Epson 1270 - Problem with printer driver on windows XP

[Chris]

Following a motherboard problem (now resolved), I've recently reloaded
Windows (XP SP2). Everything's working fine, as it was before my
motherboard problem, except for the 1270 driver.

As soon as XP detects the 1270, it loads its own driver, and shows the
printer as "Epson Stylus Photo 1270 ESC/P 2". I can also load the
Epson driver, so in "Printers and Faxes" I get two entries for the
1270 - the Epson driver shows as "Epson Stylus Photo 1270".

In the past, I've been able to use either. I much prefer the Epson
driver as it has more facilities, in particular a print preview
option. (I downloaded the driver from the Epson website only the
other day.)

Now, however, only the Windows XP driver works. If I try to use the
Epson driver, the interface comes up, but nothing apparently works.
Sometimes the ink monitor is OK, but (for instance) trying to run a
nozzle check just freezes it.

Any ideas what's wrong? I have another machine with XP SP2 on it, and
the printer is fine using the Epson driver on that.

Is there any way of stopping XP loading its own driver?

Many thanks in advance for any help!

Chris.

 

[Jan Alter]

Following a motherboard problem (now resolved), I've recently reloaded
Windows (XP SP2). Everything's working fine, as it was before my
motherboard problem, except for the 1270 driver.

As soon as XP detects the 1270, it loads its own driver, and shows the
printer as "Epson Stylus Photo 1270 ESC/P 2". I can also load the
Epson driver, so in "Printers and Faxes" I get two entries for the
1270 - the Epson driver shows as "Epson Stylus Photo 1270".

In the past, I've been able to use either. I much prefer the Epson
driver as it has more facilities, in particular a print preview
option. (I downloaded the driver from the Epson website only the
other day.)

Now, however, only the Windows XP driver works. If I try to use the
Epson driver, the interface comes up, but nothing apparently works.
Sometimes the ink monitor is OK, but (for instance) trying to run a
nozzle check just freezes it.

Any ideas what's wrong? I have another machine with XP SP2 on it, and
the printer is fine using the Epson driver on that.

Is there any way of stopping XP loading its own driver?

Many thanks in advance for any help!

Chris.

If you haven't tried loading the software first before turning the printer
on I would try that. Only when the software asks you to connect and turn the
printer on is when I would follow that instruction. Working that way should
install the Epson software first before XP has an opportunity to load its
own driver.
At this point I might try deleting all Epson drivers before starting over
and of course start first by deleting both printers as they appear under
'printers and Faxes'.

 

[Tony]

Following a motherboard problem (now resolved), I've recently reloaded
Windows (XP SP2). Everything's working fine, as it was before my
motherboard problem, except for the 1270 driver.

As soon as XP detects the 1270, it loads its own driver, and shows the
printer as "Epson Stylus Photo 1270 ESC/P 2". I can also load the
Epson driver, so in "Printers and Faxes" I get two entries for the
1270 - the Epson driver shows as "Epson Stylus Photo 1270".

In the past, I've been able to use either. I much prefer the Epson
driver as it has more facilities, in particular a print preview
option. (I downloaded the driver from the Epson website only the
other day.)

Now, however, only the Windows XP driver works. If I try to use the
Epson driver, the interface comes up, but nothing apparently works.
Sometimes the ink monitor is OK, but (for instance) trying to run a
nozzle check just freezes it.

Any ideas what's wrong? I have another machine with XP SP2 on it, and
the printer is fine using the Epson driver on that.

Is there any way of stopping XP loading its own driver?

Many thanks in advance for any help!

Chris.

I would do what Jan has recommended. In addition I suggest that when you have
uninstalled all copies of the printer (you can't uninstall the windowsXP
driver, you will have to delete it in Control Panel/Printers and Faxes) then
open the Printers and Faxes applet, select File/Server Properties and select
the drivers tab. Select every line in turn that mentions your printer, right
click and select Remove. This will force the installer to reinstall the drivers
completely.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[Chris]

Thanks, Jan and Tony, for your replies. I've done what you suggested
- I certainly didn't know about the File/Server properties bit - but
unfortunately, no change.

When restarting the PC I am asked to end certain programs - SSMmgr.exe
(I have a Samsung laser atached to the parallel port and I believe
this is a Samsung program). Socket Notification Sink, EBAPI Program,
and, sometimes, wowexec.exe. I don't know if this is significant -
these programs might just be left running after I tried and failed to
use the Epson driver.

I'm really puzzled by this. I can't see any difference in the
settings between this machine and my other one, from which I can print
with the Epson driver. And, as I mentioned, I've reloaded everything
in the past few days, but I've not added any software other than what
was on the machine when the Epson driver worked.

So I'd be very grateful if there are any further ideas!

Chris.

 

[Tony]

Thanks, Jan and Tony, for your replies. I've done what you suggested
- I certainly didn't know about the File/Server properties bit - but
unfortunately, no change.

When restarting the PC I am asked to end certain programs - SSMmgr.exe
(I have a Samsung laser atached to the parallel port and I believe
this is a Samsung program). Socket Notification Sink, EBAPI Program,
and, sometimes, wowexec.exe. I don't know if this is significant -
these programs might just be left running after I tried and failed to
use the Epson driver.

I'm really puzzled by this. I can't see any difference in the
settings between this machine and my other one, from which I can print
with the Epson driver. And, as I mentioned, I've reloaded everything
in the past few days, but I've not added any software other than what
was on the machine when the Epson driver worked.

So I'd be very grateful if there are any further ideas!

Chris.

Chris
There may be some conflict with the Samsung Driver.
If you have the ability to reinstall the Samsung I would do the following:
Disconnect the cables to the printers.
Uninstall the Samsung and any other printers you have. Always use the uninstall
routine provided by the manufacturer, or use Add/Remove programs rather than
deleting the printer unless that is your only option.
Go to the printer Applet and make sure all the printers are gone. Remove the
drivers in File/Server Properties as before.
Are you confident to edit the Registry? The Microsoft website has instructions
on saving a backup of the registry and using it if necessary, make sure you
successfully do that and then remve all registry entries that point at either
Samsung or Epson, this will take some time and you need to be very careful
(hence the backup). If you have any other Epson devices, like a scanner, you
need to be careful not to delete any registry entries that point at that device.
Go to Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager and click the + sign next to
Universal Serial Bus Controllers, make sure there are no alerts present there.
Right click on each of the USB controllers in turn and select uninstall. Make
sure they are all uninstalled.
Reboot the PC. Windows will reinstall your USB controllers.
Install the Epson printer first by running the downloaded drivers install
executable. Connect the Epson printer only when asked to. When the install
completes, reboot again and test the printer, WinXP should not now install it's
own driver.
Install the Samsung and any other printer you have and reboot and test all the
printers.
You may want to try the above without editing the registry and only do the
editing if this does not work. Don't edit the registry unless you know what you
are doing!
I am convinced that Jan was on the right track, somehow the WinXP driver is
taking over because the Epson driver did not correctly install in the first
place, once this is successful the WinXP embedded drivers should not be loaded.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[Arthur Entlich]

1) Remove or uninstall via the provided software, all drivers for this
and any other Epson printer. You may also have to remove other printer
drivers, but let's start with just the Epson.

You may have to remove the XP "in box" drivers via the Windows removal
process in "printers and faxes"

2) Make sure to download the latest version of the drivers and ink
monitor from the Epson website.

Assuming you have/plan to connected the printer via the USB port, make
sure you do not have the printer connected when you start the computer,
and load the software prior to connecting it. In most cases,
peripherals requiring a USB connection need to have the software
installed prior to the physical hot connection of the peripheral.
Otherwise, the OS attempts to find drivers to plug and play with the
unit, and this can lead to many conflicts.

3) Once the new drivers are loaded follow instructions to comment the
printer, and then try to print a sample or test page. Sometime you will
need to reboot the computer before it will properly acknowledge the
printer the fist time.

If that doesn't work, you may need to clean the registry of left over
driver elements. Epson will usually provide a list of files and
components that can be manually removed. Hopefully, this will not be
required.

Art

 

[Chris]

Thanks (yet again), everyone, for taking the trouble to answer.

Sadly, though, I'm still no further ahead. I did try your
suggestions, even removing all references to Epson and Samsung in the
registry (lucky I remembered I have a Samsung HD!).

However, I couldn't uninstall all the USB controllers in Device
Manager: nothing seemed to happen when I clicked the button. Perhaps
that's indicative of a problem in itself, so I may try that again.

The difficulty in loading the Epson driver alone is that, halfway
through the process, it asks for the printer to be switched on - and
as soon as you do that, Windows detects the printer and loads its own
driver, without giving the option of refusing it.

Chris.

 

[Yianni]

Follow the instructions Tony told you how to completely delete the driver
(the corresponding files too).
In my win XP: Printers and Faxes --> File --> Server properties -->
Drivers --> Remove.

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