Solving the premature timeout-problem of TimeCapsule-connected printers

Some printers work fine when connected directly on the USB-port of your Mac, but when you connect them to a Time Capsule they choke on large files. They will print part of your document, and then suddenly end by printing a nearly blank page with an error message “SPL-C ERROR – Including Corrupted Data”. This is caused by a pre-mature timeout of connection between the printer and the Time Capsule.

Two simple solutions, and a 3rd ‘DareDevil-solution’ that’s more complex :

1. your USB-cable is too long ; replace the USB-cable with a shorter one (standard length is 1.8 meters, shorter ones are hard to find)
2. your USB-cable is too thin ; replace the USB-cable with a thicker, more rigid one
3. If the above options are not possible to implement in your case, try this (if you dare) :

Edit the .gz-file

• find the .gz-file for your printer in Library / Printers / PPDs / Contents / Resources / [printer diver name].gz
• for failure-protection, duplicate it and rename it from [printer driver name].gz to [printer driver name](orig).gz
• double click the initial .gz-file to unpack it
• then, in the same folder, find the file with the same name, without the .gz-extention
• open this file in the application TextEdit
• find this line :

*Throughput: “[number]”

• change the “[number]” to “60” (or something at least twice as big as the initial number)
• save the file ; make sure the name is the same as when you opened it (omit the .txt-extention ; if you fail to do that while saving, rename the file in the Finder, but omit the .txt-extention)
• download a GZIP-encoder ; for instance The Zipper :

http://lipidity.com/software/zippit/

• use the GZIP-encoder to turn the [printer driver name] file into a [printer driver name].gz file
• make sure this new [printer driver name].gz file is located in Library / Printers / PPDs / Contents / Resources /
• you’re done… …on this computer at least…
• now you have to got to each of the other Mac’s on your network and replace the old Library / Printers / PPDs / Contents / Resources / [printer diver name].gz by the new one…

…time-consuming isn’t it ?

…and your out of luck : you have to go though this each and every time the printer drivers for your printer are being updated… (until the official Printer-driver will include a longer timeout-delay…)

so… isn’t replacing the USB-cable an easier option ?