EPSON Stylus r300 and Windows XP SP2 Problems

I have a Epson Stylus R300 Photo Printer I use for work. I installed Windows XP SP2 and now every time I print pictures (using microsoft picture and Fax Viewer), they come out DARK. WAAAAAY darker than they are supposed to. I uninstalled the Service Pack, and BINGO! The printer started printing again. I also have a laptop (XP Professional SP2), and I installed SP2 on it, and when I print from my laptop over the network, (using microsoft picture and Fax Viewer)it also gets the same DARK picture result. Does anybody know how to contact Microsoft for this BUG in XP SP2, or EPSON to make them aware of it for that matter. Or does anybody have a resolution for this problem that I am not aware of?

 

SP 2 is causing many problems for users. If you are not having any security issues using SP 1 then stay with it. Just because Microsoft says to install SP 2 is not a good reason to do it. At least wait several months until the bugs are worked out. The only so called improvements is with some security issues. But the other problems it is causing isn't worth the risk. Hope this helps you with your SP 2 situation. Good luck.

Jerry

 

I have the darkness problem with my R300 and I rang Epson Technical Support.
They know all about the incompatability with SP2 and agree that you cannot print via Windows.
They recommend that you use Epson Photoquicker after setting up the Printing Preferences.
Get this up, click on Advanced, click continue, at top RHS, select ICM and tick No Colour Adjustment and then OK.
Now you can use Epson PhotoQuicker or some non-microsoft programme.
Its a shame we have to do this but maybe MS will give us an update to fix it. In the meantime, the above is the only way to use the printer.
I have tried it and it works.

 

A new driver for the r300 is now available at epsons web site. The link is version 5.5a http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/...ype=FAQ&oid=26322&prodoid=37368458&foid=51142

Thanks for everyone's help.

 

Thank you dbbanner, not quite what Epson Technical Support told me, and they did not mention the new driver.Typical.
At the end of the day, all is cured by selecting ICM, unless this brings with it any undiscovered snags.
I was not going to un-install SP2 for anyone.

 

i tried to update with that driver and now the only time it will print is right after i log on...got all kind of crazy errors when trying to remover the old drivers..i wish some other printer maker would put out a decent cd printer..i would throw this boat anchor epson into the nearest river..

 

I had the same problem after I tried to install the new driver. My printer will not print until I restart the computer, when it reboots it prints everything that is in the queue. I also cannot remove the driver and installing the previous driver does not work correctly either. I triedn deleting the driver directly from the windoes directory and re-installing but no dice. Has anyone else been able to successfully got out of this loop?

Thanks!

 

Going to add/remove program was not working. It gives an error (cannot load xxx library or something). The same error that you get when you run th euninstall from the start/program list.

But - I did finally get it removed and reloaded. I went to this folder and deleted the files after making a backup of them "C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\w32x86\3". After restarting I re-installed the new driver for the R300 that is on the Epson site. Then I reloaded the drivers from the backup into the folder above saying "NO" to overwritting the files. I then rebooted, then presto it worked. Easy as cake...

 

Dealing with this problem can be a real bundle of fun. I have found that if you simply download the 5.5a driver it sets itself up in a different folder to the original folder. I did not attempt to delete any of the original Epson files and ended up with two printer icons one for Epson R300 and one for Epson R310. By printing from the R310 icon I get perfect results - just like those I had before I installed XP SP2.

 

i just got an epson r300 as my first photo printer, and i'm having the same problem with superdark prints. i tried uninstalling SP2, but the prints are still dark. everyone else seems to have all problems solved after uninstalling sp2...any suggestions?
thanks

 

Yes, select ICM as given on my earlier post. This cured it for me without messing with the drivers or uninstalling SP2.

 

thanks suko - i thought i had tried that first, but i must have clicked the other setting instead, so assumed it was sp2...real technical wizard. anyway, the picture looks MUCH better. on a related note, does anybody know of any "color profiles for dummies" type sites out there? because i really don't know much about digital imaging.
thanks

 

I decided to try to improve matters because if you select ICM as I was told to do, other advanced preferences such as changing the colour blend are not available.

Referring to tonyb99's post, I downloaded the new driver from the Epson UK website and when I installed it, I was asked to choose between R300 and R310.
I chose R310 and completed the installation.
If I now try to print using R310, nothing happens. I can still print as before using R300, as I did not try to uninstall that driver.
Any suggestions of what to do next ?

 

Suko - did you change the printer port setting to USB when you installed the R310 driver? It defaults to LPT1 on set up and will not work without manually changing the port setting. I have advised others to go through the routine that I described and they report successful results.

 

Yes, you are correct, it is on LPT1 due to my ignorance. Is there anything that I can do to rectify the port ?

 

Suko - Go to Settings - Printers and Faxes - Right Click R310 Icon - Left Click Properties - Left Click Ports - Check USB Virtual Port - Apply & Save
BINGO - It should Work - Good Luck!

 

Thanks a lot, it does work. I get a colour print which looks exactly the same as the R300 ICM setting. There are shortcomings ,ie no ink levels and no window showing progress during printing and allowing you to stop printing. I can get these using the R300 ICM setting.
So now I have more choices, and can adjust the colour balance if I wish.