Epson CX6600 stops printing after first few lines

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Level 1

5 points

Epson CX6600 stops printing after first few lines

I have been trying to get my wife’s AirPort-equipped iBook G3/800 (10.2.8) to print wirelessly to an Epson CX6600 via AirPort Express for weeks now. She has no problem with wireless Internet, and the printer works just fine when connected directly to one of the USB ports.

My iBook G4/1.3 (10.4.2) has no AirPort issues whatever - Internet, AirTunes, and wireless printing to the same CX6600 all work flawlessly. The weird thing is that wireless printing worked fine from both iBooks for the first couple of days.

I can select the printer under Rendezvous in Print Center on the iBook G3, but when I send it a wireless print job it prints the first few lines (about 1/8th of a page) and then just stops, although the printer display still says “Printing”. (The job disappears from the queue list on the computer.) If I then send a wireless print job from my iBook G4 the printer will spit out the incomplete printout from the G3, and print the new job perfectly.

I have searched and searched on this and other forums, and tried every suggested fix I could find for wireless printing problems that seemed even remotely relevant, but all to no avail. Print Center Repair 3.0.3 didn’t help either.

I have the same printer driver (Epson’s own) installed on both iBooks.

AirPort Express firmware is downgraded to 6.1.1.

The "Distribute IP addresses" option in the AirPort Admin Utility's Config/Network Tab is - and always has been - unchecked, and I re-uploaded the configuration to make sure.

Does anyone have any further suggestions as to what I might try?

Grateful for any help -

Paul Guy

iBook G4 1.33GHz, Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Posted on Nov 15, 2005 11:27 AM

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Answer 1

Henry B.

Level 9

78,713 points

Nov 15, 2005 11:40 AM in response to Paul Guy

Question (though perhaps unrelated to your problem) - why do you need to have "Distribute IP addresses" unchecked on your Airport Express? What is your Airport Express connected to?

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Answer 2

Paul Guy Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 15, 2005 11:46 AM in response to Henry B.

Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse the issue.

My system is set up like this:

ADSL modem - D-Link DI-604 router, IP 192.168.0.1
Router - AirPort Express, IP 192.168.0.150
Router - iMac G3/350, 10.2.8, IP 192.168.0.160
iBook G3/800, 10.2.8, AirPort, IP 192.168.0.170
iBook G4/1.3, 10.4.2, AirPort Extreme, IP 192.168.0.180
AirPort Express USB printer port - Epson CX6600

Paul Guy

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Answer 3

Henry B.

Level 9

78,713 points

Nov 15, 2005 11:53 AM in response to Paul Guy

I assume "router" is just a typo in this line (ie it shouldn't be there):

Router - iMac G3/350, 10.2.8, IP 192.168.0.160

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Answer 4

Paul Guy Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 15, 2005 12:06 PM in response to Henry B.

I assume "router" is just a typo in this line (ie it
shouldn't be there):

Router - iMac G3/350, 10.2.8, IP 192.168.0.160

No, I do have the iMac connected to one of the 4 LAN-ports on the router, the AirPort Express is also connected to one of the LAN-ports. (Is this wrong?)

BTW the iMac is working perfectly with Internet, and the printer also works perfectly if I connect it directly to one of the iMac's USB ports. File sharing is working just fine between the two (wireless) iBooks and the (wired) iMac.

Paul Guy

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Answer 5

Henry B.

Level 9

78,713 points

Nov 15, 2005 12:21 PM in response to Paul Guy

Thanks - that all now makes perfect sense, and you certainly do have everything connected and configured properly.

Unfortunately, I'm still no further ahead at being able to suggest a solution to your printing problems from the iMac running 10.2.8. I suspect these problems would go away if you upgraded the iMac to MacOS 10.3 or newer, but that is likely a solution you were hoping to avoid.

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Answer 6

Paul Guy Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 15, 2005 6:41 PM in response to Henry B.

I suspect these
problems would go away if you upgraded the iMac to
MacOS 10.3 or newer, but that is likely a solution
you were hoping to avoid.

Yes, I was… (actually I have no printing problem with the iMac, it’s the iBook G3 - but now I'm splitting hairs). The wife’s iBook G3 has been 100% stable under 10.2.8 for over 2 years (the iMac, too). She’s used to it, it’s more than adequate for any task she throws at it (she doesn’t run processor-hungry apps like Logic, as I do), and she’s militantly uninterested in “bells and whistles” like Spotlight, Dashboard, Expose, etc..

If i understand correctly, the OSX 10.4.2 DVD's that came with my iBook G4 are machine specific and won't work with the iBook G3 - and even if they did, my wife, being a stickler for the letter of the law - and the Apple software agreement - would be angry with me if I violated it… We can't really justify buying a retail copy of Tiger just to fix the wireless printing issue right now.

Now I’m going to try making a PITA of myself at Epson support. It seems to me that there must be a solution, as for the first few days after we got the AP Express everything worked as advertised right out of the box, including wireless printing from the iBook G3 (10.2.8) to the CX6600, and it’s almost working now (much better than when I had Printer Sharing still enabled).

Thankyou very much for your very prompt responses and for trying to help me solve the problem. If you think of anything else, let me know 😉

Paul Guy

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Answer 7

Paul Guy Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 15, 2005 7:05 PM in response to Paul Guy

Sorry, one more question - when I set up the AirPort Express network, I used AirPort Setup Assistant 4.2 from my 10.4.2 installation. The AirPort Express/iTunes CD envelope that came with the product is still sealed - as it says "CD version 4.1" and is dated 2004 I figured I would use the newer version (2005-07-10).

Is there any possibility that something changed between v4.1 and v4.2 that could cause a problem with wireless printing from 10.2.8?

I'm grasping at straws here, aren't I?

Thanks for your patience.

Paul Guy

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Answer 8

ta

Level 4

1,210 points

Nov 20, 2005 12:14 PM in response to Paul Guy

I can't answer your question either....sorry. I have the exact same issue and I think I'm going to continue using printer sharing with my wife's ibook until I upgrade her to Tiger. I read about some solutions, none of which I liked, in the July issue of Macworld, but for now turning on printer sharing in my other machine is allowing her to print, but she has to make sure the other machine is running and awake when she prints.

hth

ta

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Answer 9

Paul Guy Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 20, 2005 3:56 PM in response to ta

ta, thanks for posting - it was definitely helpful to know that someone else has the exact same issue, as in that case Epson ought to be aware of it by now. (I seriously doubt that we are alone.) I have e-mailed Epson support in Sweden, who have always been helpful in the past - if they do come up with a solution I will post it here.

Paul Guy

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Answer 10

Henry B.

Level 9

78,713 points

Nov 20, 2005 6:10 PM in response to Paul Guy

You asked a while back if something changed in the transition from Airport 4.1 to Airport 4.2.

The answer is yes. One of the biggest changes is that Airport 4.2 asks you to upgrade the firmware version of the Airport Express to version 6.2. Version 6.2 has many problems, and if it is running on yours, you should reinstall version 6.1.1 by using the software provided at:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/airportexpressfirmware611formacosx.html

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Answer 11

Paul Guy Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 20, 2005 6:27 PM in response to Henry B.

I already took your advice about downgrading to 6.1.1 after seeing it in several other threads about similar problems, before I posted here the first time. Unfortunately it didin't make any difference as far as my printing problem is concerned… But I'm glad to be running the better version.

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