I had a new printer for my laptop, nothing but trouble so decided to go back to old epson stylus color 440, problem is no usb on printer, got a usb to ieee1284 36 parallel printer cable. went to install it using instructions from epson but it won't print and epson say it doesn't work with this cable (I got the impression they were trying to sell me new printer) anybody got any ideas cos I'm spending money hand over fist
epson printer probs
- Thread starter janenor
- Start date
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To Boxcleva no I sent the new printer back
To Tonywarrington Epson said it did not support this type of cable and although the one I have is exact same as one from your link which guarantees it it's from a different company and they don't guarantee it will work, bt if one company guarantees it I don't see why it doesn't work.
Any ideas or should I just scrap the whole idea?
To Tonywarrington Epson said it did not support this type of cable and although the one I have is exact same as one from your link which guarantees it it's from a different company and they don't guarantee it will work, bt if one company guarantees it I don't see why it doesn't work.
Any ideas or should I just scrap the whole idea?
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Not sure of what to suggest here particularly as you have not had the response you would have hoped for from Epson.
If the cable is not faulty and is exactly like the one claimed to work from another company it suggest to me that this could be a driver issue. Had a quick look for usb drivers for Epson 440 - could only find Mac and Windows 2000 / 98.
If you use XP or Vista you could be out of luck - it may be possible to use the Windows 2000 drivers with an XP system, but there is no guarantee that this will work.
You could try sending an email to Epson.com (USA) highlighting your issues and asking if they can confirm if new driver needed and available for your system.
Best of luck
EDIT: Just a thought - Is it worthwhile really chasing this and buying up cables etc for an old printer? You could replace it with another Epson like This for £40
If the cable is not faulty and is exactly like the one claimed to work from another company it suggest to me that this could be a driver issue. Had a quick look for usb drivers for Epson 440 - could only find Mac and Windows 2000 / 98.
If you use XP or Vista you could be out of luck - it may be possible to use the Windows 2000 drivers with an XP system, but there is no guarantee that this will work.
You could try sending an email to Epson.com (USA) highlighting your issues and asking if they can confirm if new driver needed and available for your system.
Best of luck
EDIT: Just a thought - Is it worthwhile really chasing this and buying up cables etc for an old printer? You could replace it with another Epson like This for £40
Thanks for the thoughts, it's vista I'm working from and they did tell me at Epson how to get it loaded onto vista but when it wouldn't work they said it doesn't support this cable (I really think they just didn't know what the problem was). As for getting another printer, it was the S20 I had just bought and returned it cos everytime I bought ink it only printed abou half dozen pages before it ran out of ink and I didn't use the colour at all and it ran out and also it would not print if only one ink cartridge was out so it was costing me a fortune. Anyway, I'll try loading the old printer again see if I have any luck. Thanks again.
Looking at a similar cable device came across this info which may be useful
No drivers required the cable provides an emulation port for Windows printing. USB printing support is already included in Windows 2000, XP and Vista.
Have a look at the installation manual for this one make sure you scroll down to the installation instructions for XP (Vista should be similar?)
http://www.coolgear.com/images/317474EnglishManual.pdf
No drivers required the cable provides an emulation port for Windows printing. USB printing support is already included in Windows 2000, XP and Vista.
Have a look at the installation manual for this one make sure you scroll down to the installation instructions for XP (Vista should be similar?)
http://www.coolgear.com/images/317474EnglishManual.pdf
It could be that Epson were correct in the first place - although companies are selling cables that they claim will work with the 440 
Are you absolutely sure that the printer is working? Have you tried it on another PC recently?
Some things that you might want to try - cannot give any guarantees that this will work though. Also I have very little experience with Vista!!
1. Device Manager. Check for problems indicated by a yellow exclamation mark or red x. I think you will find it by going to Start / Control Panel / System Maintenance / System / Device Manager. Do you see any yellow exclamation marks next to any device
2 Printers. Check to see if any Printer installed and remove it
Goto the Start button then Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound, and then click Printers. If you see that you have a printer installed if so delete it then make sure that you have disconnected printer and cable, then restart your computer.
With the above checked you can then attempt to install your cable then your printer
1. The cable should be plugged in and properly installed before you attach the printer!
Without printer or cable attached switch on computer. When Windows fully loaded plug in the cable only and wait for Windows to load the default drivers.
2. Then plug the cable into your printer and turn it on - it should reinstall itself
3. Next Select the “Ports” tab. Find “USB001 Virtual printer port for USB” and place a checkmark in the box. As per the instructions in last post
Are you absolutely sure that the printer is working? Have you tried it on another PC recently?
Some things that you might want to try - cannot give any guarantees that this will work though. Also I have very little experience with Vista!!
1. Device Manager. Check for problems indicated by a yellow exclamation mark or red x. I think you will find it by going to Start / Control Panel / System Maintenance / System / Device Manager. Do you see any yellow exclamation marks next to any device
2 Printers. Check to see if any Printer installed and remove it
Goto the Start button then Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound, and then click Printers. If you see that you have a printer installed if so delete it then make sure that you have disconnected printer and cable, then restart your computer.
With the above checked you can then attempt to install your cable then your printer
1. The cable should be plugged in and properly installed before you attach the printer!
Without printer or cable attached switch on computer. When Windows fully loaded plug in the cable only and wait for Windows to load the default drivers.
2. Then plug the cable into your printer and turn it on - it should reinstall itself
3. Next Select the “Ports” tab. Find “USB001 Virtual printer port for USB” and place a checkmark in the box. As per the instructions in last post
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