Epson 2200 and Vista OS

[louie_bustillos]

Hello,

 

I just purchased a new computer running Vista Home Premium OS. Espon has not

made a print driver for the the 2200 that is connected to a computer that is

running Vista so I would hold back from buying a new computer that is running

Vista right now. At this time Epson does not know when they will have a

driver for it.

[john_gleason1]

Well, I've got far better reasons for avoiding Vista like The Plague itself, but thanks for the tip.

[mike_r.1]

The Windows XP driver works with Vista 32-bit. (for me, anyway)

[jtk]

I wonder if QTR (B&W printer driver) or Qimage (color & B&W driver), both of which drive 2200, work with Vista?

[joseph_wisniewski]

John Kelly - QTR needs Windows to bind the printer to a USB port and set up a raw queue for it. Windows won't do that unless you have a printer driver. I'm not sure if it's possible to tell Windows to install the printer as a generic device (the "text only" device was still around in Windows XP). That would be enough. The QTR backend is a modified version of the Gimp Print CUPS driver, and it spits all the Epson "ESC-P2" language that the printer needs. But without a managed queue, it would take forever for the CUPS backend to stuff the data directly through a USB port a character at a time.

 

I'm trying something a bit more ambitious, like porting CUPS itself to Windows. Imagine, 12,000 different "legacy" printers suddenly being able to work with Vista.

 

Qimage won't help matters: it isn't a "driver", it goes through the Windows drivers. That's why you have to configure a driver to interact with Qimage properly (for the Epson drivers, that's "ICC, no color management" or "ICC, profile applied by software" depending on the particular driver.

[joseph_wisniewski]

John Gleason - that is a totally unfair comparison. You should be ashamed of yourself.

 

Many people survive the plague and go on to lead happy and productive lives.

[louie_bustillos]

On Epson's website it says not to attempt to install the XP driver on Vista but if it worked for you I might eventually try it. Just hope Epson comes out with a new driver before I really need the printer.

[john_gleason1]

Joseph: Not not ashamed at all. Just 42 years of making a living writing software, much of it, unfortunately, for systems running Windows.

 

I'll stick with my original statement: There are much better reasons to avoid Vista than the (current) lack of a Vista-specific driver for the Epson 2200. On the other hand, I appreciate being informed about the absence of such a driver, as I've recently acquired a 2200.

[joseph_wisniewski]

John, sorry about the humor.

 

The joke I was trying to make was that the comparison is unfair because Vista is much worse than the plague. So, by comparing Vista to the plague, you were being unfair to the plague.

 

I, too, avoid Vista. Might have it on a partition or two for testing, but not to actually use on a day-to-day basis.

[jon_dyke1]

For reference the 2200 XP driver works fine with Vista. The only bit that does not work is the Status Monitor so you won't be able to check your ink levels (not a show stopper for me as the light will flash on the printer (and even then you have still got a good few prints left as they try to rip you off for new ink all the time)

 

Vista is not perfect by a long way but its no where near as bad as people are making out. I have been using it for about two months now (MSDN) and appart from the lack of drivers (which is the fault of the manufacturers such as Epson as well as MS) its not that bad.

 

I'm sure Epson will fix the status monitor problem at some point (they are bound to get a lot of badgering as there are still a lot of 2200 users out there (and why not...its a very fine printer))

 

Jon

[carissa_white]

Which XP driver will work with Vista? There are 2 versions, the latest being for XP 64 bit. I have Vista 32 bit?