USB Printing problem solved! (Generic solution?)

My problem that I could not use my Epson ACL C1100 printer has been solved thanks to the suggestion from Kpop!

Solution is simple! I used Bonjour, selected the "Generic/Postscript" printer and voila, all worked marvellous!

Strangely the printer is now defined as "HP Color LaserJet 4550 PS" this apparently was done by the installation process.

I have no idea whether this can be used by any other printer but if so than the USB/printer problem could be seen as solved by Parallels.

 

Glad you got it working.

This is the way printers should be installed on the client, if the direct connection does not work (seems to be common with USB printers). In fact sharing a printer is more handy as you can print simultaneously both from the host and client. No mention about this in the user's guide, maybe should be added for the GA.

 

Addition: the only fully working (for me) was the "Generic/Postscript". All the others I tried (Apple printers) all had problems.

I agree that it would have saved a lot of energy had it been in the doc's. I hope Parallels read this too.

 

Thanks for the hint - we will fix that.

 

I was just about to post that I'd found the solution to the printing problem (after spending many hours fighting to get a printer to work), but it looks like someone beat me to it!

If you look under Mac Help, there's a topic on Sharing your printer with Windows users. This is where they recommend using the installing the Bonjour Printer Wizard in Windows - I tried it and it worked beautifully. (Note: Bonjour uses the Generic/Postscript printer driver - apparently this is part of the key to getting the printer to work, as opposed to installing your own printer driver.) The help file also gives an alternative method of printer sharing using SMB/CFIS (I have no idea what that is), which also indicates that you need to use the Postscript printer driver to get the printer to work with Windows.

You can download Bonjour for Windows at http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/bonjourforwindows103.html

Apparently this is not a problem with the Parallels software itself, but a standard Mac/Windows printer sharing thing (since Mac Help addresses it). I do agree that this should be in the Parallels documentation though, since that would save new users countless hours of frustration!

BTW, my printer is an HP Deskjet 5550. I could never get it working as a local printer in Parallels. I think at one time I did have it working as a network printer (after turning on Print Sharing on the Mac side), but then it stopped working (would say it was printing when it wasn't) and couldn't find the fix until I tried using Bonjour. Bonjour immediately fixed the problem!

 

I had tried to use Bonjour before bu no luck since Bonjour automatically installs the correct driver (i.e. the driver for that particular printer).

It only worked when I decided to overrule the choosing of bonjour and select this Generic/Postscript myself.

 

Interesting - Bonjour automatically selected the Generic/Postscript driver for mine. Perhaps that's because Windows doesn't have my printer on their list. According to the Mac Help file, you should use the Postscript printer driver even if the printer isn't a Postscript printer. They go on to say "Your Mac translates the Postscript code into code the printer can understand."

I'm guessing that was the problem I was having, since the printer would start and would say it was printing the document, but nothing ever happened on the printer end.

I'm glad we both got our issues resolved - makes Parallels a lot more functional now!

(Interestingly enough, when I pull up a printer list within a program, it identifies my printer as an HP 4050. I just printed a document that had bullet points in it - some of them printed correctly while others printed out as "C" instead of a bullet. Will have to investigate that issue, but everything else printed correctly.)

 

Indeed, for me it is now a fully working product. All I need is my bookkeeping programm to work and incidentally use IE just to check that the websites I build really work fine with XP/IE. Both jobs work like a charm now.

 

This does not wrok for me????

My printer is not a Postscript printer but an HP2500 multifunction printer.

Bonjour finds it but if I select generic/PCL or Generic/Postscript all that prints is gibberish.

Any ideas how to make this work?

Or even better is there a solution like VPC that simple 'routes' printing to the print driver in use by the Mac side.

Cheers.

Robin

 

Robster:
Sorry, I have no solution for you. My printer is no PS either and yet the PS driver worked. Why? I do not know.

(I know how frustrating "little" things like these are)

 

Are you 'sharing' the printer from the Mac or just finding your printer on the network?

Robin

 

Both, I solved it using Bonjour (XP version can be doenloaded from the Apple site and then selecting the Generic/Postscript driver (and not the driver suggested by XP!).

 

Very strange.

However I selected HP this time and HP 990c and now have a working printer......

Still not as good a solution as VPC but SOOOOOOOOOOO much faster.

Robin

 

I'm still having problem printing from Parallels.

Printer, Epson CX6600 attached to desktop mac with printer sharing on. Home network via router.

Parallels on MacBook Pro, latest release, set up with Windows XP SP2, used Bonjour Printer wizard to set-up the printer as generic/postscript.

BBEdit files print ok from MBP. Any windows print jobs are quickly stopped on the mac with the printer, viewed using printer utility.

Mac to Mac printing seems to be stopped by having vpn active on the desktop mac, It isn't active on the desktop mac, don't know about windows.

What am I missing, thanks, David

 

Sorry, I tried this, and it didn't work. I think blaming windows or mac is a disservice to all us frustrated purchasers of Parallels. I hope they continue to work on this alpha product and produce something useful without continuing to use us as unwilling testers.
Mike Tichon

 

I'm a willing tester.

I ask for perfection, but don't expect to quite get there. I'm pretty happy with the product, but of course still asking for improvements. I think trashing the Parallels team is uncalled for -- they've done a great job so far. Perhaos you want to rethink your position.

 

This is a great fix. I am printing through my extreme airport base now.

 

Being able to print to a Networked printer is OK... If you can set up a USB printer to be shared off of another device/computer then great... but what about those that DO need to print to a local USB printer?

Parallels GM, WinXP SP2.
I'm trying to Print to a Canon Pixma IP5000.
I have installed Apple's Bonjour and set the Printer to Be a Generic/Poscript using the Bonjour Wizard. Here is the Delema... The Bonjour wizard Driver Used by default for this printer it the "HP Colour Laserjet 4550 PS"... and when printing the Win Test Print page - all the Black is printed Blue. We have also installed the Canon IP5000 Drivers, but when selecting the Canon IP5000 Driver instead of the HP driver (Printer Properites Advanced page) we cannot print at all and get print errors.

What else to do?

 

The local printer is the printer connected to the OSX running Parrallels and this printer can be reached thru Bonjour.exe. So it is local and networkprinting at the same time.

Is OSX using correct (=Pixma) drivers?

 

OSX Prints to the Printer OK. Canon Drivers installed under OSX. Boss has been printing to this printer for 6 months.

It is only under Parallels running WinXP and Bonjour that the Canon IP5000 printer will not configure correctly.
Printer was set up using Bonjour Wizard and under properties is set up to print to a Bonjour Port.
The selected driver is an issue for this printer.
Selecting HP Colour Laserjer 4550 PS driver it prints wrong colours.
Selecting the Canon IP5000 Driver and the whole propertiers page changes to include Canon Properties, but all attampts to print fail.

What Driver should I use?