Epson 3880 on ethernet

[dreed]

I suspect that when your computer starts up that the driver tries to access the printer before the networking in Windows is ready to support the attempt and it treats the error as a hard error rather than a soft error. In earlier versions of Windows you would just disable and then enable the printer to clear the error.

When you install the driver, all of the networking is up and running so the driver has no problems communicating with the printer.

Something else to try.

After booting up, go into "Control Panels", "System and security", then "Administrative Tools".

Double click on "Services" and scroll down until you see "Print Spooler". Try restarting this service - right click on "Print Spooler" and then restart.

If that does fix the problem then it may be necessary to change the way in which this service starts - either to "Automatic (Delayed)" or "Manual".

You have not mentioned if you changed your PC to also have an IP address that is statically assigned - if you haven't, also try that as this may result in Windows configuring the networking more quickly and it thus being available when it tries to initialise the print driver.

To see if your print driver has actually reported an error message that might be useful, under "Administrative Tools" is another tool called "Event Viewer". Under "Event Viewer (Local)" you should see "Windows Logs". Expand that and examine what has been recorded inside each of "Application" and "System". There's no guarantee that there will be something present but it is worth taking a look.

[dreed]

A strange side issue is that under these circumstances I can activate the printer montior which displays the remaining ink quanties. I would think that this requires establishing communications with the printer.

This will be a different application that is operating independent of the printer driver, thus issues with the printer driver are not reflected here.

I have called Epson support but couldn't get past the first tier and they didn't have a clue - just offered to swap out the printer for a refurbished one. I'm not keen on that option so I decided to ask here.

Additionally, make sure that you are now using the latest driver package from Epson for the 3880. The most recent was made available on the 24th of October, 2011 (v6.60.) Sometimes the version package with a printer will be somewhat older.

[John McDermott]

That's fine.  I'm convinced it is, because I've been doing this for a very, very long time and there's nothing been posted that indicates anything else.

I hope you resolve it :-)

I also have been doing networks and windows computers for a long time. Would you be so kind as to list those factors that convince you that it is a network problem. Keep in mind that I have two other computers attached to the same network which interact perfectly with the 3880. I am convinced that it is a conflict within my PC, perhaps withing the driver.

[John McDermott]

This will be a different application that is operating independent of the printer driver, thus issues with the printer driver are not reflected here.

No, it is one of the utility choices within the driver. Itn any event it requires communication with the 3880 so its correct display indicates that communication is established over the network/

Additionally, make sure that you are now using the latest driver package from Epson for the 3880. The most recent was made available on the 24th of October, 2011 (v6.60.) Sometimes the version package with a printer will be somewhat older.

Of course I am.

[John McDermott]

I suspect that when your computer starts up that the driver tries to access the printer before the networking in Windows is ready to support the attempt and it treats the error as a hard error rather than a soft error. In earlier versions of Windows you would just disable and then enable the printer to clear the error.

When you install the driver, all of the networking is up and running so the driver has no problems communicating with the printer.

Something else to try.

After booting up, go into "Control Panels", "System and security", then "Administrative Tools".

Double click on "Services" and scroll down until you see "Print Spooler". Try restarting this service - right click on "Print Spooler" and then restart.

If that does fix the problem then it may be necessary to change the way in which this service starts - either to "Automatic (Delayed)" or "Manual".

You have not mentioned if you changed your PC to also have an IP address that is statically assigned - if you haven't, also try that as this may result in Windows configuring the networking more quickly and it thus being available when it tries to initialise the print driver.

To see if your print driver has actually reported an error message that might be useful, under "Administrative Tools" is another tool called "Event Viewer". Under "Event Viewer (Local)" you should see "Windows Logs". Expand that and examine what has been recorded inside each of "Application" and "System". There's no guarantee that there will be something present but it is worth taking a look.

Restarting the Print Spooler had no effect and I founjd nothing in the logs.

[Farmer]

I also have been doing networks and windows computers for a long time. Would you be so kind as to list those factors that convince you that it is a network problem. Keep in mind that I have two other computers attached to the same network which interact perfectly with the 3880. I am convinced that it is a conflict within my PC, perhaps withing the driver.

As I said, I've seen no evidence of any other issue that might be involved, and the most common problem is network related.  However, without a proper network map (be it text or drawn - doesn't matter) it's simply not possible to further diagnose the issue and it comes down to shooting in the dark.

That you have other computers working does not in any way preclude network related issues.  It is extremely unlikely to be a driver issue, other than a configuration issues (i.e. the wrong port selected - which would be a network related issue...) if it continues to fail after a reinstallation.

May I respectfully suggest that if you have extensive network and Windows experience that a proper network map should be easy enough to provide and allow us to properly diagnose possible issues (which might include ruling out a network issue).

Troubleshooting should be a systematic and thorough process - not random guesses.

[dreed]

I also have been doing networks and windows computers for a long time. Would you be so kind as to list those factors that convince you that it is a network problem. Keep in mind that I have two other computers attached to the same network which interact perfectly with the 3880. I am convinced that it is a conflict within my PC, perhaps withing the driver.

Then backup your data and reinstall the PC from scratch. Include a "slow" format as part of the install to wipe the drives.

If there is a conflict within the driver or PC, then it will get logged. You've examined the logs and said there was nothing there. That means that there isn't a problem with the driver in the sense of it being a conflict - a conflict would mean that it couldn't and wouldn't start and in those cases, Windows will flag the driver as not operating and a message will get written to a log file.