Printer Driver Question

LeslieF · #1 August 3rd, 2005, 03:09 AM

I am trying to use a Dell 1700 Laser printer on a Mac OS X system. OS X saw the printer right away - no problem, but I have a lot of applications running through Classic and I can't see the printer in the Chooser. I think that its a driver problem since Dell doesn't offer a Mac driver. Is there any other driver that might work or is there some other way to use this printer easily when I'm in Classic? The best I've been able to do is select the Laserwriter 8 driver. Nothing displays in the printer window, but when I go to Page Setup the Dell is the printer option. Trouble is there is minimal setup functionality and I would really need more - ie. print selection, sizing, etc.

The printer is connected via USB. I did go into USB printer sharing & set that up. Nothing is in the printer network tab though ( I have no idea how to use that). I also enabled AppleTalk but don't know if that was necessary or not. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

**Buzz** · #2 August 3rd, 2005, 03:42 AM

Without a specific Classic OS driver there's little you can do except use the Laserwriter 8 driver and a generic PPD file.

Chances are the printer is just using the built in Mac OSX CUPS driver as well. So basically, until Dell writes a specific Mac driver you're out of luck and will have to deal with what you've already got. Sorry.

LeslieF · #3 August 3rd, 2005, 07:08 AM

Hi - After searching around on the internet I found someone who says the Dell is made by Lexmark. I'm going to try the E323 driver & see if it works.

**Buzz** · #4 August 3rd, 2005, 08:31 AM

You might be interested in tehe recall....

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml04/04211.html

LeslieF · #5 August 3rd, 2005, 10:27 AM

Thanks for the info. We just received this printer from Dell, so I assume the problem has been fixed, but I'll certainly look into it!