Epson 740 on Mac OS 10

[Bishoop]

Trying to help a neighbor lady get her printer running on a Mac running OS
10. The printer is an Epson 740 and from the Epson web site all they have
are drivers for OS 9. This is the first Mac I've tried to install anything
on.

Will the OS 9 printer drivers work with OS 10; yes, no or maybe?

Thanks.

 

[John McWilliams]

Trying to help a neighbor lady get her printer running on a Mac running OS
10. The printer is an Epson 740 and from the Epson web site all they have
are drivers for OS 9. This is the first Mac I've tried to install anything
on.

Will the OS 9 printer drivers work with OS 10; yes, no or maybe?

No, but working drivers for the 740 should be included in the OS
installation. What version? Did you do the install? What happens when
you hit Cmd-P with the printer connected?

 

[Jan Alter]

No, but working drivers for the 740 should be included in the OS
installation. What version? Did you do the install? What happens when you
hit Cmd-P with the printer connected?

All versions of OS X.x will install with drivers for the Stylus 740. If the
version of OS X is X.3.x (Panther) the utility program will not be
available to monitor ink levels or to do maintenance, such as head cleanings
or calibrations. Apple was highly inconsiderate to not put the time and
effort into making the utility program available.
If the version being installed is OS X.4.x then the utility will be there
and the user will be be able to do software cleanings and monitor ink
levels.
Apple must have received a heck of a lot of complaints from Epson
printer users about the lack of the utility to get them to develop it for
their upgrade, Tiger. I don't know how the newest version of OS X.5.x
(Leopard) will work with the Epson, but my guess is that it is probably
available.
If the neighbor is installing the Panther version of OS X then it would
behoove him/her to also install the OS 9 system files so that the computer
can also be started in OS 9. Doing this will allow the installation of the
740 drivers for it and the working utility program so that the user can
simply start an OS 9 program, ie, Simpletext, and then have the opportunity
to check the ink levels and do head cleanings. It's an easy work around.
Having dealt with this problem numerous times at our school using lots
of imacs and emacs with different versions of OS X has allowed me to glean
the differences using the Epson 740 and 880 printers.

 

[Bishoop]

All versions of OS X.x will install with drivers for the Stylus 740. If
the version of OS X is X.3.x (Panther) the utility program will not be
available to monitor ink levels or to do maintenance, such as head
cleanings or calibrations. Apple was highly inconsiderate to not put the
time and effort into making the utility program available.
If the version being installed is OS X.4.x then the utility will be
there and the user will be be able to do software cleanings and monitor
ink levels.
Apple must have received a heck of a lot of complaints from Epson
printer users about the lack of the utility to get them to develop it for
their upgrade, Tiger. I don't know how the newest version of OS X.5.x
(Leopard) will work with the Epson, but my guess is that it is probably
available.
If the neighbor is installing the Panther version of OS X then it would
behoove him/her to also install the OS 9 system files so that the computer
can also be started in OS 9. Doing this will allow the installation of the
740 drivers for it and the working utility program so that the user can
simply start an OS 9 program, ie, Simpletext, and then have the
opportunity to check the ink levels and do head cleanings. It's an easy
work around.
Having dealt with this problem numerous times at our school using lots
of imacs and emacs with different versions of OS X has allowed me to glean
the differences using the Epson 740 and 880 printers.

--
Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)
or
(e-mail address removed)12.pa.us

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately most of what you discuss is "Greek" to
me being a Windows guy since its inception. The lady I'm trying to help is
no help as far as installing drivers, etc.

I don't even know how to identify exactly which version of OS is on the
laptop.

In a few words can you explain how to try to install the printer with the
existing drivers contained in the OS?

Is there anything like Windows control panel which might help me to install
the drivers. What about system help files that can point me in the right
direction?

Thanks again for your assistance.

 

[Jan Alter]

In the upper left hand corner of the screen click on the blue Apple. Click
on the 'About This Apple'. It will give you the version number of the
operating system. Re-read what I mentioned about the different versions.
To install the printer, with it connected and turned on again click on the
blue Apple and on the vertical menu click on System Preferences. Click on
the folder Print & Fax. The rest is pretty intuitive. Click on either a +
sign or Add and choose USB for the printer that should be added. When it's
found the 740 click on it and then click OK. Try printing something.



--
Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)
or
(e-mail address removed)12.pa.us

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately most of what you discuss is "Greek" to
me being a Windows guy since its inception. The lady I'm trying to help
is no help as far as installing drivers, etc.

I don't even know how to identify exactly which version of OS is on the
laptop.

In a few words can you explain how to try to install the printer with the
existing drivers contained in the OS?

Is there anything like Windows control panel which might help me to
install the drivers. What about system help files that can point me in
the right direction?

Thanks again for your assistance.

In the upper left hand corner of the screen click on the blue Apple. Click
on the 'About This Apple'. It will give you the version number of the
operating system. Re-read what I mentioned about the different versions.
To install the printer, with it connected and turned on, again click on
the blue Apple and on the vertical menu click on System Preferences (It's
equivalent to Control Panel in Windows). Click on the folder 'Print & Fax'.
The rest is pretty intuitive. Click on either a + sign or Add and choose
USB for the printer that should be added, depending on what OS version you
have. When it's found the 740 click on it and then click OK. Try printing
something.

Additionally, I would recommend for further help that you go to
http://www.apple.com/support/osfamily/ , choose the OS the computer is
running and you should be able to find the exact topic you need for
printing, in addition to other questions that will undoubtedly arise as you
sit in front of the machine.

 

[Jan Alter]

In the upper left hand corner of the screen click on the blue Apple. Click
on the 'About This Apple'. It will give you the version number of the
operating system. Re-read what I mentioned about the different versions.
To install the printer, with it connected and turned on, again click on
the blue Apple and on the vertical menu click on System Preferences (It's
equivalent to Control Panel in Windows). Click on the folder 'Print & Fax'.
The rest is pretty intuitive. Click on either a + sign or Add and choose
USB for the printer that should be added, depending on what OS version you
have. When it's found the 740 click on it and then click OK. Try printing
something.

Additionally, I would recommend for further help, that you go to
http://www.apple.com/support/osfamily/ , choose the OS the computer is
running and you should be able to find the exact topic you need for
printing, in addition to other questions that will undoubtedly arise as you
sit in front of the machine.

Sorry for wrongly miscutting and pasting from the previous post.

 

[John McWilliams]

In the upper left hand corner of the screen click on the blue Apple. Click
on the 'About This Apple'. It will give you the version number of the
operating system. Re-read what I mentioned about the different versions.
To install the printer, with it connected and turned on, again click on
the blue Apple and on the vertical menu click on System Preferences (It's
equivalent to Control Panel in Windows). Click on the folder 'Print & Fax'.
The rest is pretty intuitive. Click on either a + sign or Add and choose
USB for the printer that should be added, depending on what OS version you
have. When it's found the 740 click on it and then click OK. Try printing
something.

I simply have a small open text document, hit Print, and it takes you to
the printer add/delete dialogue.

Jan-

Have any of your 740s had their USB port fried? I gave my original one
to my son, but now have it back for R+R.... It cannot be made to be seen
via USB, but it also has two other connectors, DIN (IIRC) and serial. I
have an 8500 to which I could connect it, or I suppose there might be a
converter, but not sure it's worth it to spend even $20 on such.

 

[Bishoop]

Trying to help a neighbor lady get her printer running on a Mac running OS
10. The printer is an Epson 740 and from the Epson web site all they have
are drivers for OS 9. This is the first Mac I've tried to install
anything
on.

Will the OS 9 printer drivers work with OS 10; yes, no or maybe?

Thanks.

Thanks folks for all the tips. I think I'll bring the machine to my home
where if I run into problems I can note them here for possible solutions.

Thanks again.

 

[Jan Alter]

I simply have a small open text document, hit Print, and it takes you to
the printer add/delete dialogue.

Jan-

Have any of your 740s had their USB port fried? I gave my original one to
my son, but now have it back for R+R.... It cannot be made to be seen via
USB, but it also has two other connectors, DIN (IIRC) and serial. I have
an 8500 to which I could connect it, or I suppose there might be a
converter, but not sure it's worth it to spend even $20 on such.

Hi John,

In 1999 we started out with thirty-five Epson 740 printers. We still
have about 28 running. I used to connect them to 5600 macs with the DIN
cable and they worked fine. I don't recall any of the USB ports failing on
any of these printers, but on one Epson 880 I wasn't able to connect it via
USB for one reason or another to a PC. I simply connected it using a
parrallel port cable. There are parallel to USB converters as you mention,
and about that price. The 740 was one of Epson's amazing workhorses, and
cheap as anything to run with third party cartridges, although a bit slow by
today's standards. The most often presented malody I ran into was a dried
out printhead travel bar which could be fixed with a little light machine
oil.

 

[Matt Broughton]

All versions of OS X.x will install with drivers for the Stylus 740. If the
version of OS X is X.3.x (Panther) the utility program will not be
available to monitor ink levels or to do maintenance, such as head cleanings
or calibrations. Apple was highly inconsiderate to not put the time and
effort into making the utility program available.
If the version being installed is OS X.4.x then the utility will be there
and the user will be be able to do software cleanings and monitor ink
levels.
Apple must have received a heck of a lot of complaints from Epson
printer users about the lack of the utility to get them to develop it for
their upgrade, Tiger.

Since when did Apple start writing printer drivers and/or utilities for
Epson or any other make of printer? They include drivers that Epson
writes along with the OS installer. This is for the ease of the end
user. They don't have to download the latest and greatest from the
manufacturer.

I don't know how the newest version of OS X.5.x
(Leopard) will work with the Epson, but my guess is that it is probably
available.

There is an Epson driver for the SC 740 included with OS X 10.5.

Matt

 

[Jan Alter]

Since when did Apple start writing printer drivers and/or utilities for
Epson or any other make of printer? They include drivers that Epson
writes along with the OS installer. This is for the ease of the end
user. They don't have to download the latest and greatest from the
manufacturer.


There is an Epson driver for the SC 740 included with OS X 10.5.

Matt

It's a interesting point, and I rightly don't know if it was Apple or
Epson that developed the driver to work in OS X. It would stand to reason
that Apple would pay Epson to do it, and so that may be the case for when
the cleaning/monitoring utility returned to OS X in its version 10.4. It
would be interesting to know the details as to why the utility was not
available on the OS X.3 Panther version. My guess again would be money and
Apple thinking that the printer was too old to bother about and pay Epson to
make a driver (who also thought the printer was too old to make for Apple's
OS at no cost to Apple).
When XP first came out older Epson drivers were included on the XP disk
(for the 740), including the cleaning utility, but missing was the ink
monitoring tool to show how much ink was left in the cartridges. I've read
of some folks being able to install the monitoring tool from Windows 2000
to run with XP with a little adjustment, but I don't know what they changed
to get it to work.

Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Bishoop]

In the upper left hand corner of the screen click on the blue Apple. Click
on the 'About This Apple'. It will give you the version number of the
operating system. Re-read what I mentioned about the different versions.
To install the printer, with it connected and turned on, again click
on
the blue Apple and on the vertical menu click on System Preferences (It's
equivalent to Control Panel in Windows). Click on the folder 'Print &
Fax'.
The rest is pretty intuitive. Click on either a + sign or Add and choose
USB for the printer that should be added, depending on what OS version you
have. When it's found the 740 click on it and then click OK. Try printing
something.

Additionally, I would recommend for further help, that you go to
http://www.apple.com/support/osfamily/ , choose the OS the computer is
running and you should be able to find the exact topic you need for
printing, in addition to other questions that will undoubtedly arise as
you
sit in front of the machine.

Sorry for wrongly miscutting and pasting from the previous post.

--
Jan Alter
(e-mail address removed)
or
(e-mail address removed)12.pa.us

I get to the add printer window. It shows USB in the top center of the
window and under the "product" column it shows Epson 740 (only printer
listed) and under "Type" it shows Driver Not Installed.

I try pointing to the Epson 740, left click, right click and nothing
happens. "Add" at the bottom of the window is grayed out.

The OS version in 10.3.9.

I tried rebooting and that makes no difference.

And here I'm stuck.

Thanks for your continued help.

 

[Jan Alter]

I get to the add printer window. It shows USB in the top center of the
window and under the "product" column it shows Epson 740 (only printer
listed) and under "Type" it shows Driver Not Installed.

I try pointing to the Epson 740, left click, right click and nothing
happens. "Add" at the bottom of the window is grayed out.

The OS version in 10.3.9.

I tried rebooting and that makes no difference.

And here I'm stuck.

Thanks for your continued help.

But Wait. There's more.

There are 3 installation CDs for OS X.3 . The first disk is the OS X
kernal, the second disk has the applications, and the third languages, other
stuff that I don't recall, and drivers for various printers. If you get that
third disk and place it into the CD-ROM drive and open it up you will see
the Epson package of drivers on it. Double click on it and it will open an
installation package. Click on that and make sure you know the password for
the computer administrator, as it will ask for one to allow installation.
When the original installation took place there were options that
could be ignored or taken. One of the options is the choice of printer
drivers, and the Epson drivers were not chosen at that point. However, as
long as you have that 3rd installation disk it's not a big deal to install
at this point.
Just hope the owner has those install disks available.

 

[Bishoop]

I get to the add printer window. It shows USB in the top center of the
window and under the "product" column it shows Epson 740 (only printer
listed) and under "Type" it shows Driver Not Installed.

I try pointing to the Epson 740, left click, right click and nothing
happens. "Add" at the bottom of the window is grayed out.

The OS version in 10.3.9.

I tried rebooting and that makes no difference.

And here I'm stuck.

Thanks for your continued help.

Reading on the Apple web site I see that Epson2 printer drivers are not
installed by default.

Apparently no installation disks came with the machine that was purchased
about a month ago.

I tried updating to 10.5.1 via the web but when the download completed a
window opened that reads:

Installer package "macosupd10.5.1" cannot be opened'

The bill of materials for this package was not found.

Now I'm wondering if the 740 drivers would even be included the 10.5.1
update.

Thinking further about the ""driver not installed" message I get when trying
to install the 740 driver means is "ain't" on the harddrive.

Any suggestions?

 

[Bishoop]

The plot thickens.

Apparently this unit was purchased "used" from macofalltrades.com.
Therefore no disks.

Are the system disks available for Apple.

How do I find out what printer drivers are available on the harddrive? I
worse comes to worse she can buy a new printer to fit the available drivers.

Thanks

 

[John McWilliams]

The plot thickens.

Apparently this unit was purchased "used" from macofalltrades.com.
Therefore no disks.

Are the system disks available for Apple.

How do I find out what printer drivers are available on the harddrive? I
worse comes to worse she can buy a new printer to fit the available drivers.

It should have come with legit. disks.

You may as well purchase the latest OS X version, called Leopard and
install.
Or try different settings in the printer utitility, again with 740
attached and powered up. There's USB and Epson USB.....

 

[Alastair Preston]

It should have come with legit. disks.

You may as well purchase the latest OS X version, called Leopard and
install.

After checking if the computer meets the hardware requirements, of course,
If it's a used system with 10.3.9 on it, it may not be able to use Leopard,
which needs a G4 or newer CPU.

 

[John McWilliams]

After checking if the computer meets the hardware requirements, of course,
If it's a used system with 10.3.9 on it, it may not be able to use Leopard,
which needs a G4 or newer CPU.

Absolutely- I simply forgot to add that, and looking back, I see we
don't know the Model.

 

[Bishoop]

Absolutely- I simply forgot to add that, and looking back, I see we don't
know the Model.

Yep, it's a G3.

If someone can help with how to determine just what printer drivers are
loaded on the laptop as it stands, I'll just tell the lady to buy one of the
supported printers.

Once again, thanks.

 

[Bishoop]

BTW, I did get the printer to work.

I installed gutenprint open source printer/driver utility. The problem I
see with that is the printer maintainance routines like head cleaning and
ink level are only accessible by command line entries. I just don't think
this is a good idea for some elderly lady who use the laptop for email and
an occaisonal letter,