Installing Epson Printer trouble

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blair Malcolm
  • Start date Start date
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Blair Malcolm

I am trying to install an Epson Stylus 880 printer on my 98SE PC and every
time I am asked to add the CD for information, the message I get says
"could not find information about the hardware
How do I proceed?

Blair Malcolm
 
I am trying to install an Epson Stylus 880 printer on my
98SE PC and every time I am asked to add the CD for
information, the message I get says "could not find
information about the hardware How do I proceed?
Click to expand...

It sounds like you are letting the computer detect the new
printer and ask for the drivers...

Some installs don't work well this way. Perhaps this is one of
the printers that requires you to run a setup program on the CD
BEFORE you first plug it in. This installs the proper drivers so
when you plug the printer in for the first time, the computer
already knows what it is and how to handle it.

Check your documentation.
 
Curt Bousquet said:
It sounds like you are letting the computer detect the new
printer and ask for the drivers...

Some installs don't work well this way. Perhaps this is one of
the printers that requires you to run a setup program on the CD
BEFORE you first plug it in. This installs the proper drivers so
when you plug the printer in for the first time, the computer
already knows what it is and how to handle it.

Check your documentation.
Click to expand...

You are right.After I posted my message I found an article which said that I
must download the software which I did and successfully installed the
printer.
I should explain that this is on my guest PC(98) and the printer is on the
host PC (XP)
When I try to print I get a message" There was an error writing to LPT1.
Printer not ready. Make sure it is ready and on line."
It's probably a setting problem but what?
Any suggestions
Blair
 
Blair said:
You are right.After I posted my message I found an article which said that I
must download the software which I did and successfully installed the
printer.
I should explain that this is on my guest PC(98) and the printer is on the
host PC (XP)
When I try to print I get a message" There was an error writing to LPT1.
Printer not ready. Make sure it is ready and on line."
It's probably a setting problem but what?
Any suggestions
Blair
Click to expand...


In your situation, doesn\t the printer driver need to be installed on
both the computers in order for one computer to print to a printer on
the second computer?



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In your situation, doesn\t the printer driver need to be installed on
both the computers in order for one computer to print to a printer on
the second computer?
Click to expand...
I have already installed the printer in my other PC.
Also it worked previously. I must have upset some settings
Blair
 
You are right.After I posted my message I found an article
which said that I must download the software which I did
and successfully installed the printer.
I should explain that this is on my guest PC(98) and the
printer is on the host PC (XP)
When I try to print I get a message" There was an error
writing to LPT1. Printer not ready. Make sure it is ready
and on line." It's probably a setting problem but what?
Any suggestions
Blair
Click to expand...

OK, so you have the drivers installed, but it is still looking
for the printer on the local printer port (LPT1:).

What you have to do now is use the 'add printer' function on
'98 to browse for and add the printer as a network printer (I
assume it is 'shared' on the XP box).

Since the drivers are already installed, it may not prompt you
for the drivers disk when you tell it to connect to the
network shared printer. Or it may say that some drivers are
already installed and ask if you would like to keep the
existing drivers. Of course, answer 'yes' to this. Once the
network version of the printer is set up an running, you can
delete the version of the printer that is set up to print to
the local port.

-OR-

Another way to do it would be to set up a new TCP/IP 'port' on
the Win98 computer that points to the address of the XP
computer. Search online for instructions for installing a
TCP/IP port on a win98 box (I can't remember the step-by-step,
since I haven't used 98 for so long). Once the port is set up,
you just need to tell the printer to print to the new TCP/IP
port instead of LPT1:. This is as simple as going into the
'ports' section of the properties for that printer and
selecting the new port from a list of available ports.

I know that sounds kind of complex, but it really is pretty
straight forward.
 
OK, so you have the drivers installed, but it is still looking
for the printer on the local printer port (LPT1:).

What you have to do now is use the 'add printer' function on
'98 to browse for and add the printer as a network printer (I
assume it is 'shared' on the XP box).

Since the drivers are already installed, it may not prompt you
for the drivers disk when you tell it to connect to the
network shared printer. Or it may say that some drivers are
already installed and ask if you would like to keep the
existing drivers. Of course, answer 'yes' to this. Once the
network version of the printer is set up an running, you can
delete the version of the printer that is set up to print to
the local port.

-OR-

Another way to do it would be to set up a new TCP/IP 'port' on
the Win98 computer that points to the address of the XP
computer. Search online for instructions for installing a
TCP/IP port on a win98 box (I can't remember the step-by-step,
since I haven't used 98 for so long). Once the port is set up,
you just need to tell the printer to print to the new TCP/IP
port instead of LPT1:. This is as simple as going into the
'ports' section of the properties for that printer and
selecting the new port from a list of available ports.

I know that sounds kind of complex, but it really is pretty
straight forward.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help.
I carried out the first instruction and completed all the stages of
installation of a network printer.
When I was asked to give the network path I used browse and selected the
network path from the Network Neighbourhood\Laptop\epson lp
But the name of the shared printers was EPSONSty, so I had to change the
name to be the same as the shared name. Why this name was different?
Finally I got the message "This printer could not be installed. Quit all
programmes, restart windows and try again. If the problem persists, contact
you system administrator"
I tried again with the same results.
Suggestions?
Blair
 
When I was asked to give the network path I used browse and
selected the network path from the Network
Neighbourhood\Laptop\epson lp But the name of the shared
printers was EPSONSty, so I had to change the name to be
the same as the shared name. Why this name was different?
Finally I got the message "This printer could not be
installed. Quit all programmes, restart windows and try
again. If the problem persists, contact you system
administrator" I tried again with the same results.
Suggestions?
Click to expand...

I'm about out of suggestions except for this last one... Win98
does not like spaces in the printer name, so if it shows up when
you are browsing the network neighborhood as 'epson lp' you may
have to rename it to a one word name and try again.
 
Curt Bousquet said:
I'm about out of suggestions except for this last one... Win98
does not like spaces in the printer name, so if it shows up when
you are browsing the network neighborhood as 'epson lp' you may
have to rename it to a one word name and try again.
Click to expand...

I tried again with no spaces with the same result.
The phrase "contact your system administrator" presumably means myself?
Is there a setting for the administrator which could be blocking me?
Blair
 
I tried again with no spaces with the same result.
The phrase "contact your system administrator" presumably
means myself? Is there a setting for the administrator
which could be blocking me? Blair
Click to expand...

Nah... that it just Microsoft speak for 'we give up, ask
somebody for help'.
 
Curt Bousquet said:
Nah... that it just Microsoft speak for 'we give up, ask
somebody for help'.
Click to expand...

I have done some further work and here is the complete story

My system is two PCs Host PC is WinXP called LAPTOP and the guest PC is
Win 98S called OEMCOMPUTER
I have a crossover cable connection between the two PCs
Epson Stylus Color 880 printer is connected to the XP via USB connection and
the Printer shared name is EPSON
My XP is connected to a USB Virtual Printer Port. for the Epson Printer 880.
I remember reading that a PCs name should be less that 8 characters. Is this
one of the problems?

I then looked at the printer port on the 98 and found that it was set for
LPT1 Epson Printer Port which was obviously wrong
I changed this to \\laptop\epson. I then asked for capture port and it only
showed LPT1 to LPT9 as a selection
However I looked at the Network Neighbourhood on the 98 and found 5 printers
2,3,4,5,&6 all Acrobat PDF writers (Copy2) and no sign of an epson printer
The laptop had two printers one 'epson' and the other 'epson lp'. In both
cases asking to capture printer port again showed only LPT1

It's so near and yet so far!! Any further ideas?
Blair
 
I then looked at the printer port on the 98 and found that it was set for
LPT1 Epson Printer Port which was obviously wrong
I changed this to \\laptop\epson. I then asked for capture port and it only
showed LPT1 to LPT9 as a selection
However I looked at the Network Neighbourhood on the 98 and found 5 printers
2,3,4,5,&6 all Acrobat PDF writers (Copy2) and no sign of an epson printer
The laptop had two printers one 'epson' and the other 'epson lp'. In both
cases asking to capture printer port again showed only LPT1

It's so near and yet so far!! Any further ideas?
Blair
Click to expand...
I have solved the problem at last.
Can now print form both PCs
Blair
 
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