LaserWriter: All Printers on Network Need Same Driver



I have Version 6.0.1 of the LaserWriter driver and Laser Prep. After
installing it on one of our machines, I get a message that the LaserWriter
contains an incompatible version of Laser Prep that cannot be removed and
that I should restart the printer.

Restarting the printer doesn't help. The LaserWriter in question is
spooled using the AppleShare Print Spooler on an AppleShare server. When
the spooler "picks up" the LaserWriter, it must be downloading the Laser
Prep to the LaserWriter. The problem is that I am spooling LaserWriters
for two departments on this spooler and don't want to update both
departments to the new drivers.

Will I have to update everyone to System 6.0.5 and the 6.0.1 LaserWriter
driver?

The LaserWriter driver on the spooler determines the version needed by each
workstation. Therefore, all printers captured by the spooler must use the
same drivers. However, you need only update the users' drivers, not the
system software. The 6.0.1 driver is compatible with Macintosh System
Software 6.0.x.

In other words, if there are different versions of the LaserWriter Driver
in your network on various Macintoshes, including System 7 versions, the
printer will have to go through a lengthy process of reinitializing itself
to a new version of the LaserWriter driver every time a different version
is used in the printing process. In general, the best and most consistent
approach is to update every Macintosh on the network with the highest
version of the LaserWriter driver being used on the network.


Published Date: Feb 18, 2012