Stop Epson Print Utility Pop-Up

Question

Level 1

8 points

Stop Epson Print Utility Pop-Up

At my office we have recently purchased an Epson Stylus Photo R280. It does it's job well, however:

The printer is shared amongst three computers, and is hooked directly to mine through USB. Whenever anyone prints to the machine, for each page, a pop-up window comes up ("Epson Print Utility") that shows the status of the inks in the printer. This window immediately takes the foreground, and interrupts any work I might be doing in any other program.

If this was something that only happened when I sent something to print, that'd be fine, but when a co-worker is sending 12 pages of contact sheets, being interrupted twelve times is bad news.

I've tried checking for options in the Epson software to no avail, I've tried loading the window in its own "Space," and I've tried looking for behavioral settings in the basic Finder options with no luck.

Is there a way to stop this window from popping up in the foreground?

Thanks!

Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Jun 26, 2008 7:05 AM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,558 points

Jun 26, 2008 7:19 AM in response to MrWhaleJr

Try looking for some type of Epson Status monitor program. Maybe a spotlight search of Epson. There may be a utility program to control the alerts.

Another option may be that epson installed a program into your login items without you knowing. If there is some sort of epson status monitor in your Accounts>Login Items, and you can't control it's behavior, try removing it. It should not affect the printing functions.

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Answer 2

MrWhaleJr Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 26, 2008 8:25 AM in response to Barney-15E

Unfortunately, the provided Epson utilities don't offer anything in terms of pop-up control- the controls and options provided are limited to ones which get the printer working. There was nothing also that I saw installed in my login; it seems as if the problem window is an extension of the print driver pulling up an ink status window.

What I'm hoping for is a way to get around a window popping in the foreground, even if this involves going into some registry type settings to do so. I thought I was onto something by insisting the software opens in it's own "Space," but even then, getting diverted to that Space is worse than just getting the pop-up.

Your help, Barney, as well as everyone else's truly is appreciated!

Message was edited by: MrWhaleJr (changed computer type to Mac Pro from MacBook Pro)

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Answer 3

MrWhaleJr Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 26, 2008 12:19 PM in response to MrWhaleJr

Well, I solved it, but it wasn't pretty. I basically deleted the software in question.

When the "Epson Print Utility" came up, I did a "Show in Finder" on the dock, and found where the utility was running from. I made a duplicate of the software in that folder, just in case, and deleted the original.

No more pop-ups when someone else in the office uses it to print- and the primary purpose of the software, telling me ink levels- can still be accessed using the "supply levels" button in the printer's standard dialog box.

Hope this spares someone else!

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,558 points

Jun 26, 2008 3:18 PM in response to MrWhaleJr

Ok, let me give you a few more places to search. Something had to make that program load itself to monitor print jobs, so you should still look to see where that was.

My first guess would be either /Library/StartupItems/ or user/Library/StartupItems/
If there is a folder in there for Epson, it is probably still trying to load the software and failing. Check you console logs for messages like that.

Also, if it was set to keep it open, you may see some 'throttling' messages related to Epson. If it is not in StartupItems, they may actually have updated their software to use the new launchd architecture. If you are getting console messages about not finding the software you removed, and you can't find a StartupItems folder for it, let me know and I'll guide you through the launchd database.

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