Mac Classic and Brother HL-5250

[neils]

G'day

I have a dual processor 1.8 GHz G5 with OS 10.4.6 and, while I also use
CS2, a lot of my work is done in Pagemaker 6.5 running under Classic.

I recently bought a Brother HL-5250 mono laser printer. It replaces a
Laserwriter 4/600 used as a stopgap after I'd returned a printer of
another make.

To my delight the Brother happily prints Pagemaker documents, something
the first printer would not attempt, though the old Laserwriter could
handle them in small doses.

But, it seems you have to hold your mouth right - or maybe stand on one
leg while whistling Dixie or something.

Maybe it's the printer's sleep mode, it usually sits idle for hours at
a time. If a file is then sent to it and nothing happens a check of
the print monitor shows '7% completed' (sometimes a different figure)
and just sits on that figure.

'Stop jobs', delete the file from the 'status' box, 'start jobs', send
the file again and the print monitor again shows it stalled at 7%.

This has happened to Photoshop files as well, and pressing the 'Go'
and/or the 'Jobs Cancel' buttons on the printer has no effect. What
does work is turning the printer "off' then 'on' via the switch on its
case.

This seemed rather drastic as a long-term solution so I phoned
Brother's tech support - and was told that the HL-5250 could not print
from programs running under Classic.

Has anyone discovered a fix other than the On/Off switch.

Neil Smith

 

[Fred McKenzie]

This seemed rather drastic as a long-term solution so I phoned
Brother's tech support - and was told that the HL-5250 could not print
from programs running under Classic.

Neil-

OS X versions through 10.3.9 required OS 9 printer drivers be installed
for Classic applications to print. With 10.4, Classic applications will
print using the OS X printer drivers.

You can still have the OS 9 drivers installed, and that may be part of
your problem. Try selecting the LaserWriter 8 driver in the chooser, and
see if the OS X printers appear in addition to the ones you had set up in
Classic. The solution to your problem might be as simple as selecting the
OS X version of the same printer.

Fred