Corrupted Printer setup utility

On Tue, 1 Jul 2008, Hector I Macedo wrote:

> I installed 10.5.3 and my printer setup utility got corrupted, (it
> crashes everytime I try to open it). Does anyone knows how to replace
> it?

Did you try fixing it first?

Any time something like this is happening, the problem can be coming
from one of four, and only four, places:

1. Bad settings in your account -- that is, in your home folder.
2. Bad settings at the system level -- that is, in /Library.
3. Bad settings at the network level -- that is, in /Network.
3. The software itself is actually corrupt.

Broken down this way, the way to test & repair it gets simpler:

1. Empty out as much of you can of your ~/Library/Caches folder, and
rename anything you can find under ~/Library/Preferences that mentions
print or printers in the file name. On my computer, I see:

    com.apple.print.PrintCenter.plist
    com.apple.print.PrinterProxy.plist
    com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs.plist
    com.apple.print.add.plist
    com.apple.print.custompapers.plist
    com.apple.print.custompresets.plist
    com.apple.print.favorites.plist

Try renaming all of them, then see if things start working. If so, it
was a corrupt preference file, and while you may have to re-add your
printers, you shouldn't have to reinstall anything.

There's also the ~/Library/Printers folder, which has drivers for the
printers you've set up. Renaming this folder may also help. If it does,
then you can try one-by-one bringing them back from the original folder
to see if you can keep most of your printer settings while not bringing
the problem back.

There's also a chance that ~/Library/Application Support will have
something relevant, but in this case it does't seem to apply.

Another good test at this level is to make another user account, if you
don't have one already, and try again from there. If it works in the
other account, then it's definitely a user level problem, and that's
where you need to keep focusing your attention. If the problem keeps
happening, then it isn't a user level problem, and you can skip to the
next section.

2. If changes in your home folder aren't enough to bring it back, then
try the exact same fixes at the top level /Library folder on the hard
drive -- empty what you can of the Caches folder, and rename anything
relating to printing that you see under Preferences, then look in the
Printers folder, all just as you did in the home folder.

Another test to try at this level is safe boot, which is done by turning
on the computer while holding the shift key until you see the Apple logo
come up. This disables certain settings & drivers, and sometimes helps
with things like this. I'm not sure it'll actually help in this case, or
what success or failure will tell you, but it's easy enough to try and
see what happens. I suppose if it works this way and keeps failing
during a normal boot, that might be a hint that reinstalling your
printer drivers (from the CD that came with it, or by downloading the
current version from the manufacturer's web site) will help.

3. Network. This is extremely unlikely to apply, as no one uses it,
except for big schools & companies with IT departments that would have
been figuring this out for you by now :-). But it is possible to put
settings & software from network servers here, and some places do
actually use it, so if you see anything in there, you can work through
it in the exact same way as ~/Library and /Library.

4. If all else fails, then you've finally proven that reinstalling
either the printer settings, or OSX itself, is the next thing to do.

> I tried apening the OS install DVD with "Pacifist" but I did not find
> the setup anyplace.

Things changed a lot with how packages are done on Leopard. It's
possible that Pacifist needs to be updated to work with 10.5 packages.
 


--
Chris Devers

On Jul 1, 2008, at 8:04 AM, Hector I Macedo wrote:

> I installed 10.5.3 and my printer setup utility got corrupted, (it
> crashes everytime I try to open it). Does anyone knows how to replace
> it? I tried apening the OS install DVD with "Pacifist" but I did not
> find the setup anyplace.

Not sure if this will help but I ran into a similar problem when I did
the update from 10.5.2 to 10.5.3. Nothing I tried would find my
printer information or else would crash. I went to the Canon website,
found updated drivers and downloaded them. Since then no problems.
Suggest you try downloading from manufacturer if Chris' excellent
troubleshooting steps.

Jean

On Jul 1, 2008, at 6:52 AM, Chris Devers wrote:

> On Tue, 1 Jul 2008, Hector I Macedo wrote:
>
>> I installed 10.5.3 and my printer setup utility got corrupted, (it
>> crashes everytime I try to open it). Does anyone knows how to replace
>> it?
>
>
> Things changed a lot with how packages are done on Leopard. It's
> possible that Pacifist needs to be updated to work with 10.5 packages.

Very similar but not identical problem: My "Printer Setup Utility"
program just vanished. I re-installed OSX 10.5, and updated to 10.5.4,
but the Printer Setup Utility did not re-appear. Both my printers
(Epson C88 ink-jet and Brother HL2040 Laser monochrome) work fine, so
my need is not immediate. (using original Intel MacBook)

Where can I find the "PRINTER SETUP UTILITY" for installation again?

On Thu, 3 Jul 2008, Donald Power wrote:

> Very similar but not identical problem: My "Printer Setup Utility"
> program just vanished.

So did everyone else's.

The program went away with 10.5/Leopard.

Everything it could once do is now moved to the Print & Fax panel under
System Preferences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_Setup_Utility

> Where can I find the "PRINTER SETUP UTILITY" for installation again?

Downgrade back to Tiger :-)


--
Chris Devers

Hello:

I have a related problem that I hope someone can help me with. I upgraded my laptop from Panther to Leopard back in December, and have been unable to print from it at home since then. My printing setup is to go through a desktop Mac (upgraded from Jaguar to Tiger in December) which has an HP DeskJet 970C connected to it by USB. When my wireless home network is up and the desktop Mac is awake, I used to be able to send print jobs to the printer. Now I have two problems. First, my laptop never seems to make the connection to the printer at all--it appears to, but then tells me the printer is paused (according to the desktop Mac, that isn't so). Second, I cannot access the driver, which is a .plst file. Only a gimp file, CUPS something or other, is available (which doesn't allow access to all my printer's features). It's an old printer and the driver is not being updated.

Does this mean that this driver just doesn't work with Leopard? I'm supposed to replace my printer because of "advances" in the operating system?

Hoping for help,

Susan Kayser