Win98SE Ptr on parallel & ptr on USB?

[jbuch]

My friend is having trouble getting his old Brother printer on LPT1 to
coexist with his new Epson on USB. He uses a powered hub.
He tells me the Epson is OK if the Brother is removed.

Anyone have suggestions? Polite ones only, please


William

The obvious question is toask... is the Epson OK with the Brother if it
is direct USB, Not thru the powered hub?

What Epson is it? One of the dual USB/LTP models?

Jim

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[William]

My friend is having trouble getting his old Brother printer on LPT1 to
coexist with his new Epson on USB. He uses a powered hub.
He tells me the Epson is OK if the Brother is removed.

Anyone have suggestions? Polite ones only, please


William

 

[Quaoar]

My friend is having trouble getting his old Brother printer on LPT1 to
coexist with his new Epson on USB. He uses a powered hub.
He tells me the Epson is OK if the Brother is removed.

Anyone have suggestions? Polite ones only, please


William

What, exactly, is the problem? "Coexist" means nothing. My first
thought is that the combination of old Win95-designed hardware and a
resource-bound Win98 operating system is likely to have difficulties in
mapping virtual printer ports to USB in the presence of other devices.
The Epson driver is most likely a resource black hole for Win98 and
keeping two printers alive, much less the OS, at the same time will be
difficult. But, what exactly is the problem?

Q

 

[William]

My friend is having trouble getting his old Brother printer on LPT1 to
coexist with his new Epson on USB. He uses a powered hub.
He tells me the Epson is OK if the Brother is removed.

Anyone have suggestions? Polite ones only, please


William

Thank you both for replying and I'm sorry I didn't provide sufficient
info. I'm really shooting in the dark a bit and was hoping someone
else had some similar experience that could help me.

The new printer is an Epson Photo R300 - USB only. The other is an old
Brother Laser printer that he'd really like to keep and be able to use
as well as the Epson. Quite understandably, I think you'd agree.

The Epson software loads, but doesn't seem to recognise the printer
properly. In device Manager there is an exclamation mark against the
printer, or perhaps it's port. I get the message that EPUSBCI.DLL
can't be found.

I've tried having the printer as the only thing using a USB port (i.e.
dispensing with the Hub)and with the brother printer powered down.

On reflection I suppose it's worth removing the Brother, both
logically and physically and then trying unloading/reloading the
software - with a reboot in between and, as usual, using Ctl/Alt/Del
to close all progs except Explorer before loading the Epson s/ware.

If that doesn't work, I could try having only the Hub plugged into the
USB port, the Epson plugged into that and no other USB devices
connected. From the Microsoft site there is a suggestion to delete the
port in Device Manager, but I find it difficult to clearly identify a
port to delete.

By the way, a fairly new HP scanner plugged into the Hub or direct
into a USB port seems to work just fine.

One thing I wonder is whether there's some quirk in Win 98, or Epson
s/ware, that won't allow what I'm trying to do.

I'd be grateful of comments on the above and any other things I might
sensibly try. I have wondered about trying to lose the friend

My friend is having trouble getting his old Brother printer on LPT1 to
coexist with his new Epson on USB. He uses a powered hub.
He tells me the Epson is OK if the Brother is removed.

Anyone have suggestions? Polite ones only, please

William

 

[Jim]

On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 12:03:52 +0100, William

The Epson software loads, but doesn't seem to recognise the printer
properly. In device Manager there is an exclamation mark against the
printer, or perhaps it's port. I get the message that EPUSBCI.DLL
can't be found.

The Epson printer will never work until you find the missing dll and install
it on the system.
Jim

 

[Quaoar]

Thank you both for replying and I'm sorry I didn't provide sufficient
info. I'm really shooting in the dark a bit and was hoping someone
else had some similar experience that could help me.

The new printer is an Epson Photo R300 - USB only. The other is an old
Brother Laser printer that he'd really like to keep and be able to use
as well as the Epson. Quite understandably, I think you'd agree.

The Epson software loads, but doesn't seem to recognise the printer
properly. In device Manager there is an exclamation mark against the
printer, or perhaps it's port. I get the message that EPUSBCI.DLL
can't be found.

I've tried having the printer as the only thing using a USB port (i.e.
dispensing with the Hub)and with the brother printer powered down.

On reflection I suppose it's worth removing the Brother, both
logically and physically and then trying unloading/reloading the
software - with a reboot in between and, as usual, using Ctl/Alt/Del
to close all progs except Explorer before loading the Epson s/ware.

If that doesn't work, I could try having only the Hub plugged into the
USB port, the Epson plugged into that and no other USB devices
connected. From the Microsoft site there is a suggestion to delete the
port in Device Manager, but I find it difficult to clearly identify a
port to delete.

By the way, a fairly new HP scanner plugged into the Hub or direct
into a USB port seems to work just fine.

One thing I wonder is whether there's some quirk in Win 98, or Epson
s/ware, that won't allow what I'm trying to do.

I'd be grateful of comments on the above and any other things I might
sensibly try. I have wondered about trying to lose the friend





William

Win98 is an impediment to USB devices; the USB support is only marginal.
In any event, it is mandatory to install the driver before the printer
is ever connected since Win98 hasn't a clue about any USB that is just
plugged in with no driver or installer available for the hardware
installer. I would attach the printer so that it works, then
immediately deinstall the printer and software from add/remove programs.
Reboot to safe mode. Open device manager and see if there is anything
relating to the printer in the USB section. You might find a number of
phantom printers are there. Remove them all. Reboot normally and
install the printer software and driver again without the printer
attached (if you can). Reboot once again and attach the printer. If
the new hardware wizard comes up, be sure to point it to the correct
printer driver.

I do not know how the printer can be installed properly through plug and
play if that is what Epson recommends in their instructions since the
driver is not native to Win98.

Q