When a Mac is involved no good deed goes unpunished

[unfaithfulsfan]

That was the proverb that kept zipping around my parboiled brain during the 3 hours I spent earlier this afternoon. Here is what brought that about.

When I bought my laptop, it came with a free printer. I didn't need another printer so it's been in the basement. 4 months later I was talking to the "manager" of the Senior Center and he mentioned that they sure could use a printer for the computer for the seniors and did I know where to find one cheap.

I should mention that the former village trustee who brought the seniors into the 21st century does not know how to use anything but a Mac. She was perfectly happy to spend nearly two grand of the village's money to buy a Mac for the seniors but did not get a printer. A few weeks later, she bailed on her promise to teach the seniors how to use the damn thing, leaving everyone looking at me to take up the slack. Some of y'all might remember this saga from a couple of years back when I first became a member of LR.

So I talked it over with Karen (my wife and Deputy Clerk for the village) and donated the printer to the seniors. I went down there today to install it, thinking, "Ah, this'll take me about 30 minutes." Yeah, right. Three hours later I had succeeded in only developing a healthy dose of frustration and low blood sugar.

The driver disk that came with the printer clearly states Mac OS X, 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6. The Mac in question has 10.5.8 so I dumbly assumed that driver would work. The install plodded through taking about 30 minutes only to get to the end to tell me that driver was not compatible. So I downloaded another one, and another one and another one.

As an aside: Why the hell HP would require that you choose a printer model between version "a" and version "b" for a choice of driver packages without including those letters anywhere on the printer has me stymied to the nth degree. The only logical conclusion I arrived at is that one is for "commercial" applications and the other is for consumer use. Still don't know the difference and I can't prove my hypothesis.

So I've spent the last 3 hours trying to find a simple driver, not with all the software included, and trying to understand how to uninstall programs from a Mac. Apparently you just drag the whole folder to the trash, spit on the keyboard, pirouette twice then yell "gesundheit" at the top of your lungs.

So my question is ("Finally!", you say): Do any of you Mac folks out there have any idea where I can find a lone printer driver for an HP Photosmart D110 (a/b) to work on Mac OS 10.5.8?

Thanks for suffering through my tirade.
Jack

[vbironchef]

Hi Jack! Without looking up your hp printer, do you think that it might work with windows 7? If not, I think you are SOL.

[unfaithfulsfan]

Hi Jack! Without looking up your hp printer, do you think that it might work with windows 7? If not, I think you are SOL.

Yeah, it does but I don't want to give up my officejet! It has a fax where the freebie doesn't-IF that's where you were going with that!

[unfaithfulsfan]

Помоему, что тут коды на машины крутые возможно не то, что я ищу, но может есть альтернатива, а то там не выходит, да и признаться замахался искать.

I'm not sure I agree with you but I'll take it under advisement and get back to you later.......

[unfaithfulsfan]

Maybe I'm missing something but I'm going to chalk it up to Mac and PC are just different animals.

Y'know how a PC printer install will tell you to install the drivers before you connect the USB cable? Mac wants the cable connected.
That was the crux of the whole damn problem.

I'm going to go outside, light a cigar and cuss a blue streak. In English

Jack