Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Windows Vista Printer Drivers  (Read 5564 times)

MADCAT

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 14
Windows Vista Printer Drivers
« on: February 05, 2007, 08:55:09 pm »

I currently have Windows Vista installed for testing purposes using a dual boot system to see if I can safely switch over to it. The main reason I want to switch over to Vista is its support for much larger RAM sizes.  I have another 2GB of RAM sat here just waiting to go back into my PC and be gobbled up by PS & Lightroom  

I have been testing Vista for about 2 months now and everything seems to work flawlessly except for my Epson 4000/2100 print drivers. In fact, to be more specific, the existing drivers seem to work fine but the Epson Status Monitor 3 that allows bi-directional communication with the printer fails to install which prevents monitoring of ink levels and the use of various tools.

Epson have been very quiet about Vista drivers and are only just acknowledging that some of their existing Large Format printer drivers are Vista compatible. No official word on the 4000 yet but a FAQ (see below) on Epson.com indicates the current state of drivers. Surprisingly it also states "A Windows Vista-compatible version of Epson Status Monitor 3 will be available at a later date." but gives no time frame at all  

So I was wondering if anyone had any more news / inside info about being able to use our printers in Windows Vista with a new version of the Epson Status Monitor?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit: Can't link to the Epson FAQ as the link expires so here is an exert:
To see the full FAQ go here, click on "Windows Vista Compatibility" on the right then scroll down to "Wide Format Printers" and click on the FAQ link below the table.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Is my Epson Stylus Pro printer supported in Windows Vista?

A. The drivers on the printer CD that came with your printer will not work with Windows Vista. However, the latest Windows XP or XP 64-bit Edition printer drivers for the following printers are compatible and are now available. Click on your printer below to download the driver:

Stylus Pro 3800
Stylus Pro 3800 Professional Edition*
Stylus Pro 4800*
Stylus Pro 4800 Professional Edition*
Stylus Pro 7800*
Stylus Pro 7800 Professional Edition*
Stylus Pro 9800*
Stylus Pro 9800 Professional Edition*
* A Windows Vista-compatible version of Epson Status Monitor 3 will be available at a later date.

Drivers will be posted in mid February, 2007, for the following printers. We will link you to them as they become available.
Stylus Pro 4000
Stylus Pro 4000 Professional Edition
Stylus Pro 7600 Photographic Dye Ink
Stylus Pro 7600 UltraChrome Ink
Stylus Pro 9600 Photographic Dye Ink
Stylus Pro 9600 UltraChrome Ink
Stylus Pro 10600 UltraChrome Ink

Epson will not release Window Vista compatible drivers for the following printers:
Stylus Pro 5000
Stylus Pro 5500
Stylus Pro 7000
Stylus Pro 7500
Stylus Pro 9000
Stylus Pro 9500
Stylus Pro 10000 Archival Ink
Stylus Pro 10000 Photographic Dye Ink
Stylus Pro 10600 Archival Ink
Stylus Pro 10600 Photographic Dye Ink
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
« Last Edit: February 05, 2007, 10:24:00 pm by MADCAT »
Logged
[span style='color:black'][span style='f

jdyke

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 123
    • http://www.jondyke.com
Windows Vista Printer Drivers
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2007, 02:00:12 pm »

Have you had any joy on this?  I am about to upgrade to Vista and have a 2100/2200.  No word on any drivers so I have emailed Epson again.

Do the XP drivers work?  If its just the status monitor I can probably live without it for a while.

Jon
Logged

MADCAT

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 14
Windows Vista Printer Drivers
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2007, 08:35:21 pm »

Hi Jon,

There is no more news that I am aware of from Epson on the driver comaptibility or the Status Monitor for the 2100/2200/4000  

However the existing XP drivers do seem to function ok, although I haven't really given them much testing in Vista yet I have managed to print text based documents without any problems.
Logged
[span style='color:black'][span style='f

jdyke

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 123
    • http://www.jondyke.com
Windows Vista Printer Drivers
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2007, 10:02:42 am »

I have emailed Epson for an ETA on the 2100 drivers (2200 in the US)

Still awaiting a response but given that they are saying mid-feb for the other Ultrachrome II printers (4000, 7600,9600) I would imagine (and hope) that the 2100 will be in the mix as well.  Its disspointing given that Vista has been out for 3 months now (MSDN and Business) and no drivers are available.  If its a sale ploy to get people to buy a new printer then it may loose Epson a lot of customers.

I write this on 14th Feb so I am hopefull we will see some drivers in the next few days.

I'd be interested to here whether you can print photos using the XP drivers (using Icc profiles) or are you just limited to text?  As I mentioned before, I can live without the ink monitor providing I can print normally (I tend to ignore it anyway as you can end up replacing cartridges before they have run out)

I have been told that Imageprint should be fine with Vista but the dongle will need to be upgraded.
See this email I got back:-

ImagePrint itself works with Vista, but the dongle drivers we depend on have only recently been updated to support it. We haven't incorporated these into the installation yet, but I do have a utility that will put them in place that was provided by the dongle manufacturer. I can send you that if you want to give it a try


Hopefully Epson will sort this out VERY soon as I don't want to have to rebuild a brand new preinstalled system back to XP (its a lot of work!!).

Jon
Logged

jdyke

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 123
    • http://www.jondyke.com
Windows Vista Printer Drivers
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2007, 04:21:48 am »

Bad news I am afraid - please see my other thread.  How on earth can they ignore this printer?  It was a very popular pro desktop printer and is newer than many others in the list.  I can't afford to update my printer to a 2400 at the moment (they retail at over $50 ($800) in the uk)

How did you get on with the XP drivers printing photographs? Is it just the ink monitor bidirectionla bit that is broken?

Jon
Logged

rdonson

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3263
Windows Vista Printer Drivers
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2007, 09:58:27 pm »

Epson Vista Support Page

The 2200 is grayed out in the table on the page.

That means:

*     If your product name is grayed out, a Windows Vista download is not yet available. If your product is not listed here, it is not supported by Windows Vista.

Since its grayed out and not missing it will be supported.  A driver just isn't available yet.
Logged
Regards,
Ron

MADCAT

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 14
Windows Vista Printer Drivers
« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2007, 01:03:36 am »

If you look at the release dates of the "Vista" drivers for many of the supported wide format printers from Epson they are not new release drivers at all, they are just the same old XP drivers with a Vista compatible placed next to them. In fact the 3800 is the only wide format printer I can see that has new drivers with a 2007 release date.

With that in mind that odds are that the existing 4000/2100/2200 XP drivers will fall into the same category and work fine in Vista.

There is still the bigger problem that Epson have not addressed the Status Monitor problem in Vista for even the so-called "supported" wide format printers, so there is no sign of having any bi-directional support in the near future. In fact Epson's official statement regarding the Status Monitor is:
"* A Windows Vista-compatible version of Epson Status Monitor 3 will be available at a later date."

The whole thing seems to be a bit embarrasing for Microsoft and Epson if you ask me. A whole market segment seems to have been left out in the cold regarding Vista, which is very strange considering how long companies like Epson have had to get new drivers ready.
Logged
[span style='color:black'][span style='f

MADCAT

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 14
Windows Vista Printer Drivers
« Reply #7 on: February 19, 2007, 01:10:28 am »

On a further note, I found out the hard way that Vista does not support 4GB RAM any better that XP does so there goes my urge to switch over to Vista full time  

Add to that the fact that currently most things seem to run slower in Vista and you are left only with the pretty UI changes as an incentive to upgrade. Roll on Vista SP1 and V2 Vista drivers from hardware manufacturers
Logged
[span style='color:black'][span style='f
Pages: [1]   Go Up