Hi. I'll try this off the launchpad bug forum since I'm not at all sure it will work for you and don't want to spread any nonsense further than required. I'm dracon on the launchpad and I was able to get past my cups problem bu "forcing" a printer ID. Here is what you might try. At least it's easy and worth a shot. Go to System/Administration/Printing> click the New Printer button to add a new printer...Don't mess with your normal set up just leave well enough alone there. When you get the available printers selection pane select "Other" and in the URI field put the exact ID of your cable (copy/paste). From your note that would be: hal:///org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_4b8_5_M01P20511302159560_if0_printer_noserial Click forward and select the appropriate device driver for your printer, and continue to set the "new" printer up normally..new name and human description, but leave the default location alone. This should add a new printer presence named (Different-Name?) to your printer list. Try printing to that printer, make it default, see if it is able to reconnect. This worked for me with a legacy HP4 that cups found about 50% of the time..Now it doesn't fail and I can recover print jobs if the printer is unplugged and re plugged. If this works please let me know. Maybe we can point the Cups/Hal folks to a particular problem or give some bypass suggestionto the bug forum. (if it does not work le me know that too) Bill quixote