OK. I know what you are thinking - this is a .Net Crazy blog - not a Mac/Apple blog. I admit that you are right, but (AND THIS IS A BIG BUT) I have just spent more time than I care to admit (OK - about an hour really) trying to get my handy dandy Brother HL-2140 to print after hooking it up to my iMac. Yes I know.....I'm a PC girl, but I do have many computers running various things and I do have a Mac in the family. Everyone is welcome where I come from!
Anyway, I have been using this printer with my PCs without a problem. I hooked it up to my iMac, download the latest drivers for it from the Brother website and tried to print. Nothing! What? Isn't hooking a printer up to the mac supposed to be super easy (hahaha)? Nope! I uninstalled and reinstalled (the PC thing to do) and still nothing. I kept getting a client-error-not-possible error! What in the world is that? Talk about obscure errors! Ghhheeshhhhh! I researched the issue. Many people have had the same issue, but there was no resolution displayed. OK. Lets start playing around.
I decided to try to see if it was the printer driver causing the problem or the printer. I selected a variety of different types of print drivers to see if I could get the printer to have a reaction. I used various CUPS drivers for different Brother printers since that is what the actual driver for the HL-2140 is. I came up short! Then I used a Gutenprint driver for one of the other Brother printers. Guess what? I got a reaction! The printer "pretended" to print - it spit out paper, but didn't print the text. OOOOKKKKK.....now what?
Since I did get a reaction when I used a Gutenprint driver, I realized that the issue was driver related (see how smart I am?). I decided to try a different approach. I went back to the Brother website and I downloaded an OLD driver for the HL-2140. I have an iMac with OS 10.5.8 (as of today) and I downloaded the HL-2140 driver for OS 10.4. I went through the process of installing - blah,blah,blah - followed directions - blah,blah,blah and tried to print. Guess what? It worked!!!! Success, success, success! I AM as smart as I think I am (I hope :-)).
Anyway, that solved the problem and I could print on my Brother HL-2140 using my iMac running OS 10.5.8. Hopefully this saves you time and allows you to just get on with things.
If this helps you, write a comment and tell me how wonderful I am. If it DOESN'T help you, write a comment and tell me know how wonderful I am.
Smooches,
Kila
Problem: Brother HL 2140 printer will not print when connected to an iMac running OS 10.5.8
Solution: Download the old drivers for OS 10.4 from the Brother website and install it per the instructions. After the install and reboot, the printer should now print using the old drivers.
10 comments:
I ended up buying a new toner cartridge (UGH) because of this issue, and spent literally 2-3 months unable to print anything. Finally I spent time to actually track the error message on Google and found your solution and it worked!!
Thank you for posting this!
Christopher I'm so glad you found this because that error can make you pull your head out. I'm sorry that you purchased a new cartridge! I have some tricks that can allow you to use the starter cartridge forever! Well you will have to refill it, but the refills are extremely cheap on eBay.
Strong work. This solved our issue as well!
Fantastic.
You have just saved my boss the cost of a new Mac and me the cost of a new window (the one the Mac was going through).
All the other forums and "help" centres insist you must have the most recent drivers.
Only a woman could think of installing an old driver.
Pure genius. Thanks.
@Dave I'm so glad that you have saved the window AND the printer! It really is a fantastic little printer once you iron out the kinks! Glad I could be of help!
I am having this problem on a Brother DCP-6690CW. I have just reinstalled all the drivers etc. for mac 10.5.8 and the printer comes up saying it receives the data for a few seconds then nothing and when i press resume i get this "client-error-not-possible" message. Do you think this will work for me?? thanks
@Emma you should give it a try. If I were you, I would use a prior version of the driver for your printer. If that doesn't work, I would start trying drivers one at a time to see if I could find one that works. There is bound to be one that works for you.
I was running OS 10.5.8 too and ran into the exact same prob. Sure enough when I downloaded the driver for 10.4 the printer worked.
Just saying thanks. The internet wouldn't be what it is without helpful people like you sharing info.
Cheers.
-Todd.
Yay Todd!
You are sooooo correct! I'm glad this information helped you! I love my little Brother printer!
Thank you some much for the information Kila! I have had my HL-2140 for over four years now and just recently switched to a mac OS 10.5.8 and ran into a similar problem.
I initially downloaded the driver for OS 10.5.8 and followed all the steps but still kept getting the same error message. It was then that I decided to do some research, ran into your blog, followed your advice to download the older driver and "voila"-immediate success! What a relief!
I can't thank you enough for saving me many trips to use other printers. You're a godsend!
- JT
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