Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I have Windows 10 and an old Epson Stylus Pro 10000 wide format printer connected via USB. How do I get Qimage Ultimate to recognize that printer? It picks up on a wireless printer we have connected, but not the 10000. Help!!!!

Hi Vance,
I had not heard of an Epson 10000, so I looked. It doesn't appear to be old at all.
Nevertheless, If the driver  was installed properly, the printer should appear in Windows, DEVICES and PRINTERS.
Qimage gets it's printers from Windows.
If you don't see it, or even if you do, install the driver again.
Fred

I had to try... I installed the driver, whose name in the driver download was Epson Sure color P 10000 printer driver Postscript.
When installing, the installer refers to it as SC P20000 PS series.
It appears in Qimage out of alphabetical order, but it appears, and the driver is alive.+Have a better look in Qimage. I missed it the first time through too.
Fred

Thank you Mr. Forum Superhero! I guess I didn't explain my REAL predicament (duh!). I just purchased this printer. I've verified the printer test prints, so all is good as far as that goes. It is a 2001 printer. Epson Stylus Pro 10,000. My problem is that Epson no longer supports this printer and the last set of drivers they made for it was Win XP. All of my computers are running Win 10. I've been told that I have 2 solutions available to me: 1) Buy an old XP laptop or desktop and transfer files to it as necessary to print and hope there are no compatibility issues. OR (preferred) 2) find a RIP or similar program that works with Win 10 and supports the old wide format printers. That's where Qimage comes in. I assumed the drivers would be installed in the software. Is that not the case? I'd like to get this printer running before it heads for the great printer scrapheap. Any suggestions? I'll look into that printer you mentioned in your 2nd post. So far I only have the free version of your software, but I'm prepared to purchase it if I can make it work with my computers/printer. Thanks again.

I checked on that printer (Surecolor P10,000). I don't think the driver would work. That printer is 5 or 6 years newer and uses 10 ink cartridges, unlike the 6 on the Stylus Pro. Still looking, though. Thanks!

That printer is one like the old 7600/9600: not supported by Epson for Windows 10.  Qimage is not a RIP even though it has RIP-like features so it needs a working Windows driver.  I know some people have had luck with the 7600/9600 using XP or even Vista drivers on Windows 10.  Not sure if that'll work with the 10000.

Regards,
Mike

I found the Epson stylus pro.
All the drivers I see are for older Windows, most likely 32 bit
Mike shoudl be on soon to help

Interesting. Thank you, I'll go check those printers. As you've guessed, I don't have drivers. Currently they don't exist. Thanks again.

Thanks Mike. I'm going to try the XP drivers for this printer. Fingers crossed. If that don't work, I guess I'll need to find a RIP. Any suggestions? (this is for home use - so keeping the cost down is required if I'm going to proceed.) Thanks again for your help.

Your best bet may be to search for a hack that will allow you to install an XP or other driver.  ImagePrint RIP is $2500 for your printer so you could probably get a much newer used 44 inch printer for less than the software. I did find this:

https://www.efi.com/products/inkjet-printing-and-proofing/fiery-for-inkjet/fiery-xf/download/

It has a download so presumably you can at least try it for free.  Not sure if it's freeware.

Mike

Thanks, Mike. I'm still working on this. I tried to download the latest from that page you linked to, but that is for an upgrade to an existing Fiery 7. I had hoped that would work because the person that sold me the printer said they used that software to make it go. I've been trying other places, but no luck so far. You are correct, $2500 would certainly result in this printer being sent elsewhere.

Thanks for your help,
Vance

Hey, me again. If I were to buy an old Windows XP system that either has the appropriate driver or I can download one for, will this software work with the 10000? Thanks!

Butting in here, but thought I'd throw this into the mix.  Especially as an easier alternative to buying an old XP system.

As a firm believer in using legacy programs and devices, or at least being prepared to do so, I had to see what I could find on this.  I am not a techie; I just don't like being told I can't do something.  So, YMMV, and proceed at your own risk.  But in your situation, this is what I would do.

To see if there was a 32-bit driver for the Epson Stylus Pro 10000, I did a search for that term plus the word driver.  The results page gave me this link as the first result:

https://epson.com/Support/Printers/Professional-Imaging-Printers/Epson-Stylus-Pro-Series/Epson-Stylus-Pro-10000---Archival-Ink/s/SPT_C362111ARC (https://epson.com/Support/Printers/Professional-Imaging-Printers/Epson-Stylus-Pro-Series/Epson-Stylus-Pro-10000---Archival-Ink/s/SPT_C362111ARC)

On that page you're given the option to select an OS, with Windows XP 32-bit being the closest option to what I think you're looking for.

A while back, I found a web page on Microsoft that answers some questions about using older programs, devices, etc. on Windows 10.  I just checked, that page is still up, so I'd guess that MS doesn't actually object to it.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/how-to-install-devices-software-from-older-windows/c19bee9c-431f-46e2-85f1-6ab90304d278 (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/how-to-install-devices-software-from-older-windows/c19bee9c-431f-46e2-85f1-6ab90304d278)

Note the part about "Compatibility Mode".  Especially since this driver is an .exe, which may cause Microsoft's hair to catch on fire.

VirusTotal reports the driver file is clean.

Good luck.

Thank you JustGeorge. That is most interesting. And, it actually makes sense. I did not know that. However, that said, still no worky. Not sure what the problem is. I followed the instructions to the letter, multiple times. What is interesting is when I plug the USB from the printer into my computer, it acts like it's working. I get a 'found USB Printer' messaged and 'installing USB Printer'. After a few seconds I get the message that 'USB Printer is not ready'. Looking in the device menu reveals the USB Printer is there as a device. But, not on the Printer list. Trying to print there reveals it is not in my pull-downs.

I think the mess up is that when I download that driver from epson, it goes to the Download folder. Going to that folder, the file is zipped. Running the troubleshooter on that works and it unzips, starting the setup.exe. When that finishes running, I get the popup window saying 'Error 0 occurred'. I tried continuing on, but nothing changes with the printer availability. So, I deleted all the files, including the download, and started over. Running the troubleshooter unzips the program, and during that process I unchecked the 'run the setup program automatically' option. I then go to the folder where the unzipped files are and run the troubleshooter on the setup program. But, nothing happens. I've tried plugging in the printer at various points in the above process, starting over every time. Nothing. Either I'm doing something wrong, or it just won't work for this application. And, I agree, it should. There should be no reason why not.

At the bottom of that second document you list there is something else to try. I haven't gone there because I don't have the disks and can't find that file.

Sigh. I'm taking a break and will try again.

Thank you again for your help. I thought that was going to do it, for sure!
Vance

The only thing you didn't mention was right clicking on that setup exe and setting compatibility mode to Windows XP.  You can also try right clicking on it and choosing "Run as Administrator".  It may do that automatically but I'm not sure how Windows UAC differs on XP.

Mike

Mike's points highlighting compatibility mode and running the install as admin are really important.

A few more thoughts:  I just checked, compatibility mode offers two for Win XP, SP 2 & 3.  Try both.  And I'm foolhardy enough that if neither worked, I'd try Windows 8.1 (8.0 might work, but I doubt it; last resort).

On that MS page, another suggestion is to clear the print spooler.  More often than not, and unless you have something important pending, a good step before the next attempt to install the Epson driver.  I think QU might have a button for that, I haven't really looked into it yet.  I've used the following instructions for a few years; it does require use of either a command prompt or running PowerShell, as an admin.  Here's the condensed, basic instructions.  Once opened, type in the following lines, pressing Enter after each line.

   net stop spooler

   DEL /F /S /Q %systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*

   net start spooler

One last consideration:  routine uninstalling in Windows is not always totally effective.  About a year ago, when I uninstalled the Canon XPS driver to go all in on the standard Canon driver, I used an uninstaller program.  I've used a couple over the years, Hi-Bit Uninstaller is my current favorite.  It's available as a portable app; if you're not familiar or comfortable with those, just run the installer version.  I think the portable version is only available direct from Hi-Bit, the installer is downloadable from MajorGeeks.com.  This cleans out lots of other leftover stuff from an installation that might cause issues with a re-install.  There's a short video tutorial at MG.  Something simpler, but just as effective, is Geek Uninstaller, completely portable, also at MG.

And it might be a good idea to make sure you have a really current System Restore point, not just a recent one from the Windows schedule.

Once again, good luck.

Thank you JustGeroge. I just saw your last post as I didn't realize there was a 2nd page to my post. sigh.

Well, I bucked up and picked up an old laptop and put a new copy of XP on it. Works great. For now. Turns out XP isn't supported by Microsoft anymore, so in 30 days XP will cease to cooperate because it hasn't been activated. There's supposed to be a couple of workarounds for that, but I haven't looked or tried them, yet. Anyway, I've managed to get drivers onto the laptop and it talks to the printer now. Yay. Now I need a program to make the printer do stuff. My docs are mostly .jpg, so I need a program to print those. My wife will be printing her family tree stuff in poster format, which will likely just be pdf's. Without looking, can I be sure that QU will print anything I throw at it? All based on an old XP laptop? I'll be transferring files via a USB stick because this old laptop is not permitted on the network.

OK, I haven't given up on getting my main computer to talk to the beast, but at least it's no longer a deal undoer.

Thanks again for all y'alls help.
Vance

Hi Vance, just Fred again with a morsel. Qimage does not consider .pdf files as photo quality and therefore does not include them in the list of printable formats. Perhaps your wife can use one of the accepted file types.
PS You are aware that QU has a poster mode too.
Fred