PCMech Forums - View Single Post

gratefulgary · 11-19-2008, 11:59 AM

I replaced the printer cable, same behavior. Here is a little more info.

I was mistaken about the driver information in the original post. I downloaded the latest driver from the Epson site again, v. 5.2as, and ran the set-up utility. It detected the printer and assigned it to the parallel port. I disconnected the USB cable to the Mac prior to doing so and all of what follows was as such. When I try to print a document I get the following error message in the Epson Status Monitor 3 window: "A communication error has occurred.
Check all cable connections and make sure all devices are on. If the device was turned off during printing, cancel the print job. If the error still does not clear, see the manual's troubleshooting section to cancel the error." And that's as far as I can get.

Next I added the printer from the Control Panel. The Add Printer Wizard does not detect a plug and play printer so I follow the steps to add manually. The wizard assigns a driver already installed on my hard drive from a list from which I select manufacturer and model, not the one recently downloaded and names the printer "Epson Stylus Photo ESC/P2." This is the printer/driver pair that resulted in the greek letters, etc. and still does. If I select the ESC/P2 in the control panel and then install the new driver for it I get the error message above.

Then I disconnected the parallel cable and connected the printer to the PC using the USB cable. New hardware was detected and the printer was assigned the old driver and named the printer ...ESC/P2(copy 2) and it works. Next I installed the new driver to that printer from the Control Panel using the Add Printer Driver Wizard using the "have disk" option and navigating to the INF file and selecting it (since I don't really have the disk) as described on the Epson site. And it works. The new driver BTY has a much richer feature set than the one already on my hard drive.

So tell me, PC gurus of technology, why can't I use the parallel cable and how can I fix the problem? Remember, it used to work.

11-19-2008, 11:59 AM	#5
gratefulgary Member (3 bit) Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 7	I replaced the printer cable, same behavior. Here is a little more info. I was mistaken about the driver information in the original post. I downloaded the latest driver from the Epson site again, v. 5.2as, and ran the set-up utility. It detected the printer and assigned it to the parallel port. I disconnected the USB cable to the Mac prior to doing so and all of what follows was as such. When I try to print a document I get the following error message in the Epson Status Monitor 3 window: "A communication error has occurred. Check all cable connections and make sure all devices are on. If the device was turned off during printing, cancel the print job. If the error still does not clear, see the manual's troubleshooting section to cancel the error." And that's as far as I can get. Next I added the printer from the Control Panel. The Add Printer Wizard does not detect a plug and play printer so I follow the steps to add manually. The wizard assigns a driver already installed on my hard drive from a list from which I select manufacturer and model, not the one recently downloaded and names the printer "Epson Stylus Photo ESC/P2." This is the printer/driver pair that resulted in the greek letters, etc. and still does. If I select the ESC/P2 in the control panel and then install the new driver for it I get the error message above. Then I disconnected the parallel cable and connected the printer to the PC using the USB cable. New hardware was detected and the printer was assigned the old driver and named the printer ...ESC/P2(copy 2) and it works. Next I installed the new driver to that printer from the Control Panel using the Add Printer Driver Wizard using the "have disk" option and navigating to the INF file and selecting it (since I don't really have the disk) as described on the Epson site. And it works. The new driver BTY has a much richer feature set than the one already on my hard drive. So tell me, PC gurus of technology, why can't I use the parallel cable and how can I fix the problem? Remember, it used to work.