Guess I need a RIP before I go nuts!

[Keithw1975]

Our Epson 9900s are driving me bonkers. We currently have no RIP, and are using the manufacturers drivers, and it is hooked to a Mac Pro with OSX 10.9.

I will send 20 prints to a machine and it will run about 6, then just hang. It has to be shut off and restarted to recover. The only way to run lots of prints at once, is to send them in little batches and let it come to a complete rest before sending the next batch. I have also noticed that with auto cleanings turned on, it will frequently have jumbled data on the first sheet after the cleaning.

Is this just the worst drivers ever written, or do I have some other problem? They have done this since new, and from two different Macs.

[louoates]

Before you try anything else please note that my 9900 used to stop in the middle of a print run also. It was driving me crazy...and Epson had no answer. The solution was not to plug in or unplug any USB device during a print run -- it simply mixed up the Mac and quit the print output!! I had just gotten an iPhone and I was plugging in my iPhone or unplugging it via the USB cord. The printer would stop every time I did that. It was my rip tech (Colorbyte) who alerted me to this possible internal USB Mac problem and solution. I still use the USB cord between my Mac and the 9900 but keep my iPhone elsewhere.

[Keithw1975]

Our 9900s are hooked up via Ethernet. Nothing is being plugged in, or unplugged during operation. Can anyone who has had similar problems, confirm that a third party RIP will alleviate these issues?

[BobShaw]

I had lots of problems with Epson drivers. Mirage Print solved most of them.
If your ethernet has any wireless segments then get rid of them.

[Keithw1975]

Well, I may have solved my problems. I had almost always printed out of Acrobat, just because we work with PDFs. The two large problem files that were driving me up the wall, seem to print great out of Photoshop 2014. Not only do they print problem free, but they spool within seconds, unlike in Acrobat, where they took around 5 minutes to spool.

I guess Acrobat is to blame instead of the print driver.

[smthopr]

Have you tried printing using apple preview? I always find it much faster than acrobat with large files, but I'm printing text documents...