My Printer Isn't Working - Help!!!!

[George Costanza]

As to your second problem. Why is the printer have a different name on your iwife's pc then you own.

It didn't. It appeared in the network for both computers as MARILYN PC\Epson Stylus Photo, etc. It was just a name the guy decided to give it for our local network. I suppose you could call it "Garbage Printer xxx" and so long as it was on both computers and the path was correct, I suspect it would work.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Can you access the printer via the network through your wife's computer?

 

[ConHog]

Can you access the printer via the network through your wife's computer?

were working on it, I'll have him up and running soon.

 

[Ravi]

This is one thing I will never understand about computers - how everything will work just fine with a program or a piece of hardware for months and months and then, all of a sudden, for no reason at all and when you have done NOTHING to effectuate any change in any settings, the program or piece of hardware won't work any more. Drives me flipping nuts.

Wait til you have kids.

 

[George Costanza]

Can you access the printer via the network through your wife's computer?

The printer is connected to my wife's computer by USB connection. The printer is also connected to the router. My computer is connected to the router. When everything is working the way it should be, both computers can access the printer via the wireless network.

I have reinstalled the printer driver from the factory disk. Then I unhooked the USB connection from the printer to my wife's computer and hooked the printer up to my computer via the USB connection. My computer was able to access the printer and to print documents.

I then reconnected the USB connection to my wife's computer. My wife's computer was able to access the printer and to print documents.

I then tried to print something with my computer. It would not print anything. I no longer got the error message I used to be getting ("failure to initialize output device" or something like that), but I am still not printing from my computer.

I think we have verified that the printer driver works all right. I think all that is left to do is fix the network so that the printer will be shared by both computers. At present, my computer does not seem to recognize the existence of my wife's computer, although her computer does appear on the network map.

ConHog and I spent quite some time exchaning PM's on this last night and will probably go at it again this evening.

 

[George Costanza]

On Friday I went to Fry's and bought a new printer. It is an Epson Artisan 710. It has a scanner and you can also print CD's with it (a requirement of mine). Computer Guy came to my house earlier today and got everything up and running. Problem solved.

It turns out that the real villain in this whole piece is Vista. I had been trying to operate an older, Epson photo stylus printer on a Vista computer and the two were really not compatible. You could jam the driver onto the Vista system, and the printer would print, but it was like trying to shove a square peg in a round hole.

My new printer works with Vista as well as Windows 7. It is wireless (as am I, of course ). And, magically, my word processor now works like a charm where, with the older printer, it did not. I had been told that was because of a conflict between the printer software and the word processor. Seems as though they were right on that one.

So, all in all, George is a happy camper tonight. All's well that ends well.

 

[xotoxi]

We are operating two computers on a wireless network. In between the two computers sits a router (wireless) and a printer. Either computer can use the printer because the printer is shared between them via the wireless network.

All of a sudden, I can no longer use the printer. My wife's computer can - mine cannot. When I try to print anything from any program, I get "Failure to initialize output device" or something like that.

I am running Vista Home. I know how to get into the network settings via the Control Panel. I have been trying everything I can think of to get the printer working, but so far no luck. I am wondering if anyone out there might be able to give me a hint or two.

I compared the network settings on my wife's computer to those on mine. One difference I noted was that in the settings screen, "password sharing" was not checked and it was checked on mine. So I unchecked password sharing on my computer, thinking that was the difference. It wasn't.

Everything has been going along just fine for the past year or so - then, all of a sudden, my printer became unconnected from the network. I need to get that little bad boy reconnected, so I can resume operations.

Help!!!!

Paper?

 

[strollingbones]

i hate printers...they are the blane of mankind....isnt it odd they have such a short shelf life?

 

[DiveCon]

On Friday I went to Fry's and bought a new printer. It is an Epson Artisan 710. It has a scanner and you can also print CD's with it (a requirement of mine). Computer Guy came to my house earlier today and got everything up and running. Problem solved.

It turns out that the real villain in this whole piece is Vista. I had been trying to operate an older, Epson photo stylus printer on a Vista computer and the two were really not compatible. You could jam the driver onto the Vista system, and the printer would print, but it was like trying to shove a square peg in a round hole.

My new printer works with Vista as well as Windows 7. It is wireless (as am I, of course ). And, magically, my word processor now works like a charm where, with the older printer, it did not. I had been told that was because of a conflict between the printer software and the word processor. Seems as though they were right on that one.

So, all in all, George is a happy camper tonight. All's well that ends well.

the problem was most likely in the sharing of the printer
but my solution would have saved you the money
LOL
you should have just got a USB print server for that printer
it would have saved you about half what you paid for the new printer and any setup charge for the guy to come out to set it up
LOL(cant believe you had to have someone set up a wireless network printer in the first place)

you just plug em in

 

[MikeK]

On Friday I went to Fry's and bought a new printer. It is an Epson Artisan 710. It has a scanner and you can also print CD's with it (a requirement of mine). Computer Guy came to my house earlier today and got everything up and running. Problem solved.

[...]

As a certified computer dummy I long ago gave up trying to solve computer problems and place myself at the mercy of the Computer Hospital whenever I have a problem I can't solve in three tries.

I'm glad you solved your problem. Getting a new toy is always a pleasure and Epson products are first class. Good stuff.