Sharp AR-M450N Printer Problems

N

NewEnglander

Registered
Hello all,

I'm at my wits end with this one but am probably missing something simple. I have been unable to successfully get any of our office Macs (ranging from 10.4 to 10.6) to print from our networked Sharp AR-M450N printer/copier. I have easily gotten every single PC in the office printing on it over the network (so I know it is available on the network and not malfunctioning).

Here is the problem for your review:
- Will show as available when adding it through IP and 'adds' fine
- Generic PostScript driver does not work
- When I switch it to the AR-450 driver listed in OS X it still does not work
- Have installed most up-to-date driver from Sharp website but it does not appear in the driver list
- Queue shows print jobs but immediately pauses; if you 'play' the jobs in the queue window it will then immediately pause again; same cycle endlessly and nothing will ever print

No matter what I do I cannot get it to print. I very much appreciate any and all help you can offer. Thanks again.
 
I have actually finally gotten them to print via Appletalk (10.4 and 10.5; 10.6 is printing through sharing on the 10.5 Mac) but none of them will print PDFs.
 
That printer requires an optional add-on to attain compatibility with the PostScript level 3 language (the "PS3 Expansion Kit"). Since the Macs are probably printing PDFs to the printers using PostScript language, this add-on may be required.

Can you investigate more into the capabilities of the printer -- specifically, what add-ons have been installed and what languages (PCL, PostScript, RAW, etc.) the printer understands?
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
That printer requires an optional add-on to attain compatibility with the PostScript level 3 language (the "PS3 Expansion Kit"). Since the Macs are probably printing PDFs to the printers using PostScript language, this add-on may be required.

Can you investigate more into the capabilities of the printer -- specifically, what add-ons have been installed and what languages (PCL, PostScript, RAW, etc.) the printer understands?
Click to expand...

I just took on this position and because I have technical experience was given a series of tasks to address and this printer is one of them. I am learning about the state of it and the network as I go along so apologize for the trickle of information.

I have tested PDF compatibility through the PCs and the print jobs came out perfectly so I am fairly sure the PS3 add-on was installed.

It supposedly understands PCL5e, PCL6. I also know we installed the Network Scanner add-on, though that doesn't have much effect on this issue.

Could the Appletalk work around I came up with be causing data processing issues for the PDFs?
 
NewEnglander said:
I have tested PDF compatibility through the PCs and the print jobs came out perfectly so I am fairly sure the PS3 add-on was installed.
Click to expand...
Well, not necessarily. It depends on whether the computer is sending raw postscript to the printer, or whether it's doing a postscript-to-raw or postscript-to-pcl or some other conversion on the computer (either via the print spooler, rip or other mechanism).

Could the Appletalk work around I came up with be causing data processing issues for the PDFs?
Click to expand...

It's likely... AppleTalk has been deprecated (and all but plain abandoned) in favor of other protocols (AFP, for example). It's supported in OS X up to 10.5, and I believe 10.6 has little support for AppleTalk, but I think it's been pretty much completely dropped from 10.6 altogether.

What happens if you create a shared printer on a Windows machine, then have the Macs print a PDF through the shared printer? If PDFs print OK that way, and do NOT print directly from the Macs over AppleTalk, it's likely that the PS3 Expansion Kit is NOT installed and that some postscript-to-pcl conversion is going on inside the Windows print spooler.
 
We are about to upgrade to all new MacBooks (all 10.6 and higher) and so the AppleTalk workaround will not be helpful within a few week's time.

This means I need to address the IP network of the printer issue (it will still not work). As I said, I've brought in my Windows 7 notebook and it networks to the printer with absolutely no effort. But no matter what I try I cannot get it to network to the new Macs. Any ideas?
 
Not a helpful one of get a new printer. I have several Sharp network printers here on site and can confirm they need the extra Postscript options installed to even stand a chance of printing much from a Mac, PCs do not need this option installed.

Drivers from Sharp can then be installed on each Mac and they will print from 10.5. That is the good news. The bad news is the 10.6 Macs we are now getting will only print to those printers in Black and White with the current drivers. I still await an updated driver set from Sharp.
 
you can add the printer as an LPD printer.

Start by going to settings--> printers--> add (+) printer -->IP -->

Select LPD, identify the ip address, then select "generic pcl driver" on the bottom of the window. Add the printer, then rename it by selecting preferences later.
 
We had trouble with an iMac not being able to print to a working Dell 1815 (or is it 1518). It could see it, and add it, but it wouldn't print to it. Solution involved giving the iMac and the Dell static IPs.
 
hi newenglander... i've got a 2600 and have run into the same issue. i'm the sole mac guy in the office and have not been able to print since i migrated. There's a PS3 expansion that others have mentioned in this thread. unfortunately, that's the only answer I've got so far that sounds like it'll work. that's a $300.00 solution though!
I've got one other venue i'm going to explore and if i can get it to fly, i'll let you know.
Chances are, nobody bought that PS expansion, because PCs don't need it.
 
Hi,

I have been half successful with a sharp mx-2300n by using a the out of the box laserjet driver in socket mode.

basically it works but the text size is slightly modified.

Have you found a better solution ?
 
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