

[pip-pip]

Thanks again MisterMe.
I have just left it as I don't understand how anything about protocols. I use a Tiger myself but I was setting up the Leopard for my parents.

If the rogue printer appears when they go to print it does a present a problem as it won't work... and trying to explain to them they just need to drag down onto the correct printer which has virtually the same name is a problem as they're both 76-years-old!

Anyways, I set the correct printer as the default and have just left it in the lap of the gods...

Thanks again for your help and swift answers!
PiP