Another Visit to Computer H___

This morning I did my usual routine with my computer. I scanned some papers that I had received. Then I did an incremental backup to my new external drive. Then I decided I would print the picture that my sales associate sent me yesterday afternoon. The ink levels were below 5 percent in my Epson PictureMate. I have had this little 4X6 photo printer since November, 2004, and never had a problem with it. The printer struggled to load the paper. Finally the paper fed in and it ejected the paper without doing any printing. I tried again. This time it printed less than 1/4 inch and ejected the paper. I made a third try and it printed a few black garbage characters.

 

I decided it was time to put in a new print cartridge. I did this. I tried again to print using the Film Factory software which I always use. The same thing happened. I decided to clean the print nozzles. I got the manual and followed the procedure. When it was finished, I printed the nozzle pattern. It looked good. I loaded Film Factory again and had the same problem.

 

At this point I copied the photo I was trying to print to a Sony memory stick. The printer can print directly from a memory card without being attached to a computer. Much to my surprise the photo printed perfectly.

 

I then decided the problem was with my computer. I tried a brand new USB cable and switched to a different USB port on the computer. I loaded Film Factory and had the same trouble. I thought the printer driver might be corrupted. I uninstalled the driver and went to the Epson support website and downloaded the latest driver for my printer and installed it. I tried Film Factory again. I had the same problem.

 

Then I uninstalled Film Factory. I reinstalled it from the original CD that came with the printer. I loaded Film Factory again and had the same problem. At this point I ran out of ideas of what to try.

 

My HP Scanjet uses the same USB ports as the printer and worked fine this morning. The only change I have made to my computer since I last used the PictureMate printer was yesterday when I installed the backup software for the new Seagate disk drive. I find it hard to believe that this harmed the printer setup.

 

I sent Epson Technical Support an email. I am sure I will get back some inane reply that will make my blood boil.

 

After I emailed Epson I checked for new email. My nice sales associate was kind enough to send me two more pictures. I copied them to the memory stick and printed them. Thank goodness I can still print pictures that way. I will upload the pictures to Smugmug so I can put them in the blog. She sent a front and side view. The structure is beginning to look like my house.

 

I have an old version of PhotoShop Elements. I am going to try and print from it and see what happens.

This is an addition: Now I have tried to print using PhotoShop Elements. It behaved the same way as Film Factory. I think I can rule out a mechanical problem with the printer since it can print from a memory card. There must be some type of communication problem going to the printer. Now I am completely out of ideas.