So, I’ve had a trusty (and slightly crusty at this point) Brother inkjet MFC around the house for a few years now. Print quality is good enough (both text and photo), scanning works well enough, and its usable from Windows, Ubuntu, and OSX over the network.
Well, it worked for the latter until recently. Something changed that I can’t put my finger on. All of the sudden, the Mac can’t see the printer when its time to print.
Hmm, was it broken since updating to latest OSX (Mountain Lion)? Doubt it, I’m pretty sure I’ve printed stuff since then. Haven’t updated drivers lately, let me see if that helps. Nope.
Ok, lets try the old delete the printer and re-add it trick. Put in the IP and it finds it after a few seconds, and even knows what kind of printer it is. Hit the add button to wrap up the setup and get an “unable to verify printer on your network.” Say what? I can ping it, and it while it doesn’t have a real web interface, its got something that answers with a 404.
Googled the problem for weeks. Lots of sorta similar problems, but nothing 100% matching my problem. Tried power cycling the printer, and related network gear, nothing. All the while, the printer still works fine from Ubuntu.
So, a few minutes before dropping the unit in the trash recycling bin and heading over to Best Buy for replacement, I found the nuclear ‘Reset printing system…’ option in the OSX printer setup screen. What the hell, if the printer doesn’t work, what harm can this option do?
So, I hit and it promptly purged all my known printers. Not expecting any miracles I added the printer again. Ok, it found it. I hit the add button again, and blip it added it. A test print later, things are back to the way they were.
Well, I guess I get to defer that new printer decision again for a bit longer. Ok by me because I’ve still got a dozen or some more bootleg ink cartridges to work my way through anyway. Was kinda looking for something that supports Airprint though.
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