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Author Topic: G4 and printing with Epson, need help.  (Read 2781 times)

Offline L of the P

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G4 and printing with Epson, need help.
« on: October 05, 2007, 09:38:21 AM »
First, as a quick intro, I'm an art director and have been working on Macs since they came into the market. I really enjoy them and am still continually amazed with what they can do. My mom (it's true) turned me onto this forum and really thinks highly of the minds here.

I'm at my wits end with regards to my printer and computer set up. I currently have an older G4, dual 450 processors, OS 10.3.9 etc. I picked it up online used about a year and a half ago. All seemed fine until I tried to get this older printer to work with it.

Printer is an Epson Stylus Color 3000. It's older, but still in good shape and really should work fine, if I can figure it out. It's a monster with 4 huge ink cartridges. Less to mess with, if I can get it running.

It's made for the graphic design business and is intended to be run off of a network. But with Epson downloads, you can get it to run straight from a computer. Or so they say. I have installed the latest driver and EpsonNet Mac assist, which is supposed to help get all of this working by allowing you to assign an address to the printer. In this case, I don't need Appletalk.

Here's where I am having trouble. First, I think my ethernet port on my computer is no good. At first, the printer utility wasn't seeing the printer and said Appletalk wasn't turned on, though it was. Then, when I would open the network preference panel, I would get a listing that stated 'the internal ethernet cable isn't connected.' this makes no sense to me, but I have to wonder if the port isn't just shot. Now, when I open that panel, ethernet isn't even listed.

So, I picked up a parallel to USB adapter and connected that. Now, the OS sees the printer, but the Epson utility does not see it. I tried through the Mac Assist and it isn't seeing it either. It even claims to check USB.

I have tried printing from both InDesign and from preview via a PDF. The document  will start to go, then printing will stop in the printer panel before anything goes to the printer. I've spent far too long messing with this, seems it should be simpler.

If anyone has any thoughts, I'd be very grateful. Thanks much in advance.
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Offline Bruce_F

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G4 and printing with Epson, need help.
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2007, 11:19:57 AM »
First off... Welcome to the board!

The problem you're having sounds kind of familiar. If you have established a connection to the printer but it stalls, try deleting the printer in the setup and starting again from scratch.

Regarding your ethernet problem: The Ethernet connection at the computer may be faulty but try another cable. Also, try jiggling the cable. A G5 I used at work had a really finicky Ethernet outlet that had to be jiggled at least once a week to keep it going.
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-Bruce-

Offline Xairbusdriver

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G4 and printing with Epson, need help.
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2007, 11:32:16 AM »
Before anything else, Welcome Aboard, L of the P! Glad to have you join! Maybe you can enlighten us as to the "L" and the "P" later, I pretty much understand the "of the" part! smile.gif

I have no experience with those G4s, Panther, nor that printer but I a little confused about your message:
QUOTE
In this case, I don't need Appletalk....At first, the printer utility wasn't seeing the printer and said Appletalk wasn't turned on, though it was.
I assume that the 'address' you referred to is an IP address since you say you don't need AppleTalk, yet the OS (via the Printer Utility seems to think that's how you are trying to communicate with it.

First, try swapping cables, that's the cheapest and easiest solution, anyway.

Second, check your settings in Printer Utility, making sure you haven't 'installed' the printer as using/needing AppleTalk.

Third, many printers try to use a preset IP number by default. Are you sure the printer 'knows' the settings you gave it?

Fourth, you may get some indication as to the status of your Ethernet ports by using the System Profiler. I think you can easily access that by using the Apple menu and selecting "About this Mac". Then, click the "More Info..." button in the little window. The Profiler itself should be in your Applications/Utilities folder. Click the "Network" label in the left-hand panel.

Fifth, I wasn't even aware that any Mac had a parallel port! blush-anim-cl.gif wallbash.gif
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Offline L of the P

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G4 and printing with Epson, need help.
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2007, 11:35:38 AM »
QUOTE(Bruce_F @ Oct 5 2007, 11:19 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
First off... Welcome to the board!

Thank you! I appreciate it. Some interesting topics floating about


QUOTE
The problem you're having sounds kind of familiar. If you have established a connection to the printer but it stalls, try deleting the printer in the setup and starting again from scratch.

Regarding your ethernet problem: The Ethernet connection at the computer may be faulty but try another cable. Also, try jiggling the cable. A G5 I used at work had a really finicky Ethernet outlet that had to be jiggled at least once a week to keep it going.

I actually have done all of the above with not luck. I even tried to fudge things and bring in the printer as an LPD printer, which I found somewhere out on the net as the thing to do. I may just be time to move to something more current.

Thanks for the input. Cheers!
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Offline kbeartx

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G4 and printing with Epson, need help.
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2007, 01:56:45 PM »
Sum thoughts:

Might be some very specific software/hardware limitation of Panther on that series of MoBos.
     Unless you can find some esoteric info at Apple.com or somewhere else on the web, your troubleshooting work will be greatly facilitated if you can borrow another Mac [or two] and another model of Epson printer for running several experiments.   Once you determine where the problem lies, then your options for replacing either the Mac or the Epson [or both] will become clearer.
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Offline george

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G4 and printing with Epson, need help.
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2007, 02:11:26 PM »
ABD, I would hazard a guess that L of the P = Leader of the Pack and it rings musical bells somewhere.......a hit tune way back...........mind you it's a guess.
George
p.s
welcome L of the P to the TS Board
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Offline L of the P

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G4 and printing with Epson, need help.
« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2007, 02:31:00 PM »
Thanks again. First, L of the P is simply a nickname a friend came up with for me. They seem to have a creative way of interpreting names. This is one of a few and seems to have stuck, for some reason. Just the initials for first and last name. The 'Leader of the Pack' thing is interesting though. Hmmm...

I have tried swapping cables, but no luck. However, the simple task of the profiler had slipped the mind, good call. I'll check that one out.

I was unable to give the printer an IP address, as it won't show in the Epson utility that allows me to do that. Hence the problem. I'm sure it has one from the previous user, but I can't seem to access it to see what we have. Then again, there's the profiler.

With regards to Appletalk, I thought I needed it, but it looks like I'm supposed to used this printer through TCP/IP instead of Appletalk. It's all very confusing when nothing seems to work.

I've been inline for a G5 to come my way as payment for some design work for a really small company (they upgraded to intel). It may actually come my way very soon, or so it seems. I won't hold my breath, been waiting a while for the drives to be cleared off, etc.
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Offline jepinto

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G4 and printing with Epson, need help.
« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2007, 03:16:07 PM »
welcome.gif  L of the P

Have you tried Epson's FAQ for the Color 3000?

They also had one page saying
QUOTE
Q: What do I need to do to print with my Stylus printer on a LocalTalk or EtherTalk network?
A:  To use the printer on a LocalTalk network, install the optional LocalTalk Interface (C823121). For EtherTalk install the optional Ethernet Interface (C823461). Set the AppleTalk/Network Control Panel to Modem/Printer port (LocalTalk with older OS versions) for the LocalTalk interface and Ethernet/EtherTalk for the Ethernet interface. Enable AppleTalk in the Chooser and run the Epson Namer utility and give the printer a unique name to easily identify the printer on the LocalTalk network.

And here is a pdf with special instructions for using the parallel to USB  adapter.
« Last Edit: October 05, 2007, 03:20:11 PM by jepinto »
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Offline sandbox

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G4 and printing with Epson, need help.
« Reply #8 on: October 05, 2007, 03:59:27 PM »
Welcome to TS L of the P. wink.gif
Just a quick suggestion that seemed to help me in the past.
Run Permissions after you install the Epson software.
You may have already done this but just in case......
This issue is not specific to Epson, I've had it happen to me with
Lexmark software as well.

Good luck
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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G4 and printing with Epson, need help.
« Reply #9 on: October 05, 2007, 05:12:51 PM »
Jennie's post now brings up the question as to how the previous user was connected to the printer. You mentioned using a 'parallel to USB' connector in your first post, does that, perchance indicate that the previous user was using a parallel connection? Was he also using a Windows machine? Does the printer, in fact have either the aforementioned 'networking' cards/interfaces installed? Thinking.gif

Finally, are there any diagnostic printouts available from the printer by pressing any of the built-in buttons? The manual/pdf should contain that procedure, if it is even possible. That's not something that most ink-jets do, however. It's usually limited to lasers or Multi-Function printers. Still, it might reveal some 'secrets!' smile.gif Or at least indicate that the thing can actually print! doh.gif
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Offline L of the P

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G4 and printing with Epson, need help.
« Reply #10 on: October 05, 2007, 06:21:50 PM »
Thanks again everyone. So helpful. The previous user was a small ad agency I worked at for a while. I was visiting from out of town and they were dumping it, so I grabbed it. It was mac based and used through the ethernet card on the printer. The ethernet card is optional and an add on for the printer. So no, it wasn't used parallel, but on an ethernet network.

I'll try permissions. Haven't done it since I installed the software. Good idea.

jepinto, great thoughts. I'll take a look. I have looked through a lot of info on the 3000, but am happy to try to find a solution.

I'm not online too much on weekends, as we still don't have internet at home. Working on that, but I'll check back here as soon as I can.

Cheers!
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