Printer being seen as a mass storage device

[TVeblen]

I recently bought and installed an Epson Artisan 810 printer via USB
cable to my box: Asus P6T MB, Bios 0904. The BIOS is reading the printer
as a mass storage device. When I boot into Windows, the printer is using
a disk drive 'slot'. It shows up in Device Manager under "Portable
Devices" and named K: (Last available drive letter). It does not show up
in Windows Explorer as an available drive. It does show up in Disk
Management as Drive 2 - Removable - No Media. The printer works fine.
Is this a driver or hardware problem, or is it "normal"?

 

[Mike Easter]

I recently bought and installed an Epson Artisan 810 printer via USB
cable to my box: Asus P6T MB, Bios 0904. The BIOS is reading the printer
as a mass storage device. When I boot into Windows,

You forgot to mention which v. of Windows. Your headers look like Win7
(+Tbird3)

the printer is using
a disk drive 'slot'. It shows up in Device Manager under "Portable
Devices" and named K: (Last available drive letter). It does not show up
in Windows Explorer as an available drive. It does show up in Disk
Management as Drive 2 - Removable - No Media. The printer works fine.
Is this a driver or hardware problem, or is it "normal"?

The top line sez 'installed' but I don't know if that includes the s/w.

http://snipr.com/u9sjy Epson Artisan 810 All-in-One Printer -
Drivers & Downloads - FAQs for this Product - Troubleshooting Guide -
Documents & Manuals

 

[Mike Easter]

Your headers look like Win7

The top line sez 'installed' but I don't know if that includes the s/w.

Epson Artisan 810 All-in-One Printer -

Epson chart^1 sez the default Win7 drivers aren't sufficient for printer
or scanner

^1 http://snipr.com/u9t1a All-in-One Compatibility

 

[TVeblen]

Epson chart^1 sez the default Win7 drivers aren't sufficient for printer
or scanner

^1 http://snipr.com/u9t1a All-in-One Compatibility

Hey Mike. Sorry. Yes, Win 7 64 bit. I installed the minimal stuff to run
the printer, none of the optional software. But minimally it installs
the printer, scanner, fax drivers, Epson Event Manager, and Epson Print
CD. The Win 7 64 bit drivers were downloaded from Epson. I did not use
the CD that came with the printer.
But because the BIOS sees this thing as a mass storage device I'm
thinking the issue is not OS or driver related?

 

[Mike Easter]

Hey Mike. Sorry. Yes, Win 7 64 bit. I installed the minimal stuff to run
the printer, none of the optional software. But minimally it installs
the printer, scanner, fax drivers, Epson Event Manager, and Epson Print
CD. The Win 7 64 bit drivers were downloaded from Epson. I did not use
the CD that came with the printer.
But because the BIOS sees this thing as a mass storage device I'm
thinking the issue is not OS or driver related?

From my experience, the bios recognition part is important, but the
bios is not as 'smart' - as in usb discriminating - in many ways about
identifying USB devices as is an OS.

I would think the OS should know what it is.

Paul recently posted a link here about using UVCview to view the
descriptors on USB devices. I think that app aims to inform about usb
multimedia audio/video, but it must do everything that USBview did and more.

 

[SteveH]

Hey Mike. Sorry. Yes, Win 7 64 bit. I installed the minimal stuff to
run the printer, none of the optional software. But minimally it
installs the printer, scanner, fax drivers, Epson Event Manager, and
Epson Print CD. The Win 7 64 bit drivers were downloaded from Epson.
I did not use the CD that came with the printer.
But because the BIOS sees this thing as a mass storage device I'm
thinking the issue is not OS or driver related?

It's almost certainly being seen as a mass storage device because of the
built in card reader.

 

[TVeblen]

It's almost certainly being seen as a mass storage device because of the
built in card reader.

Yes, that seems to be it. Finally got a straight answer from Epson. The
printer can be used as a separate drive with it's card reader. The
behavior is normal.
I renamed the drive to make it more obvious. It was just shown as K:
before.