Broken pipe message for Color Laserjet2605dn

[Charlevoix1]

My Imac is connected to the printer by a cable. I ensured both ends of the cable were firmly seated. I turned on the printer. After some seconds in which it displayed both the green and red lights, the red light went out and the green light was steady. I entered a print command for a small document about 200 kb. The green light flashed. The printer made noises I associate with the printer's picking up the paper and the beginning of actual printing. Then the green light and the red light were steady. No printed document appeared. Then the green light was steady and the red light was out. The print command was still in the print queue, with a Broken Pipe message.

The print command is still in the print queue, marked OFFLINE. When I ask it to resume printing, (to try again), now the messages are:

1. Printing Looking for printer

2. Printing Unable to locate printer.

The green light remains steadily on at the printer.

What can I do to get this printer to print?

[PSSG]

The Broken Pipe message indicates that the communication transmitted via your cable failed.  Could be caused by a corrupted file, printer driver, or network address.  Delete printer and reinstall with a universal driver.  If network, manually install using IP address.  It may clear up issue.  But, It could also be a defective formatter board.  This is an ancient color printer that is long past its end of service life (EOSL). Might be more economical to replace than repair.

I am a forum volunteer.  I do not represent or speak for HP.

[Repairatrooper]

Do not search for a universal driver, that is a Windows driver not MAC. I would clear any queued jobs, restart your computer and try printing a different file to see if printers works. If it does, then try the problem job again. If it does not print I would delete the printer and reinstall.

[PSSG]

You are correct, the Universal driver is a Windows driver.  There is no Mac OS 10.15 (Catalina) updated driver for this retired model.  I think that the last Mac update for the 2605 model was 2008, Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard).  You can still download the full system 2008 CLJ 2605 install online.  

[Charlevoix1]

Thanks for advice about the broken pipe message.

Since posting that query, I downloaded an HP printer driver, and I was able to print the document from Pages software, which is what I had been trying to do when the broken pipe message appeared. So the printer does work sometimes.

Then I tried to do a second print job from Acrobat Reader. This time the printer showed as offline.

I tried to print a config page, but I got error 79. I had been using an extension cord with a surge protector. I switched to a plain extension cord, and the config page printed nicely.

Now I am trying again to print from Acrobat Reader, and the printer shows as offline. It is connected directly to my computer with an ethernet cable, as it was when the Pages print job came through OK.

I recently spent $300 on toner for the printer, in case low toner had been causing the problem somehow. I don't really want to replace this printer if I can avoid it.

Do you have any further suggestions in light of the symptoms I have described?