[b8rtm8nn]

I am helping a guy who is running 8.1 on a beige G3. He installed a new printer, but didn't have USB, so he used an Ethernet cable. He went to find it in Chooser but it wasn't there because Appletalk wasn't turned on. So, before he fixes it, he tries to print something; and I'm assuming his old printer was still the one the OS was trying to use. Nothing happened, except that now his hard drive makes short bursts of activity every 3-4 seconds. He got his new pritner hooked up, and it works fine, he put his old printer back on, but the problem didn't stop. He loaded w/o extensions, cleared the PRAM(?), refbuilt the desktop; all to no avail. I am no Mac expert (but I jsut bought one), so if anyone has any ideas, I'll be happy to hear from you.
Thanks, Bart

[Gregory]

Look for a spool folder for the printer, especially if it used background printing. Could be in system extensions - type of printer? USB so I assume Epson or HP. Look for Epson drivers etc folder.

Might also be able to use Apple Desktop Printer if it is a laser printer.

Anyone who uses a Mac can benefit from say "Sad Macs, 4th Edition" as a handy reference, for probelms, upgrades, hardware and software, trouble shooting.

greg