My husband’s aunt recently retired. She’s 87 years old. The company gave her the old mac that she had used. I set it up for her and now she wants a printer.
She wrote down the operation system version (she has Mac OS X 10.4.11 )and brought it to the local computer store where they sold her an HP all in one machine that they assured her would work with her old Mac. On set up it gave me an error that the software was only compatible with OSX 10.6 or later.
She doesn’t have internet access so I had no way to download drivers from the HP web site (assuming there are drivers for her OS). She’s not tech savvy at all which is why I’m involved.
She’s taking the printer back to the store but I can’t imagine that she’s going to have much luck finding a new printer that’s compatible with her old OS. Any suggestions? I thought about downloading the drivers on my computer but I don’t have a Mac so I’m not sure I can download Mac drivers on my Windows 7 laptop and have them work on her Mac.
I have next to zero Mac experience but I am willing to learn. I’d appreciate suggestions. Thanks.
if the “old Mac” in question is a PowerPC-based system, you might have a hard time finding new printers which have driver support for those systems. 10.6 is the first release which was Intel-only.
FWIW I have an HP OfficeJet 6000 which works with both PPC and Intel Macs.
You might be able to get the printer to work by just setting it up as a “generic” printer.
Don’t use HP’s (crappy) software - just add the printer in the Printer Utility.
Note that you won’t be able to use the scanner this way, but printing will work.
I didn’t think about the thumb drive. :smack: That’s a good idea. I’ll see if I can find the drivers. I have to call her though and find out if she took it back to the store already. We tried to set it up yesterday so I’m not sure if she took it back today or not.