HP Printer Problems Reported with Snow Leopard Upgrade

**Michael Essany** · 08-31-2009, 07:13 AM

image via Apple

Shortly after the world started upgrading to Snow Leopard this weekend, reports began emerging that many Hewlett-Packard printers were incompatible with the upgrade. I would have found it hard to believe that HP would tell customers that they needed a new printer if not for being one of those miffed customers myself. As I scoured the web for reports of similar problems today, I found Computerworld on top of things as usual. They're out with an extensive piece highlighting the play-by-play printer problems brought out by the Snow Leopard upgrade.

"We're very disappointed with the way 10.6 has worked out in our office," said Ed Mcknew in a message that kicked off a long printer complaint thread Friday night. "We have an HP LaserJet connected to our Airport Extreme router, and none of our three office computers can find it on the network. We also have an HP DeskJet 4180 printer/scanner connected to our main computer (a USB connection) and that won't work either, because the HP printer software keeps crashing. Now we're faced with having no printers tomorrow."

Unfortunately, the problems first reported with HP soon spread to Brother, Canon, Epson and Lexmark. But as it stands, the bulk of complaints came as a direct result of Snow Leopard-compatible drivers. Soon after phone calls and messages started flooding HP, the company published a list of its printers supported with Snow Leopard drivers, and instructions on how to restore printing and scanning functions.

Computerworld, however, noted that the list was peppered with more than a few errors. What isn't an error - sadly - is that HP has dropped support for many of their printers. And its this very situation that is causing headaches and frustration this morning for both HP customers and customer service reps who have likely had a less than amicable weekend together.

Printer issues aside, other compatibility problems are being ironed out elsewhere. Photoshop problems, for example, are similarly causing an enormous degree of frustration today. After my version (CS3) started crashing only minutes into opening a project, I was told by Adobe that the time had come to upgrade to CS4. Regrettably, though, patching up printer problems could prove considerably more cumbersome.

Although some are quick to snap at Snow Leopard (or HP, or Adobe, etc.) for the glitches in its initial baby steps, Apple has done a stellar job of trying to keep users informed of incompatible software.

In addition, just this morning our friends at Apple Insider released a list of applications moved to the "Incompatible Software" folder by default upon installation of Snow Leopard:

* Parallels Desktop, ver. 2.5 and earlier
* McAfee VirusScan, ver. 8.6
* Norton AntiVirus ver. 11.0
* Internet Cleanup 5 ver. 5.0.4
* Application Enhancer ver. 2.0.1 and earlier
* Unsanity
* AT&T Laptop Connect Card ver. 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.10.0
* launch2net ver, 2.13.0
* iWOW plug-in for iTunes ver. 2.0
* Missing Sync for Palm Sony CLIE Driver ver. 6.0.4
* TonePort UX8 Driver ver. 4.1.0
* ioHD Driver ver. 6.0.3
* Silicon Image SiI3132 Drivers ver. 1.5.16.0

In addition, the following software is restricted from opening within Snow Leopard:

* Parallels Desktop ver. 3.0
* VirusBarrier X4 ver. 10.4.4 and earlier
* SPSS 17 ver. 17.1
* Director MX 2004 ver. 10.2
* EyeTV ver. 3.0.0 to 3.1.0
* Ratatouille ver. 1.1
* Aperture ver. 2.1.1 and earlier
* Keynote ver. 2.0.2 and earlier
* AirPort Admin Utility for Graphite and Snow ver. 4.2.5

It's understandable that everyone is a little impatient. For those, like myself, who often work from home and utterly depend on their Macs, printers, and Photoshop, Monday mornings like these can be the reason why Aspirin is worth buying in bulk. But after upgrading to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, some degree of patience is going to be required on our part as we work through issues of computability that - despite another bout of frustration - we always get through anyway.

**GregTheWang** · 08-31-2009, 07:18 AM

Ooo thanks... that's why Parallels was fine on my snow leopard... it was version 4! And I have an HP printer... can't wait to test it out.

FIRST

**whereswaldo** · 08-31-2009, 07:22 AM

second comment! (so close to first) lucky i dont have a mac, all my printers are hp and i heavily rely on photoshop cs3, i never thought i would say this but buying a PC has prevailed

**sayam** · 08-31-2009, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by wilsongeorge

second comment! (so close to first) lucky i dont have a mac, all my printers are hp and i heavily rely on photoshop cs3, i never thought i would say this but buying a PC has prevailed

You can always keep a PC

BTW, even I got HP printers and it's frustrating that the thingy won't work....

**Zamphire** · 08-31-2009, 08:24 AM

Sounds like Windows Vista all over again. "Sir/Ma'am why don't you like Windows Vista?" "I was told my printer and other stuff won't work on it." Give it a few days, people will start hating Snow Leopard for something that obviously isn't Apple's fault. I'm sure printer manufactures were given advanced warning to make drivers for the new OS and just didn't.

**PaperCross** · 08-31-2009, 08:30 AM

Cyberduck doesn't work for me after upgrading to Snow Leopard. I use it lot with my ftp servers and my jailbroken iPhone. Maybe my version of cyberduck is outdated. Anyone else have the same problem?

**MikePA** · 08-31-2009, 08:40 AM

Originally Posted by Zamphire

Sounds like Windows Vista all over again. "Sir/Ma'am why don't you like Windows Vista?" "I was told my printer and other stuff won't work on it." Give it a few days, people will start hating Snow Leopard for something that obviously isn't Apple's fault. I'm sure printer manufactures were given advanced warning to make drivers for the new OS and just didn't.

Keep in mind HP might have both known about the incompatibility issues with some of their printers and deliberately decided not to do anything about it as a way to get people to buy a new printer. I read somewhere (can't recall where) this is SOP for HP. If they did it to me, it'd be the last HP printer I buy. I have a C7280 which is not on the list. I should get my SL DVD today, so I will know for sure by this evening.

**SuperJoker** · 08-31-2009, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by PaperCross

Cyberduck doesn't work for me after upgrading to Snow Leopard. I use it lot with my ftp servers and my jailbroken iPhone. Maybe my version of cyberduck is outdated. Anyone else have the same problem?

They released an update. Version 3.3b1 supports Snow Leopard.

**rwin84** · 08-31-2009, 09:13 AM

It will be fixed. The naysayers are quick to cast stones but stand by when all is well

**PaperCross** · 08-31-2009, 09:31 AM

Originally Posted by SuperJoker

They released an update. Version 3.3b1 supports Snow Leopard.

Thanks for the link! I haven't quite kept up-to-date with the updates..

Originally Posted by MikePA

Keep in mind HP might have both known about the incompatibility issues with some of their printers and deliberately decided not to do anything about it as a way to get people to buy a new printer. I read somewhere (can't recall where) this is SOP for HP. If they did it to me, it'd be the last HP printer I buy. I have a C7280 which is not on the list. I should get my SL DVD today, so I will know for sure by this evening.

Happened to me way back when i upgraded to Leopard. This was a new HP model which I got from Best Buy, which the tech said would work with OS X (dont know why I listen to them anyway

). Called HP and they told me they stopped supporting that model, and this was a pretty recent one. Needless to say, I returned it and got an Epson, which did not work initially, but atleast their support person sent me the right drivers when I called. Not saying HP printers are a bad product line, just that its a hassle when trying to get the right one.

**mdc929** · 08-31-2009, 09:38 AM

didnt even know there was a problem with the printers
i just got an HP printer with my my imac a couple of weeks ago for the $100 rebate thing but didnt get a chance to test out the printer on snow leopard
hopefully everything goes well seeing as its 3 weeks old

**z15clerk** · 08-31-2009, 09:58 AM

anybody try gutenprint? Gutenprint for Mac OS X

**bluskool** · 08-31-2009, 10:04 AM

Photoshop CS3! Looks like the Snow Leopard install DVD will sit on my desk unopened for a while. Crap, I was really looking forward to using it. No way I can convince my company to move to CS4 in this economy.

**tsatryan** · 08-31-2009, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by MikePA

Keep in mind HP might have both known about the incompatibility issues with some of their printers and deliberately decided not to do anything about it as a way to get people to buy a new printer. I read somewhere (can't recall where) this is SOP for HP. If they did it to me, it'd be the last HP printer I buy. I have a C7280 which is not on the list. I should get my SL DVD today, so I will know for sure by this evening.

My HP C7280 is working fine with SnowLeopard.

**iProb8** · 08-31-2009, 10:24 AM

My LJ 3055 is listed as supported, but only as a printer. The new drivers do not support scanning. However, I tried this little trick that I learned about when I had problems after installing Leopard updates starting around 10.5.6: Log in as the root user, re-install the latest version of the HP software for the LJ3055, reboot, and log in as your usual user. You now should have regained scanning functionality.

**Melech518** · 08-31-2009, 10:58 AM

It was widely published before SL released that CS3 would not be compatible. CS4 however works amazing!

**andypropaganda** · 08-31-2009, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by Zamphire

Sounds like Windows Vista all over again. "Sir/Ma'am why don't you like Windows Vista?" "I was told my printer and other stuff won't work on it." Give it a few days, people will start hating Snow Leopard for something that obviously isn't Apple's fault. I'm sure printer manufactures were given advanced warning to make drivers for the new OS and just didn't.

I think that is a very small reason of why people hate Windows Vista. I despise the software completely, and if when my dad bought his PC I made sure that he installed XP and not Vista because it is terrible.

**shiPhone25** · 08-31-2009, 01:28 PM

i haven't had an issue with my hp printer

**KartRacer** · 08-31-2009, 02:02 PM

My HP J4680 all in one works just fine. I don't know if it's on the list or not though.

EDIT* Now that I said that my scanner is not working and nothing is fixing it. This is awesome. New update, things don't work. Reminds me of another OS. I expected better rollout than this with OS X (though it's not Apples fault). Get with it HP!!!

**mikerlx** · 08-31-2009, 05:24 PM

Does Handbrake work with snow leopard?

Your favorite Apple, iPhone, iPad, iOS, Jailbreak, and Cydia site.

Thread: HP Printer Problems Reported with Snow Leopard Upgrade

Mac News

General Apple/Mac

image via Apple Shortly after the world started upgrading to Snow Leopard this weekend, reports began emerging that many Hewlett-Packard printers were incompatible with the upgrade. I would have found

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to SuperJoker For This Useful Post: