Troubleshooting your peripherals

Let’s get that printer running, that hard disk writing and that keyboard connected

We all come across issues involving our peripherals – printers, hard drives and other devices – but here the solutions.

My Mac can’t print to my printer, what do I do?

If the printer is wired to your Mac using a USB cable, make sure it’s connected, plugged in, and turned on. If the printer is on the network, check the printer settings to make sure it’s on the same network as your Mac. Also make sure that the printer is not displaying an error message, or flashing any lights (often indicative of a trouble condition, like a paper jam, an empty ink cartridge or another issue). No joy? Click on the printer’s icon in the Dock. That will open the printer’s queue window. Check to see if the print queue is paused – if it is, click the Resume button to get it started. If all else fails, go with the old standby: turn it off, and turn it on again.

My new printer comes with a bunch of disks; do I need to install them?

You shouldn’t need to use most of that software to get at least basic functionality out of your printer. Just open the Printers & Scanners system preference and click the ‘+’. If your Mac recognises a new printer on the network, you can click the Add button; OS X should automatically set up the printer for use.

I have a Mac with no internal SuperDrive. Do I have buy an Apple SuperDrive to use CDs and DVDs?

No, is the short answer. The SuperDrive is a great option: it’s slim, lightweight, bus-powered and made by Apple, so you know it’ll work well. (It’s also one of the more expensive CD/DVD burners out there, though.) Almost any CD/DVD burner will work on the Mac, though it’s probably worth checking with the manufacturer just to be sure – there are a few out there that don’t like to work with Macs, for whatever reason.

I have a PC-compatible keyboard and mouse. Will they work with the Mac?

They should work fine. When you first plug in your keyboard, OS X will ask you to identify specific keys by pressing them, so it knows the keyboard you’re using. Mice are generic. You may have to install custom software if the mouse has an elaborate button scheme, but basic functionality including scroll wheel and left and right buttons should be supported without any issues.

My Bluetooth keyboard and mouse won’t work. How do I get my Mac to recognise them?

Open the Bluetooth system preference on your Mac. Make sure the device is in Discovery mode (typically a flashing light; check the individual device documentation for directions). It should appear in Mac’s list of Bluetooth devices. Click on it and then click the Pair button.

The Mac says I can’t write to my new hard drive: what’s wrong?

The drive is probably formatted for Windows. OS X and Windows use different directory structures on their hard drives in order to store data. If you launch Disk Utility, select the drive and click the Erase tab, you can reformat it for the Mac. Just choose ‘Mac OS Extended

(Journaled)’ > Erase.