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TOPIC
What do I do when my printer does not appear in the Chooser?
DISCUSSION
- not installed (missing).
- located somewhere outside the Extensions folder of the System Folder.
- damaged.
- If the network has zones, and the printer is in a different zone than the computer, be sure to select the printer's zone from the zone list before checking the device list.
- If other networked printers and volumes are also absent from the device list, confirm that the Network control panel or AppleTalk control panel is configured correctly for the type of network in use, and be sure AppleTalk is set to "Active" in the Chooser. Otherwise, troubleshoot the network hardware and connections and if possible verify the printer itself by looking for it in the Chooser of other networked computers.
- If the printer is configured for TCP/IP printing instead of AppleTalk, it cannot be set up through the Chooser. The details of configuring for TCP/IP printing are beyond the scope of this article. Consult your network administrator.
- Troubleshoot as you would any other USB device: Check the USB cable connections at both ends and test with a direct connection to one of the computer's primary USB ports, bypassing all other USB devices. Swap the USB cable with another known-good cable if possible, or verify it with another USB device. Use the Apple System Profiler to confirm that the device is logically present to the computer.
- A variety of USB printers on the market ship with separate printer software installers supporting either serial or USB connections. Be sure you are using the software appropriate for USB. Not all USB printer drivers will show the printer name in the device list as shown in Figure 3. Others may show a generic designation, like "USB."
Does The Printer Appear In The Chooser Icon List?
Icons representing Chooser extensions appear in the Chooser icon list (see figure 1). Chooser extensions include those enabling the use of software and devices such as printers, AppleShare, fax modem software, some scanners, and so on.
Figure 1:
The parts of the Chooser window. Not all networks are configured to have zones.
When an icon does not appear in the Chooser icon list, the extension it represents is:
Confirm that the extension is present in the Extensions folder of the System Folder, or turned on in the Extensions Manager control panel (System 7.5 and later). When searching, remember that its name may only be an abbreviated form of the printer's name. If you have recently performed a clean installation of the operating system, look for it in the previous System Folder. The extension will function only if it is in the Extensions folder of the active System Folder. If the correct name is not known, consult the printer documentation. If the extension cannot be found, reinstall the printer software.
If the extension is present but the filename is followed by any of these suffixes, the printer software is not properly installed: .sea, .sit, .hqx, .smi, .img, .cpt, .bin. These represent files still compressed or encoded for Internet delivery. Remove them from the Extensions folder and consult the printer documentation for instructions on how to decompress/decode these files and perform a proper installation.
Finally, if the extension is located correctly and appears intact (attempting to open it should produce a system alert to the effect that it is an extension belonging in the Extensions folder), it may nevertheless be damaged. Remove and reinstall it from the original source.
Does The Printer Name Appear In The Chooser Device List?
Only networked and USB printers will show a printer name in the device list (see figures 1 and 3) and, importantly, only after being selected in the icon list .
The device list for non-networked and non-USB printers shows only the port names: printer port and modem port, or printer/modem port (see figure 2). However, when the serial printer is being adapted for network use with a hardware adapter, such as the LocalTalk and Ethernet adapters available for some Apple StyleWriter printers, the printer name will typically appear beneath the port names.
Figure 2: The Chooser configured for a serial printer.
Networked Printers
USB Printers
Figure 3: The Chooser configured for a USB printer.
Serial Printers
Assuming the computer in use has serial ports, it is rare for the port names to be absent from the device list after having selected a serial printer icon. Remove and reinstall the printer software if this occurs, and perform other basic software troubleshooting as necessary.