eStudio 25s Driver odd behaviour

[tjollimore]

I'd posted earlier on finding the 'direct' network board for this, but of all the people saying I'd find a $100 part, the only ones I can find cost ~$400. A bit too much money to put into this thing. Sooo, a Celeron 566 desktop and a Windows 2000 later...

I have Windows 2000 set up on the desktop with the eStudio plugged in through the LPT port. Since the workstations using this are all Vista (mostly x64 Business) I ran into a LOT of grief with the .exe only driver version Toshiba provides. Vista will NOT let you choose a port other than LPT or USB for the local install, and will NEED an .inf file to install any other way. When I try the network driver install direct to the share, I got errors. I tried a 'Net Use' redirect for LPT1 which worked for some stations, but Vista keeps disconnecting the port when it's not used. No way to automatically reconnect.

So I installed the LPR service in Win2k and the LPR Port Monitor on the Vista PCs. I set up the LPR port address with a generic HP driver, then switch to the Toshiba driver. Most workstations worked right away with this, so it looks like a success. There's one station that refuses to print at ALL, but I think that's a user-induced issue. The one that boggles me is the supervisor's notebook with Vista Home Premium 32-bit. This one had connected IMMEDIATELY without fighting when I first installed the driver, but has refused to print since those first tests. What it does now is the printer shows up as 'Ready', but as soon as I send a document to it it shows 'Offline' (although the notebook locally shows it as online).

Any ideas? I've tried turning off the firewall with no effect, and it's driver load was identical to the stations that work. It has to have something to do with that damned 'C2' driver wanting communication, but I can't figure out what the difference is that's causing the issues.

Help?

[copytechman]

Is this a base estudio 25 or does it have a ga1031 "advanced" print controller installed internally as well... it makes a LARGE difference to how well it can print on a network believe me.

Regards!
A.

[monbat]

How workstations are on the network that are printing using the LPR port? I believe the limit is ten otherwise you can have problems. Also is this a server/client network with a domain or just a peer-to-peer with a Workgroup? If a domain did you join the Win2k desktop to the domain?

[TheOwl]

Monbat is right in saying that you can only create 10 concurrent connections to your Win 2K box at a time. This is a limitation of Windows products other than the Server range of Windows products.

If you are connected to the device through a Parallel cable, then you will need to share the printer out and then to install the printer at the other end, will have to install it as a network printer.

I think that you will run into issues with a Win 2K box running as the print server and Vista machines (especially the x64 boxes) if you aren't running the GA-1031 as there are no GDI print drivers for Vista.

If you are running the GA-1031, then make sure that you are using the PCL driver as there is XP / 2003 / Vista support for x64 machines.

You might be better off trying to run XP on your print server so that the drivers will all match up.

[blaineV]

I had a similar situation using GDI printing, and the mini driver for vista worked when installing as a network printer, might want to give it a shot.