WEIRD printer problems!!

[Wormo]

I have a Epson Stylus Color 740i, everytime I turn it on it starts to print a series of characters for no reason, and sometimes when it does print it spits out extra paper. I should mention that it is connected to a Zip drive 100. What going on?

[Susan]

I would try the following one at a time:

1. Remove the Zip Drive
2. Reinstall the drivers
3. Verify that you are using a IEEE Printer cable

[wyvrn]

Make sure your parallel port is set to EPP in bios. If your bios does not support EPP but just ECP, upgrade the bios or Mainboard. Zip drives and ECP ports do not agree(when any other device is also on that port with the Zip). Chances are the Zip is trying to send data back to the computer as it boots, and the printer is intercepting it and printing as data/text. EPP stands for enhanced parallel port and accepts two way information on the port much better, from what I understand... Other option is to disconnect the zip altogether.

OR if you have Win98 and USB capability as your printer does, then take advantage of it. USB manages resources better and is faster, and you would be giving the zip drive full control of the parallel port. USB cables run as cheap as 15 bucks at best buy. If you dont have USB on your motherboard, but are running windows 98, then simply buy a USB card (pci slot) that has 2 usb ports and connect your printer to that, as well as any other USB device you have. USB can support 140+ devices on that card with the use of USB hubs, though the hubs would have to give the devices the voltages to have that many. Hope this was not too much information, I learned this lesson the hard way ... One of main reasons I bought Win98 was for USB support, and ICS ...

[This message has been edited by wyvrn (edited 02-08-2000).]

[Wormo]

I got a FIC 503+ on the way , so that should solve the problem with that port.

Thanks

[psyklone]

do a search on your drive for DRVWPPQT.VXD, if you find it rename it to *.old or whatever unused extension you want and then restart and see if you have the same problem. i've run into this problem before that was caused by this file which will go out and search for a tape drive at bootup and will cause funky printer problems. rename this file and you should be in good shape. this doesn't sound like a port problem to me.

let us know how it goes!