Disapointed switcher (HP Laserjet 3150 & other)

[frusciante]

I bought a new MacBook last week, very nice laptop, but my HP Laserjet 3150 isnt supported (although all the 'mac believers' said it wouldn't be a problem.
Is there a way to solve this?

By the way, it crashed already after 8 hours of working on it. Somehow with iTunes, Safari & MS Excel running, it crashed. I can't remember when I had to restart my old Toshiba Tecra 8200 with XP installed on it.

 

[eji]

Have you tried this:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/5680

Or better yet, this:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9055

Those GutenPrint drivers should get your LaserJet working.

As for the crashing, it happens to any computer, even Macs. Was it a kernel panic or just an application/GUI freeze?

It's no doubt a disappointment to buy a Mac and have to restart it within eight hours of use. But don't write your MacBook off just yet.

 

[Sesshi]

Welcome to the land of denial

Contrary to what people here say, Macs can be just as (if not more) unreliable than Windows. However, many convince themselves eventually that it's better somehow because of the warm fuzzy feeling you get when using Mac. Or something like that

Are we talking about the all-in-one fax/scan/copy 3150 with the parallel port connection? There's about as much chance of a Macbook supporting that as Steve Jobs saying "Vista is Amazing"... who told you it'll work? If you need to use it the only way really is to stick the 3150 on a parallel-port Jetdirect network adapter and use Ethernet, although the 3150 doesn't play all that nicely with Jetdirects either (but it will more or less work for printing). Given the extreme hassle involved, I'd say dump it for a current all-in-one which works with OS X.

If that's not an option, look on ebay for a Jetdirect 300X.

 

[ero87]

Contrary to what people here say, Macs can be just as (if not more) unreliable than Windows.

woahh man. Let's not write it all off to just a "warm fuzzy feeling." I don't want to make this a big thread of windows vs. macs (lord knows we have enough), but comments like that must be answered.

On my windows PC, i had to use ctrl-alt-delete probably 100 times a day, and had to restart all the time. On my 18-month-old iMac G5, i've NEVER had a restart, never had a system "freeze", and have probably used option-command-escape 4 or 5 times, ever.

Macs are more reliable, what a silly claim that they may be less reliable than windows. c'mon now!

and to the OP: did you add 3rd party RAM to your comp? It might be faulty RAM causing a kernal panic. Otherwise, hopefully that freeze was random aberration that won't happen again! Remember, use option-command-escape to force-quit apps before you make the drastic move of restarting.

 

[Sesshi]

woahh man. Let's not write it all off to just a "warm fuzzy feeling." I don't want to make this a big thread of windows vs. macs (lord knows we have enough), but comments like that must be answered.

On my windows PC, i had to use ctrl-alt-delete probably 100 times a day, and had to restart all the time.

The fact that you're probably running with defective hardware, let alone sufficiently clueless to be unable to maintain a simple Windows installation is not really my problem. Or anyone elses but yours.

I maintain(ed, in the case of departed machines) my OS X machines so that crashes, etc are primarily sleep-based, and not application-based. What crashes that do occur seem to be inevitable and it doesn't inconvenience me, I just work around them. The hardware on the other hand, there's no working around. Hopefully reliability is better now. I have had no BSOD's this year on any of my Windows PC's and very little in the way of application instability. Nor spyware or malware. One of my PC's has had two total transplants (only the HDD remained effectively speaking) this year without a reinstall of the OS. With either platform, reasonably stable operation is generally about whether you know what you're doing... or not, as the case may be.

 

[nplima]

It's no doubt a disappointment to buy a Mac and have to restart it within eight hours of use..

pardon? you guys restart your computers daily?
I keep my powerbook on for weeks (it goes to sleep mode at night, just like I do) and I don't feel it running any different... On the other hand, my XP box has to be restarted once or twice a week because of USB devices deciding to disappear after going to standby...
Both OS are solid, I wouldn't trust my life to some of the peripheral manufacturers out there though...

 

[bbarnhart]

frusciante - Sorry you're having problems. It could be bad hardware that is causing your MacBook to crash. Would you describe how it is crashing so we can point you in the right direction.

Also let us know if those printer drivers worked. If not perhaps there are others.

Your MacBook shouldn't crash or need to be rebooted regularly.

 

[eji]

pardon? you guys restart your computers...

Uh, no. I said, "It's no doubt a disappointment to buy a Mac and have to restart it within eight hours of use." Meaning that it's disappointing. To have to restart your computer. After eight hours of use. When that shouldn't be the case.

I leave my iMac G5 up for about a week at a time, and I suppose I could leave it up for longer. I had some power issues last week because I installed a dodgy Front Row replacement and it corrupted my Energy Saver preference files, causing my computer to shut down randomly. But that isn't an Apple issue, it's a stupid user issue -- one, I might add, that stems from the complacency of having such a solid OS that you start to think you're invulnerable and can install things like dodgy Front Row replacements willy-nilly.

Back to the thread, I hadn't realized that the 3150 used a parallel port connection. I thought it was just a driver issue. Do any laptops still use parallel ports? Weren't they phased out with 3.5" floppies?

 

[frusciante]

Thanks for the responses. The 3150 is installed on our home network through JetDirect. I will try the package that eji has linked to, but I'm not at home for the moment. The problem is that packages like GIMP have drivers for different kinds of LaserJets, but not for the 3150....
About the reboot: it was after the MacBook was working reaaaaaally slowly and it got worse, until finally it froose on the screen that appears when you press the menu on the remote. Could it be because of a USB memory stick (from a swiss army knife) that was plugged in?

 

[Sesshi]

Oh I see... you've already got it Jetdirected. I'd suggest the last bit of what I said in that case. The 3150 was never a network friendly printer in any case and it was never designed to support Macs.

I would suggest the last part of my first post in this thread, which is to dump it and get something which does support OS X.

 

[RacerX]

Welcome to the land of denial

Contrary to what people here say, Macs can be just as (if not more) unreliable than Windows. However, many convince themselves eventually that it's better somehow because of the warm fuzzy feeling you get when using Mac. Or something like that

-followed by-​

The fact that you're probably running with defective hardware, let alone sufficiently clueless to be unable to maintain a simple Windows installation is not really my problem. Or anyone elses but yours.

I maintain(ed, in the case of departed machines) my OS X machines so that crashes, etc are primarily sleep-based, and not application-based. What crashes that do occur seem to be inevitable and it doesn't inconvenience me, I just work around them. The hardware on the other hand, there's no working around.

I think that Sesshi has sufficiently proven that he is clueless enough to not know what he is talking about as far as Macs are concerned.

I've been working with this stuff (Mac OS X and other operating systems in it's lineage) for 14 years now and pretty much all crashing issues with this OS tend to lead back to hardware. I know this not only because I service Macs for a living (so I can see it in my clients' systems), but I also run a ton of systems based on this operating system here at home. I firmly believe crashing in Mac OS X is not something to be worked around, it is something that must be addressed and solved.

I, personally, don't except crashing on any of my systems. They should be rock solid stable no matter what I have to throw at them. And their collective uptimes reflect this:

PowerBook G3 Wallstreet (Mac OS X v10.2.8): up 39 days, 12:58
Power Macintosh G3 Mini Tower (Mac OS X v10.3.9): up 74 days, 8:04
iMac G3 (Mac OS X v10.2.8): up 75 days, 2:25
PowerBook G3 Lombard (Mac OS X v10.3.9): up 38 days, 38 minutes
Power Macintosh 8600/300 (Rhapsody 5.6): up 54 days, 8:58
PowerBook G3 Pismo (Mac OS X v10.3.9): up 66 days, 1:20
ThinkPad 760ED (Rhapsody 5.1): up 8 days, 16:20​

For me, the only reasons for my systems to need restarting should be because I've left town and shut them down, installed software that requires restarting or there was some type of power interruption. In the case of my ThinkPad, because I run both Rhapsody 5.1 and OPENSTEP 4.2 on that system, it has to be shutdown for me to boot into the other OS (which, along with the fact that the battery doesn't hold a charge, is why the uptime for that system is so low). My 8600 would have been up around 75 days if I hadn't installed the developer tools and WebObjects.

One of the biggest mistakes of people new to Macs (coming from Windows), like our friend Sesshi here, is the acceptance of crashes as inevitable. This leads new comers to ignore issues that are usually quite solvable.



Frankly, anything that Sesshi says on technical matters relating to Macs should be accepted with an understanding that he is not yet a competent Mac user yet... though it sounds like he does just fine with Windows. This isn't saying that he can't one day be competent, but today* he is not the person to listen too on these matters.


* Note: My opinion of him is referring to posts by Sesshi beyond what was posted in this thread. For example, his competence (or lack there of) was quite evident in this post.

 

[Sesshi]

I'm impressed you wrote all that for me... I feel all fuzzy inside

Oh you're right there about crashing problems needing to be addressed, and that it's probably a hardware problem. Of course, this may not be the case if you have already sent it back and it has come back from Apple's superb Applecare service with an amazingly short week's turnaround (as opposed to the truly crappy next day on-site repair of Dell ), and it starts crashing on sleep straight away after an OS install you've got to start wondering. Mind you, a few other obvious hardware issues have not been addressed by Apple so it will have to go back in any case.

But it hasn't just been the MBP. I personally could be convinced that the G4's were a tad more reliable than the MBP, the worst of the offenders so far in terms of system stability out of the Intel Macs I've had this year, although by no means the worst in terms of problems (Macbook... ugh). I borrowed an iBook for a while last year, and also had a PPC Mini and didn't have anywhere near the problems I've had with Intel gear.

That's definitely part of the problem that's with the comparatively unreliable Intel Macs to date. Do you own anything current, RacerX?

And cumulatively I've been a Mac user for 7 years, although my exposure to OS X has been recent. Don't necessarily assume I'm a fresh switchee.

 

[RacerX]

That's definitely part of the problem that's with the comparatively unreliable Intel Macs to date. Do you own anything current, RacerX?

I service them, and yes, Intel Macs (as shipped) have posed interesting challenges in getting them to the point of being stable... but nothing that has lead me to believe that it can't be achieved.

My clients are used to stable systems, so a system that crashes (at all) is a problem to be dealt with... and is not an inevitability to be worked around.

And cumulatively I've been a Mac user for 7 years, although my exposure to OS X has been recent. Don't necessarily assume I'm a fresh switchee.

If you have had limited exposure to Mac OS X, then you are not competent to speak on it technically... as you have shown so far.

Your comment on memory handling shows you to be ill informed.



"Cumulatively", that's a good one.

 

[Sesshi]

If you have had limited exposure to Mac OS X, then you are not competent to speak on it technically... as you have shown so far.

Your comment on memory handling shows you to be ill informed.

Have you tried running multiple comparable apps with multiple documents open while running Firefox, iTunes, Skype, and other normal paraphenalia on an Intel Mac, and comparing it to a Windows machine with the same apps loaded with half the RAM? Are you aware of how VM works under Windows?

 

[RacerX]

Have you tried running multiple comparable apps with multiple documents open while running Firefox, iTunes, Skype, and other normal paraphenalia on an Intel Mac, and comparing it to a Windows machine with the same apps loaded with half the RAM? Are you aware of how VM works under Windows?

I usually have five or six apps open at any one time... as to them being comparible, that is up for debate. The most used apps on my systems are

OmniWeb
Mail
Curator
Photoshop
Create
GoLive
TextEdit
Preview
iTunes​

And those are joined by (depending on what I'm doing at the time)

Acrobat
PStill
Sound Studio
LiveMotion
ToyViewer
Mathematica
LiveMath Maker
3DXplorMath
TeXShop
LaTeX Equation Editor​

And I may have Firefox and Safari running along side... but I don't use either of them for regular browsing. And Nisus Thesaurus, OmniDictionary and Address Book may also be running at the same time too.

As for your memory comment... the amount of RAM for the systems noted before:

PowerBook G3 Wallstreet: 512 MB
Power Macintosh G3 Mini Tower: 640 MB
iMac G3: 512 MB
PowerBook G3 Lombard: 512 MB
Power Macintosh 8600/300: 416 MB
PowerBook G3 Pismo: 640 MB
ThinkPad 760ED: 80 MB​

Mac OS X handles memory the same way independent of platform. While I may not be able to do nearly as much on my ThinkPad (at 80 MB), I'm still able to do quite a lot with it (OmniWeb, Create, ToyViewer, PDFView, TextEdit and PixelNhance would be a standard combination of open apps on that system).

Usually when we are talking about an Intel Mac and memory requirements, the question that needs to be asked is "are you running Universal apps?" If the answer is no, then the more memory the better. I've put a lot of Intel Macs through their paces to make sure they could handle the load that my clients require of them. And in doing so I can better advise them on what they need to do their work.

Ya see, I've been working with this OS for a long time... so don't even think you can question my experience.

But you know, frankly, I don't care what Windows does for memory management. And as (from what I've heard) it hasn't changed radically since back in the OS/2 days, I highly doubt it is worth wasting my time to look into it.



But yeah, unlike you, I'd rather limit my cumulative time as a Windows user.

 

[decksnap]

Welcome to the land of denial

Contrary to what people here say, Macs can be just as (if not more) unreliable than Windows.

Uggh. Yes they CAN be, if they're seriously f'd up. But in general, no, of course not. Not even close.

 

[ChrisA]

I bought a new MacBook last week, very nice laptop, but my HP Laserjet 3150 isnt supported (although all the 'mac believers' said it wouldn't be a problem.
Is there a way to solve this?

By the way, it crashed already after 8 hours of working on it. Somehow with iTunes, Safari & MS Excel running, it crashed. I can't remember when I had to restart my old Toshiba Tecra 8200 with XP installed on it.

The worse case senario is that you have to conect the printer to your old PC notebook and then from inside windows "share" the printer. Your Mac will see the PC share and can print to it. So the old notebook becomes a print server.

The other thing to try is to just tell the mac that it is a basic, generic PCL printer.

As for the Mac needing to be re-statred. Are you sure t needed that. Many times all that's happened is a program is n the foreground and has frozen up waiting forsomething that can't ever happen. Terminate that program and you are fine. Sometimes the GUI is frozen up too. Thenyou have to "ssh" in to the mac from another computer and kill the offending process.

 

[eji]

Could it be because of a USB memory stick (from a swiss army knife) that was plugged in?

I don't even think there's any question. Portable USB drives haven't been the height of stability for me, and my wife has to eject hers from her iBook when she's no longer accessing it to avoid the Finder getting unresponsive over time (it's a process of degradation) -- which sounds exactly like your problem. I wonder if reformatting the USB drives in HFS+ would do the trick, or if it's a Spotlight bug?

 

[Sesshi]

long diatribe

How do you run Windows XP on 80MB of RAM? Do you actually own any current gear to use on a daily basis instead of ranting on about your superannuated systems?

And why is it with people like this that they always eventually respond with "I highly doubt it is worth wasting my time to look into it"?
And why did I even respond to an off-topic diatribe in the first place, especially as I now know it comes from a comparatively worthless point of view?

Sorry to the OP. I'll keep future replies on topic in this thread.

 

[bousozoku]

Thanks for the responses. The 3150 is installed on our home network through JetDirect. I will try the package that eji has linked to, but I'm not at home for the moment. The problem is that packages like GIMP have drivers for different kinds of LaserJets, but not for the 3150....
About the reboot: it was after the MacBook was working reaaaaaally slowly and it got worse, until finally it froose on the screen that appears when you press the menu on the remote. Could it be because of a USB memory stick (from a swiss army knife) that was plugged in?

I've seen a lot of things posted here with the Intel-based Macs and it makes me believe that they're still a work in progress. Whether they're more or less stable than a machine running Windows XP, I don't know. I've seen some good machines.

USB devices used to cause me a lot of trouble and I wouldn't be able to boot until I removed all of the devices from the computer. Removing the cable while the computer running, during certain Mac OS X releases, would cause kernel panics. Things have changed a lot and I believe that you'll see good stability changes in the coming months before 10.5 is released but you'll see a lot better performance and stability with 10.5.

Generally, I've seen devices that came with JetDirect cards supported internally as being compatible and having HP-written drivers but those with add-on cards incompatible. Of course, it's no help now. You may have to go with something new.

By the way, there are a lot of fanatics who will tell you anything but there are many, more reasonable people who understand the issues. If I listened to what the fanatics said, I should never have problems and that would be really nice. My PowerBook is very, very reliable and a little knowledge goes a long way, as well as a drive repair application. Hope things get better soon.

 

[hdsalinas]

Will my printer work then?

I have an Epson stylus CX 1500 printer/scanner, will it work with a mac?
I went to the epson site but they don't have any drivers listed for Mac OS.

 

[RacerX]

How do you run Windows XP on 80MB of RAM?

Like I originally stated, clueless.

I rest my case.

 

[yellow]

How do you run Windows XP on 80MB of RAM?

!XP, Rhapsody.

 

[jeremy.king]

although all the 'mac believers' said it wouldn't be a problem.

Well, not the "mac believers" here. You have a whole two posts on this site...

Also, your machine didn't crash, an application did, which, in most cases, can be resolved using command+option+escape and force quitting the unresponsive applications or using Terminal to kill the process(es). Also, don't forget all the indexing Spotlight does once you begin to use your laptop for the first time, so this probably helped drag your machine down a little. BTW, what do you have for RAM? amount and brand?

As for your Tecra, you would have had to reboot with some of the security updates

 

[Sesshi]

Like I originally stated, clueless.

I rest my case.

Would you care to explain to the clueless one as I'm comparing current OS's on current hardware? I don't really care for useless comparisons on irrelevant hardware. Since the Thinkpad is the only machine in that list capable of running Windows, I was asking how realistic your experiences are with a machine packing a massive 80MB of RAM. Or is it that you haven't even bothered doing what I do and you're just talking out of your behind? More likely given your posts so far.

Ah ****, broke my own earlier post. But good news! Inventory says I should have a 3150 gathering dust somewhere. The spreadsheet says it was still operational when it was put in storage. I'll try and find it. I have a Jetdirect 300X so I'll fiddle around if that helps any.