USB Cable Length

ScottW

ScottW

Founder
Staff member
I recently moved, and setup my new office. I have a USB printer that is located right behind me, but travels the distance to run a cable if you want to "hide it" away.

But, my printer doesn't work. Mac OS X see's it, and I can have it do a test print which works, but when you go to send a actual document to it, it won't work.

I suspected it might be the cable legth, so I setup a HUB in the middle of the run to attempt to fix that issue, but still the exact same result.

I have one 12-foot cable running from the printer to the USB hub, and then two 6-foot cables (in-line) running from the hub to the Mac.

Any ideas or suggestions. I know USB doesn't allow for over 5meters or 15 feet, so why the USB hub (powered) didn't do anything is beyond me.

Ideas?
 
USB - 16 Feet

I have a 20 foot cable on an Epson 820 printer that works fine.

Move the printer close enough to the machine that you can connect a 6 foot or 12 foot cable and see if it works.
 
Doesn't sound like a USB cable length problem to me. It's probably a configuration issue or a bug or somethin'. The fact that you can send a test print says "The USB cable works!" to me.

One thing you might try (you probably already did) is send a very simple text file consisting of a few lines to the printer. Certainly this would take up less USB bandwidth than a test print, so if that doesn't work, it's gotta be a software issue.
 
Alright, so maybe it's not cable length afterall?

I went ahead and plugged in the printer using ONE 6 foot cable and got the exact same results... no hub, just computer to printer.

iMac 17" (10.2.6) ---> HP 1220C
 
The odd part about all this is it worked just fine prior to the move. Thus, why I drew the conclusion to cable length.
 
First thing I did. It reinstalls fine... but not worky. The next thing I suppose is to connect it with a different USB cable and see if it works. If that doesn't work, then it's either the printer or the mac side. So, then I will take a windows laptop and print to it and if that works, then its the Mac, if not its the printer.

Basically what its doing is starting the print job (from a queue perspective) then after about 10-15 seconds stops the job. No error, just shows "Stopped".
 
Do you have another printer in your office (a colleague's) that you can borrow and try with the same cables?

If the new printer works you can assume:
1. The error is with your printer; or
2. The error is with the drivers that communicates with your printer.
 
Get Print Center Repair Version 3. Have it repair permissions. I had to do this with my HP.
 
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