epson 2200 driver no longer works w/ Tiger

Judy,

Take a deep breath and relax. Remember this is only a computer. It only knows about 0s and 1s (whether a switch is turned on or off).

I do have 2 tigers loaded.

As I mentioned before, it is possible to have a System folder and a Previous System folder on your hard drive. I can assure you however that only one System folder is being used.

Let's do some basic trouble shooting.
1. Close all the windows on your Desktop. Double click on your hard drive icon. What folders are there? Please list all of them. In particular, we want to see how many folders contain the word System.

2. Do you remember what version of Tiger you were running before you followed Epson's advice? Was it 10.4, 10.4.1, or 10.4.2?

3. Under the Apple menu at the top left of your screen, select "About this Mac". What version of Mac OS X does it say you are running?

4. Could you be more specific about the "conflicts" you are having? Please be as specific as possible as to what is happening that shouldn't be happening or vice versa. What, if any error messages are you getting?

After you gather this information and respond to this post, you might want to consider some basic trouble shooting procedures. Open the Disk Utility application. It is in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder. Highlight you hard drive and find the button to "Repair Permissions" and click it. That alone may help solve some of your problems.

Matt

Hi Matt, I hope you can help me with a (so far) more simple version of this problem (i.e., I haven't screwed it up yet).

I print a lot of photos using an Epson 2200. I mount and frame 13 x 19 prints all the time. My results were very good with 10.3.9 and the most recent Epson driver.

I bought a new Dual 2.3 G5 because my old G4 Quicksilver died. I was able to retrieve all of my data by putting my old HD in a FW enclosure, and using setup assistant to transfer it to the new system.

The update process does not transfer printer drivers, or if it does they don't work. The G5 Printer Setup autodetects the Epson 2200 (yay!) and installs a driver that must come with 10.4.0 (I did not choose the gimp driver during the install process).

However, the generic driver is almost worthless, since it does not support minimize margins, borderless, or other functions I was able to use in 10.3.9. The print quality is also not as good, but admittedly I was working with custom profiles before.

Now for the simple question: Before I download and install drivers from Epson, is there anything else i should do first? Particularly, are there files I should delete from my new system? Remember, except for files added by Setup Assistant from the old HD, this is an unmodified stock Apple system, in particular, I have not (yet) downloaded any software from Epson.

Thank you very much.

Matt and Network,

Great discussion guys. I have learned a lot about printer drivers and Apple as well.

One thing that I have found in GIMP/CUPS is that the splash screen that is provided in X does not provide all the control over the printer that is available in CUPS. If you use your browser and go to

http://127.0.0.1:631

and open the printer there are lots of options for print control that are not available elsewhere.

The other tool I have found invaluable for printers is Print Center Repair. When spool files or drivers go wonky it helps clean them up. It can repair printer permissions which are not always fixed in the Disk Utility permissions repair. It can also help administer the CUPS files and access them when other attempts fail.

I'm sure you guys know about this but the other readers may not.

Print Center Repair;

http://www.fixamac.net/software/downloads/index.html

James,

There is an undocumented "trick" for this. It used to be documented with the download of the Epson drivers. However, since the Epson drivers now come with Tiger, the documentation is no where to be found.

Before I download and install drivers from Epson

Do not download the drivers from Epson for the 2200. The drivers that come with Tiger are a more recent version.

is there anything else i should do

Yes, and it should be fairly simple.
1. Open the Printer Setup Utility (/Applicaitons/Utilities).
2. At the top of the window there should be an icon to Add printers. Click on the Add icon. You could also choose Add from the Printers menu.
3. In the Printer Browser window that opens, highlight your printer.
4. Let the system search for drivers. You will know when it is done. Items that were initially grayed out will now be active.
5. Click on More Printers button at the bottom.
6. In the resulting pane, select Epson USB or Epson FireWire depending on you connection. The system will again search for new drivers.
7. Highlight you printer in the window. You should now see a new pop up menu available at the bottom of the pane called "Page Setup".
8. Use the Page Setup menu to add the printer configurations that you want. You can either add them all in one step or add one at a time choosing only those you want to use.

NOTE: If you select the All option, Printer Setup Utility will take its own sweet time about adding all the printers. Be patient.

You should now have all your previous printers and options available to you.

Matt

James,

Glad to hear you have all your printer options back in place.

Matt

Claudia,

Sorry to hear you are still having problems. I went back and reread your original post and you latest post.

As for what you should copy to DVD or other media for backup prior to starting over, I would recommend you back up the following:
1. From the Applications folder -- any applications you bought yourself (that is do not come with OS X) that you do not have a copy of the original installer.
2. Your Home folder. You can always pick and choose what you need later. It is better to back up too much information than too little.

As I reread your original post, I am a little confused now as to the actual source of your problem(s). You stated that your hard drive was ready to crash. Do you mean that you had to physically replace a bad hard drive?

I am also a bit confused as to your references to which system to install. Part of this goes back to you initially saying that Apple does not have OS 10.3 update available for download. Mac OS 10.2, Mac OS 10.3, and Mac OS 10.4 are each individual retail products. That is, there is no download anywhere that will update OS 10.2 to OS 10.3. There is no download that will update OS 10.3 to OS 10.4. These each require a separate installation disk. (One of the Mac OS X versions may have come with your computer)

You did say in your original post that you did buy OS 10.4. If your computer is capable of running this system, that is the one I would recommend. If you have the installation disks for the other system versions and do feel you want to downgrade to an earlier version, I would recommend OS 10.3. It is a vast improvement over OS 10.2 especially in terms of speed.

Finally, I would say that if you are really having reliability problems with your hard disk, that you do have it replaced. A failing hard disk will cause you operating problems regardless of the system version you install on it.

Did I address your questions or misinterpret your posts? There are many people on these discussion boards that do want to help others. Sometimes it takes a few exchanges to determine exactly what the issues are so as to provide a helpful response.

Matt

The Epson Stylus Photo R800 print CD option doesn't work with the Tiger!!
Which is pathetic! Epson haven't updated their drivers since 2004 ! And this is very frustrating! Maybe someone can tell them to??
Any way out how to print on a CD through this printer??

I had major difficulty (several days worth!) getting my Epson Stylus Photo R800 to print CDs, which was no problem before installing Tiger. I had downloaded the most recent driver, gave up and installled the drivers on the Tiger install disk, gone in circles for ages. I ended up repairing permissions on my hard drive with disk utility, generating the longest list of repairs I've ever seen. Then I followed the instructions Epson had sent Judy in msg#2.1.1.1 (deleting some extra old stuff in the Receipts folder while I was at it), then did the "undocumented trick" in Matt's msg # 2.2.1 (It actually was documented in the OS X booklet which ended up on my desk top with the first driver update download I did, but I sometimes could not get the "Page setup" menu to appear, and at least twice I thought my computer was frozen after clicking the add "All" option--maybe it wasn't, but it was several minutes without budging. Anyway, thanks for everyone's sharing that contributed because now it's working! Oh, yes. I forgot, I didn't add "All" the last time! I added the manual feed option, which I needed for the CDs, and it added almost instantly, and then I added the sheet borderless print option which also added very quickly. I'm not sure I'd use the others much, anyway, and hopefully now I'll know how to add it later if I need to.

Hi Matt,

I too have been unable to print to my Epson SP 2200. However, I have had what appears to be some successful first steps.

In the printer Set Up Utility, in the Printer Browser, I did select "More Printers...", and chose "EPSON FireWire". At that point, the Printer Browser recognized my printer, and showed me "SP 2200(FW)" under the "Product" heading. However, this is different from the options I was given when running Panther. In Panther, I had six options:
Stylus Photo 2200(FW: Roll Paper - Borderless)
Stylus Photo 2200(FW: Roll Paper - Borderless Banner)
Stylus Photo 2200(FW: Roll Paper)
Stylus Photo 2200(FW: Sheet Feeder - Borderless)
Stylus Photo 2200(FW: Standard - Minimize Margins)
Stylus Photo 2200(FW: Standard)
Any idea where all those options went?

When I print in various applications, I select the "SP 2200(FW)" in the Print Dialog and the document is sent to the printer. However, at that point the "Activity Window" (SP 2200(FW) v.4.0) shows that the job stops all by itself. It is then shown in the queue, waiting to print.

Other info: My computer CAN communicate with the printer. Using "Utility" in the Printer List, I am able to check the remaining ink level, and even print out a Nozzle Check test.

I would be grateful for any and all insights into this problem.

Tim

Just had a breakthrough: I changed from FireWire to USB and the printer is working now!!!

Must be a firewire problem.