Printer issue/System resent issue

[Stinky The Clown]

I had occasion to speak with AppleCare today. They had me do a special sort of reset that cured my problem. On a MacPro OS-X 10.8 they had me hold down the SHIFT/OPTION/COMMAND keys along with the power button for 15 seconds and then release. I then was told to restart the machine. When I did, all was well. Problem solved.

I have the same issue with an older iMac with 10.6.8 on it. I tried the same key mnemonic but all it did was restart the machine. How do I do the same sort of reset on the old machine as fixed things on the new machine?

The underlying issue here was a problem with my computers not seeing a printer and being able to add it. Apparently the reset flushed something out of the system and allowed it to see the printer. The iMac is the last of our six networked computers that can't see the printer. By the way, if I manually enter the printer's IP address instead of letting the computer find the printer, it works, but I have a printer named 1nn.1nn.1.2nn. (It actually shows the real numbers.) Plus, the scanning function still doesn't work as I am not sure how to manually install that.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. I had something similar with an older laptop.

I did a makeshift fix by loading a driver, which had the printer show up as an app, printing to PDF, then dropping the PDF on the printer. Eventually, I quit printing from that laptop.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. We had all six computers on the network lose the printer at the same time.

[fpublic]

3. Reset parameter ram (PRAM)

A small amount of your computer’s memory, called “parameter random-access memory” or PRAM, stores certain settings in a location that OS X can access quickly. The particular settings that are stored depend on your type of Mac and the types of devices connected to it. The settings include your designated startup disk, display resolution, speaker volume, and other information.

Resetting PRAM is the most common solution mentioned at Apple Support (although the restart key combination that you listed is not a PRAM operation as far as I know). PRAM covers a list of "common settings" that could include your printer.

Rather than OS version, restart key combinations seem to be hardware specific so I would refer to the user manual for your particular iMac model: http://support.apple.com/manuals/#imac
It lists iMacs from newest to older. The User Manuals have a chapter on Problems/Solutions that give restart and reset instructions for the hardware.

Good luck.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. There might be more going on with this one. Now it won't start up.

Its gets to the gray screen with the apple logo and just hangs. The gear keeps spinning, but it never starts.

I am taking it to the Apple Store Genius Bar on Saturday.

[denem]

5. Heres a suggestion.

1. Reset Parameter Ram
2. Boot holding down Option and select the recovery partition. If you don't have a recovery partition, attach another mac by a firewire cable. Boot the other mac in Target Disk mode, then restart iMac holding down Option, and select the other mac's boot disk.
3. Run Disk Utility (or DiskWarrior if you have it) on the iMacs boot disk.
4. Shutdown.
5. Reboot the iMac in Safe/Disk Check mode (Hold down shift on startup)
6. If you get to the desktop give it a few minutes then shutdown.
7. Then try a cold start.

Good luck.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. We actually tried most of that. Ultimately I took it in to the Apple Store.

They did all the same stuff, to no good end. Finally, the only option left was to reinstall the OS.

I now have a brand new 2008 iMac that needs to be set up and have its apps installed.