Mac/Canon printer problem

[kaneohe]

I started printing a web page which I assumed was 1 paper page. The printer started at the last page and then the next to the last, etc. Not wanting to print an imagined 50 pages of junk (the part of interest was at the beginning) and not seeing anything to suggest I could cancel the printing, I turned the printer power off. Now I can't get anything to print from the computer (File/Print) .....there is no apparent reaction to that command.
I can use the printer as a copier . Did I do harm by turning the printer off while it was printing? Fix = ? I was using Chrome while doing the printing.
Using Safari, a blue bar shows up that suggests some progression and sometimes the printer makes some sound that suggests that printing will happen, but the print is not made.

 

[donheff]

Very unlikely to cause damage. Most likely the document is still in the printer queue and the printer is paused. Getting things started again can be tricky for most of us normal people. You need to figure out how to bring up the printer queue which depends on your operating system. In Windows 7 you can get it from the start button under "printers and devices." It varies in earlier Windows OSes but you can always find "printers" in the control panel. Select your printer and then cancel all the documents in the queue (list of documents). Make sure that the "pause printer" entry (in the "printer" menu is not checked. Then try again. If that fails, clear out the documents again and try rebooting. On a Mac - I don't know.

 

[bizlady]

I am not a computer pro by any means- but might you simply delete the printer from your computer and then plug it back in and reinstall?

 

[Walt34]

I dunno about Macs, but I'd start with searching for "clear Mac print queue" or similar. I can't think of any reason there would be physical damage to the printer or computer.

A relative had a similar issue with a Windows XP box and that cleared it right up.

At least in Windows, the application (in your case Chrome) tells the operating system "print this". Unless you tell it otherwise it will then use your default printer and default settings for that printer.

If the printer doesn't respond (i.e., it's turned off, out of paper, etc.) the operating system puts the print file into a queue to be printed later when everything gets back in order. Now you've told it not to print that web page, but perhaps didn't cancel the print job. It's first in line in the queue so nothing else gets printed until that first one is either canceled or printed. So now when you tell the system you want to print something it in effect has a seizure because it doesn't "know" how to respond to the conflicting commands.

So the solution is probably to clear that print job. Exactly how to do that on a Mac is the object of your search.

 

[kaneohe]

Thanks all so much for the helpful replies! The good news is that the Mac and printer apparently are speaking to each other this AM! The bad news is that I don't know exactly why since I didn't do the control experiment of just trying the same old thing as last night first..........perhaps the combo just needed time to repair the harm I caused them.......10 hrs in this case.

Nevertheless, I (ignorant, cowardly, not speaking the Mac language) got the idea from you folks (knowledgeable, but not speaking the Mac language) that I do know how to poke around and look at hardware status since DW usually mutes the sound and dims the monitor and I need to know how to undo those.
Found the printer section w/ 2 printers listed : something like MX700 which is what we have and iP1700 (don't know what it is). The latter was highlighted and I looked at something having the word "queue" . Didn't see anything that looked like a problem. Toggled to the other printer which wasn't highlighted but had the word "default" mentioned by you and didn't see any issues either. Not brave enough to highlight the one that sounded like the physical printer, I toggled back to the original configuration and just for giggles, acted like I had fixed the problem and tried printing. Success! So in this case, a little knowledge and some backbone that you all gave me = success. Thanks to you all again!
We'll pretend that we fixed it after all.

I didn't exactly lose sleep last night but after starting what I thought to be a 5 min. task and then getting trapped and spending seemingly hours trapped in this tar paper mess w/o success, muttering under my breath (or perhaps
more loudly), it feels wonderful to be able to go on to the next thing in life.

 

[ERD50]

Somehow, you managed to clear the print queue, which is what was needed - it would be hard to reconstruct exactly what you did at this point (and not really important). I'm not at my Mac now, I'm on my Linux/Ubuntu machine, but IIRC, on the Mac the active printer pops up on the dock. If you click that, you get a window with a list of print jobs, and you can delete any 'stuck' ones.

A little tip: Whenever I'm printing a web page, I'll usually do the "Print to pdf" thing first (drop down or button choice on both Mac an Ubuntu). As you say, sometimes it's a little hard to tell how many pages are going to print, or what the format will be. You can open the pdf and then print the pages you want. You can also keep the 'soft copy' for future ref if you like.

-ERD50

 

[donheff]

Duh, I missed the mac in the title. Glad to help with your pc though.

 

[Dudester]

I'm a Mac owner, so perhaps I can give you some useful suggestions about how to handle the problem you had. I'm basing these comments on how things work on my Mac. I'm assuming that yours works the same.

When you start a print job, an icon appears in the dock that looks a printer and is labelled with the name of your printer. When the printer is done printing, the icon disappears. The important point here is the icon is only present when a print job in progress. Click on this icon when a print job is active, and a printer utility window will pop up. At the bottom of the window is a list of the last umpteen print jobs you printed as well as the current print job. Click on the current print job. At the top of the window is a delete button. Click the delete button, and - voila - the print job is canceled.

You might want to clear the list of old print jobs also. To do this, click on some print job, do the "select all" key combo, which selects all the old print jobs, them click on delete. You now have a nice clean print queue.

 

[kaneohe]

ERD50 and Dudester.......appreciate the tips; filed for future crises. THanks.