Printing on a PC

[aussie_geek]

hey all,

Todays task involved getting an Epson Photo 810 printer to print using the office Toshiba laptop running Windoze. All I wanted to do was print an image off a floppy disk to the new printer. Being a Mac user I openend the image in and just clicked print expecting the printer to come to life and print the medical image that I had loaded (it was just a gif).

This is where I fell down!! The laptop running Windoze expee did not recognise the printer and would not print!! I had my Powerbook at work so I figured that I should d/l the latest driver and install it on the Pcee laptop. I burnt the driver to disk an shoved it into the Pcee and clicked the .exe expecting it to be done but no - nothing happened. I did this a few times without luck and finally got fed up with it.

We needed this image to be printed so I thought - hey the Powerbook can do it - just give me a CDR and 5 minutes and it will be done. I then recieved numerous comments including' that won't work - its a Mac' and - 'have you got the latest drivers - you need the latest drivers' my reply was just watch and see.

So, i burnt the image to cd, whacked it into the Powerbook and shoved the USB cable into the port . I opened the image in preview and clicked print. The printer came to life and delivered the image. To everyones amazement i held up the image and said 'done - and who says Macs are useless?'

There was complete silence. Nobody could acknowledge that the process was completed in such a short time so easily.

So, there you have it. The Apple Macintosh wins the day again.

aussie_geek (feeling really good about his Powerbook )

 

[PowerMacMan]

That is soo touching

Go Mac, GO!

 

[7on]

Ahhhh, and here's me getting ready for a lengthy reply on how to print from a Mac to a PC (which I do consistently).

 

[Oirectine]

That's awesome! We need more stories like this.

 

[aussie_geek]

good stuff!!

Good to see there are other Mac users that can relate to this. I have always been an advocate of the Macintosh and was always telling people of the advantages of a Macintosh system. I have pretty much given up on that approach because you get into arguments that lead no where and it always ends up with the clock speed and megahertz myth .

Thanks to my new purchase of a Powerbook G4, I can now SHOW them what i'm talking about, not just talk about it!!

aussie_geek

 

[Apple //e]

hey all,

Todays task involved getting an Epson Photo 810 printer to print using the office Toshiba laptop running Windoze. All I wanted to do was print an image off a floppy disk to the new printer. Being a Mac user I openend the image in and just clicked print expecting the printer to come to life and print the medical image that I had loaded (it was just a gif).

This is where I fell down!! The laptop running Windoze expee did not recognise the printer and would not print!! I had my Powerbook at work so I figured that I should d/l the latest driver and install it on the Pcee laptop. I burnt the driver to disk an shoved it into the Pcee and clicked the .exe expecting it to be done but no - nothing happened. I did this a few times without luck and finally got fed up with it.

We needed this image to be printed so I thought - hey the Powerbook can do it - just give me a CDR and 5 minutes and it will be done. I then recieved numerous comments including' that won't work - its a Mac' and - 'have you got the latest drivers - you need the latest drivers' my reply was just watch and see.

So, i burnt the image to cd, whacked it into the Powerbook and shoved the USB cable into the port . I opened the image in preview and clicked print. The printer came to life and delivered the image. To everyones amazement i held up the image and said 'done - and who says Macs are useless?'

There was complete silence. Nobody could acknowledge that the process was completed in such a short time so easily.

So, there you have it. The Apple Macintosh wins the day again.

aussie_geek (feeling really good about his Powerbook )

just curious, why didnt you download the driver from the pc and run it from there?

how could "nothing happen" with an .exe file?

 

[7on]

just curious, why didnt you download the driver from the pc and run it from there?

how could "nothing happen" with an .exe file?

It probably installed but XP didn't add the printer to the list of printers. Sometimes that happens.

 

[GeorgeTheMonkey]

Heh, darn misconception-alized people need to actually try a Mac before saying it only does media work.

Actually, today I plugged a new Epson 2400 scanner in to my PowerMac, in the anticipation of scanning a few things. Was looking at the scanner's packaging, instructions and such -- and then ten seconds later, decided reading the directions was stupid. So I tossed the book, tossed the two installation CDs that came with it, and just plugged it in.

And whatdoya know? It worked. Had I tried to even attempt installing the scanner on the icky WinXP box upstairs (really should shoot that thing, I should), it would have required sticking in both CDs, carefully reading the directions so I did things in the right order, downloading and installing the latest drivers, rebooting, then coaxing XP to like it.

Instead, I just stared at my PowerMac and thought to myself, what a bloody brilliant machine that is.

 

[aussie_geek]

just curious, why didnt you download the driver from the pc and run it from there?

Good question - simple answer.

The PCee is just used for wordprocessing and image printing and has not got a connection to the internet. It does have a modem but we have not got a dialup isp. The remainder of the computers in the department are Unix boxes on a local network connected to a Agfa Drystar 2000 printer.

The reason why we were doing this is to see if the image quality of the Photo inkjet printer is as good as the Drystar as we want to cut some costs with colour printing. The Drystar prints in DICOM format from images spooled from the Unix boxes. So what we are doing is saving them as gif's and transferring them to the PCee for printing.

aussie_geek

 

[Celeron]

Not to be mean or anything, but it sounds to me like you obviously have no idea what you're doing when it comes to PCs. You guys are praising you Macs and their instant ability to work with all sorts of stuff and as if WindowsXP is this being hunk of crap that never works. Sadly, you're all wrong. I have numerous devices that I can plug into WindowsXP and it works no problem, namely a couple Intel Webcams and an HP960C printer. Plugging them into OS X does nothing, I get no webcam and OS X doesn't have the drivers for the 960c.

Lay off XP, it does a lot of things a whole ton better than OS X ever could.

 

[jxyama]

Sadly, you're all wrong.

well, obviously, you are wrong, because for the orig. poster, whatever the case that may be, the printer just worked on OS X but not on XP. so that takes at least one person out of "all of you."

this is a Mac forum. majority of people here are biased to Macs. if you don't like to read patronizing posts about Macs or negatively biased point of view about windows/PCs, perhaps you are in the wrong place. obviously, that's not all there is to MR, but i do find it rather odd to see poster like you who seem compelled to "correct" anti-PC/windows point of view here, especially when many here are fairly knowledgeable about PC/windows. it's usually a matter of bias. biases are not about being "right" or "wrong." if it was absolutely right or wrong, it wouldn't be a bias.

other people's biased point of view is no more wrong than your biased point of view.

i don't think it adds much to the point of anything and i don't think it's "pro-PC/windows bashing." if you were at boston red sox fan site, you will encounter many people who think nomar is the best SS. if you were a Yankees fan, are you going to go there and "correct" those biased people? going to a red sox fan site, what did you expect in the first place?

 

[aussie_geek]

Not to be mean or anything, but it sounds to me like you obviously have no idea what you're doing when it comes to PCs.

No I don't. It was the first time had used Xpee in a long time. I wanted to print an image quickly.

You guys are praising you Macs and their instant ability to work with all sorts of stuff and as if WindowsXP is this being hunk of crap that never works.

For this task (connecting a printer) the Wintel machine failed so I resorted to Mac to get the job done. That's all.

I have numerous devices that I can plug into WindowsXP and it works no problem, namely a couple Intel Webcams and an HP960C printer.

All I wanted to do was hook up an Epson Printer - nothing else.

aussie_geek

 

[7on]

Not to be mean or anything, but it sounds to me like you obviously have no idea what you're doing when it comes to PCs.

You shouldn't have to "know," it should just work ;P

You guys are praising you Macs and their instant ability to work with all sorts of stuff and as if WindowsXP is this being hunk of crap that never works. Sadly, you're all wrong. I have numerous devices that I can plug into WindowsXP and it works no problem, namely a couple Intel Webcams and an HP960C printer. Plugging them into OS X does nothing, I get no webcam and OS X doesn't have the drivers for the 960c.

Lay off XP, it does a lot of things a whole ton better than OS X ever could.

Yeah webcam support is subpar on the Mac, which is why Apple released their own webcam. Oh well, the IOexperts generally keep webcam drivers in check so it's not that bad.

Oh and about the 960c (note I know it's a 970c in the picture but the driver is called 900 series which means it'll work for all 9xx printers).

 

[Capt Underpants]

Not to be mean or anything, but it sounds to me like you obviously have no idea what you're doing when it comes to PCs. You guys are praising you Macs and their instant ability to work with all sorts of stuff and as if WindowsXP is this being hunk of crap that never works. Sadly, you're all wrong. I have numerous devices that I can plug into WindowsXP and it works no problem, namely a couple Intel Webcams and an HP960C printer. Plugging them into OS X does nothing, I get no webcam and OS X doesn't have the drivers for the 960c.

Lay off XP, it does a lot of things a whole ton better than OS X ever could.

Um... when I plugged my 960C into my powerbook (for the first time), it was recognized and was able to print instantly.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Yada yada yada PC's suck. Mac's rule. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Ugh. Where to start. First and foremost when did that printer come out? If it was after XP then DUH. Of course OS X is going to recognize it esp if you are running Panther that came out only 9 month ago. Its all about included drivers. Which Windows does a DAMN good job at supporting. But keep in mind that their driver cache can only be so large when you consider that Windows is held on one CD. MS makes some decisions about what goes on that CD and trust me on this its getting dang tight right now. I've installed drivers out of the box for devices that are more then 10 years of age. Hell XP found our reel to reel tape reader which is freaking NUTS! Don't blame MS for not providing support for a device that probably wasn't out when XP was released. Looking at the driver date for this device it appears it was 10.something.01 the same month Xp was released.
I will be impressed the day any OS can bundle drivers from 2 years in the future. I can’t wait to see Apple submit a patent for IP over temporal rifts.
Second did you even BOTHER to read the instructions that were onscreen?
Specifically:

This Self-extracting file contains the Epson Stylus Photo 820 Printer Driver Disk v5.3bA with Built-in Status Monitor for Windows XP. This new driver supports up to 5760 dpi X 720 dpi optimized resolution on various papers in Photo RPM mode. It also has a new and improved user interface. Please refer to the "Printer Basics.pdf" file on the documentation page for further information.

Translation you need to extract the file then install the prog from there. In most cases the prog has an auto install feature after extraction but I’m not all that familiar with Epson so *shrugs* The only problem I see is that you plugged in the printer and Windows detected an unknown device. Instead of clicking cancel you clicked next next next and let the install complete leaving that unknown device installed so when you went back after installing the device driver it didn’t find any new devices because you already installed it….incorrectly might I add. In this case there’s a high probably it was user error not WINDOWS error (Amazing how people are unable to spell a simple word like windows.) Look I’m not going to blow smoke up your butt and call it a cool summer breeze. Windows CAN be a pain in the ***. But it can be manageable with a bit of conscious effort and some know how and amazingly enough there are people who seem to deal with Windows difficulties adequately.
I was talking to a Canon rep yesterday and he was telling me that he had to call a Mac pro in to install and configure the drivers for a new Cannon printer/faxes/copier for and office he was at last week. He had no idea how to install and setup the drivers. So don’t tell me that Macs are so easy anyone can use them out of the box. Mac users claim this because its what they know. Ditto with Windows users. Its all about what you know.

Wait? *looks around* Sorry. My bad. I didn’t realize that this was a self congratulatory thread. Sorry. Continue. *holds up a little flag and a foam finger that says GO APPLE.*

 

[GeorgeTheMonkey]

Not to be mean or anything, but it sounds to me like you obviously have no idea what you're doing when it comes to PCs.

Arrgh, unfortunately I know all too well. I served as an unwilling tech support for PCs for far too long (and yes, I did have to go through said lengthy process for installing my Epson scanner on the XP machine), until I bought my Mac a year ago -- and now my answer for support requests is to throw Windows out the window and buy a Mac.

 

[SiliconAddict]

PS-

I get to go in at 10AM tomorrow to work on trying to fix an authentication issue with our Primary Domain Controller and backup domain controller that does not, for some reason, want to authenticate any newly created users on the domain so believe me I have NO love lost for MS or Windows. If I ever met Bill Gates, I **** you not, I would break the little bastards nose. Windows is an OS. It sure as HELL isn’t gods gift to the world which I get the impression Gates and Co think it is.
I can accept Windows. I can work with it. But all be danged it I’m going to convince myself it’s the best OS on the planet. BULL$*@#!!

 

[aussie_geek]

Ok I didn't read the instructions

Ugh. Where to start....

Ok, I do admit I didn't read the instructions. Here was the scenario. I am a technologist in a busy x-ray practice. We are looking at getting a low cost inkjet printer to replace an expensive medical colour printer. One of the Physicians brought their old Toshiba laptop into work with the epson printer. We had no drivers. My Powerbook was online at the time so I tried to download them. I started the download and attended to some patients. I returned to my desk , the download was completed. Burt the driver to cd and loaded it into the Tosh. Double clicked it and files were extracted somewhere and thought that was it. Tried to print - nothing happened. Loaded gif into Powerbook. Plugged in printer. Pressed print and image was printed. Made announcement that "macs are not useless" to create some workplace humor, elicited some smirks and chuckles that lightened up the day. Looked at image an compared it to another copy printed by Drystar 2000. Realised that the image from the epson was as good as the Drystar. Now considering using the epson as is more cost effective than Drystar. Total time for all of this to happen about 10 minutes. After printing, continued to take images of sick people.

aussie_geek

 

[davest21]

drystar driver

aussie where did u get the drystar 2000 driver can u give me a link
or email me


THNKS
Dave

 

[Dane D.]

aussie_geekhey all,
Todays task involved getting an Epson Photo 810 printer to print using the office Toshiba laptop running Windoze....

Man, I wish I was there when that happened. But your story will now serve as added fodder for all non-believers of the Mac. I know the feeling of wanting to get a print out fast. I my line of work (graphic arts) the client is clueless. If I had to rely on PCs then I wouldn't have a job. None of our printing press vendors wants a PC made file. They either don't RIP or take too long to RIP, bad for them. As for printing, PCs aren't to friendly to old printers (HP 6MP), no driver support and for my wide format EPSON, the instruction manual is thick thanks to the PC section.