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gratefulgary · 11-13-2008, 09:41 AM

I have an Epson Stylus Photo 870 connected to a MAC via USB and to a Dell via parallel printer cable. The printer used to work fine from both computers. It still works fine from the MAC. Recently, however, its gone wild from the PC. If I send it a document to print, it prints gobbledygook, i.e., Greek letters, dollar signs, letters, symbols, etc. covering the entire page. And won't stop unless I turn the printer off. Canceling the print job from the dialog box does nothing. I have deleted/added the printer several times without change. I have the most recent driver installed and there is no older driver available to roll back to. I have switched the connection and used the USB to connect to the PC and it works fine. Disconnecting the USB from the MAC has no effect. The MAC does not have a parallel printer port so I could not ascertain the integrity of the cable.

Short of correcting the fundamental problem, is there a device, some sort of splitter or switch, that I can connect to the printer via USB and then to each computer via USB so I can share the printer. I'd rather correct the problem.

Dell Dimension 2400, XP Home SP3, X86, Pentium 2.4, 1.5GB RAM
Mac power PC G4 dual gig, 1.5 GB RAM, OS X 10.5.5

11-13-2008, 09:41 AM	#1
gratefulgary Member (3 bit) Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 7	Printer gone wild!! I have an Epson Stylus Photo 870 connected to a MAC via USB and to a Dell via parallel printer cable. The printer used to work fine from both computers. It still works fine from the MAC. Recently, however, its gone wild from the PC. If I send it a document to print, it prints gobbledygook, i.e., Greek letters, dollar signs, letters, symbols, etc. covering the entire page. And won't stop unless I turn the printer off. Canceling the print job from the dialog box does nothing. I have deleted/added the printer several times without change. I have the most recent driver installed and there is no older driver available to roll back to. I have switched the connection and used the USB to connect to the PC and it works fine. Disconnecting the USB from the MAC has no effect. The MAC does not have a parallel printer port so I could not ascertain the integrity of the cable. Short of correcting the fundamental problem, is there a device, some sort of splitter or switch, that I can connect to the printer via USB and then to each computer via USB so I can share the printer. I'd rather correct the problem. Dell Dimension 2400, XP Home SP3, X86, Pentium 2.4, 1.5GB RAM Mac power PC G4 dual gig, 1.5 GB RAM, OS X 10.5.5