I have an Epson c88. When printing from and XP-home machine, I get the
Epson Status Monitor popping up with the Epson Status Window and a
"Communication Error" displayed... check your connections, blah, blah,
blah. The printing always completes normally - but it always displays
this error.
The printer is hanging off a win2003 server, LPT1. The client printing
is XP-home with wireless networking. The client hooks up using
\\servername\printerName. Oddly, the printer show up in the control
panel -> properties as being on LPT1 - this seems odd. There is never
any status info displayed (e.g. color levels) in the control panel.
The problem does not occur on my other win2K clients on the network.
The strange thing is that this used to work just fine. (No, no idea
what caused the issue, the client has been rebuilt more than once and
no software tracking is possible). I've deleted the printer from the
client, the server, added it back, etc, no changes.
- Bob - wrote:
> I have an Epson c88. When printing from and XP-home machine, I get the
> Epson Status Monitor popping up with the Epson Status Window and a
> "Communication Error" displayed... check your connections, blah, blah,
> blah. The printing always completes normally - but it always displays
> this error.
>
> The printer is hanging off a win2003 server, LPT1. The client printing
> is XP-home with wireless networking. The client hooks up using
> \\servername\printerName. Oddly, the printer show up in the control
> panel -> properties as being on LPT1 - this seems odd. There is never
> any status info displayed (e.g. color levels) in the control panel.
> The problem does not occur on my other win2K clients on the network.
>
> The strange thing is that this used to work just fine. (No, no idea
> what caused the issue, the client has been rebuilt more than once and
> no software tracking is possible). I've deleted the printer from the
> client, the server, added it back, etc, no changes.
>
When you did that did you also manually clean the registry form any
traces of the printer driver and then reboot? That is for both the
Server and the Client.
> Ideas ? Any known issues or fixes ?
>
> Thanks
>
"measekite" <inkystinky@oem.com> wrote in message
news:H79Vh.6919$5e2.736@newssvr11.news.prodigy.net ...
>
>
> - Bob - wrote:
>> I have an Epson c88. When printing from and XP-home machine, I get the
>> Epson Status Monitor popping up with the Epson Status Window and a
>> "Communication Error" displayed... check your connections, blah, blah,
>> blah. The printing always completes normally - but it always displays
>> this error.
>> The printer is hanging off a win2003 server, LPT1. The client printing
>> is XP-home with wireless networking. The client hooks up using
>> \\servername\printerName. Oddly, the printer show up in the control
>> panel -> properties as being on LPT1 - this seems odd. There is never
>> any status info displayed (e.g. color levels) in the control panel.
>> The problem does not occur on my other win2K clients on the network.
>>
>> The strange thing is that this used to work just fine. (No, no idea
>> what caused the issue, the client has been rebuilt more than once and
>> no software tracking is possible). I've deleted the printer from the
>> client, the server, added it back, etc, no changes.
>
> When you did that did you also manually clean the registry form any traces
> of the printer driver and then reboot? That is for both the Server and
> the Client.
>> Ideas ? Any known issues or fixes ?
>> Thanks
>>
I've come across this situation with a C84 for two different reasons. The
first was when a cartridge was not placed back in its compartment to allow
all the wires to connect with the cartridge chip correctly and then second
was when one of the wires dangling from the print head compartment got
knackered to the point that I needed to use a thin bladed knife to readjust
it it so it would make contact with the chip on the cartridge.
On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 19:22:15 GMT, measekite <inkystinky@oem.com>
wrote:
>>
>
>When you did that did you also manually clean the registry form any
>traces of the printer driver and then reboot? That is for both the
>Server and the Client.
>I've come across this situation with a C84 for two different reasons. The
>first was when a cartridge was not placed back in its compartment to allow
>all the wires to connect with the cartridge chip correctly and then second
>was when one of the wires dangling from the print head compartment got
>knackered to the point that I needed to use a thin bladed knife to readjust
>it it so it would make contact with the chip on the cartridge.
The server does not seem to have any issues communicating... just the
client (reliably). Seems like they would both have problems if it was
a mechanical issue.
Epson Status Monitor Communication Error Work-around
I found a work-around, if not an actual solution, to a similar problem. I have an Epson CX5800F all-in-one (printer/scanner/fax) which talks to my computer via USB (direct connection - no hub). My O/S is Windows XP Home Edition, SP2. For about a year, the printer worked flawlessly under this configuration. Then one day I went to print a document and nothing happened. I could see my document in the spooler. The status read "Printing". There were no error messages. But the printer's status panel showed only the current time, as though it wasn't receiving any data (which it wasn't) and the Epson Status Monitor never appeared.
Looking at the Print Preferences panel, I noticed that the ink levels were not showing. After much experimentation and hair-pulling, I found that my PC could talk to the printer if I rebooted it - for about two minutes. If I displayed the Status Monitor immediately after a reboot, with my printer on, it would show the ink levels, the printer status showed "Ready" and everything looked normal for about 1 to 2 minutes. Then suddenly, without me doing anything to either the PC or the printer, the ink levels would disappear and the printer status would change to "Searching". A moment later, the Status Monitor reported a Communication Error. This was consistently repeatable, every time.
The scanner still worked, so there was nothing wrong with the USB port or the cable. A buddy of mine happens to own the same model all-in-one, so I borrowed his and plugged it into my PC. The same thing happened, which proved that it wasn't the printer either.
The problem is with Epson's Status Monitor. It seems to have trouble receiving the printer's status information and ink levels for some reason. This causes the driver to refuse to talk to the printer. Since it worked fine for the longest time, I assume that something got corrupted - probably in the registry. Of course, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, along with the Status Monitor. This did not fix the problem, which really ****ed me off, because it should have done so. I even tried manually searching for and deleting all references to both the CX5800F and "Epson" (since the all-in-one is the only Epson peripheral that was attached) from the registry using Regedt32 after first uninstalling the drivers and then reinstalling everything, and even that didn't work.
It's worth mentioning here that I sent two e-mails to Epson Support describing my problem in detail, along with everything that I had tried, and they never even bothered answering me. I did receive automatic confirmations that they had received my e-mails, so they don't have the excuse of not having received my request. I couldn't be bothered to phone them because I knew that I would likely wind up talking to some moron with less technical savvy than my own who would be following a standard script and simply tell me to try all the obvious stuff that I'd already tried (check the USB cable, reinstall the software, etc.)
Okay, if you have an Epson printer (any Epson printer that uses the Epson Status Monitor - not necessarily just a CX5800F) and you've read this far, you're probably anxiously hoping for a solution. Well, I'm afraid I don't have one, but I do have a work-around that will at least allow you to print. First, disable the Status Monitor. You can do this by displaying your print preferences, clicking on the Maintenance tab, then clicking on the Speed and Progress button and, finally clicking the Disable Status Monitor checkbox so that it shows a checkmark.
Now, this alone may not solve the problem. I found the above suggestion in several other threads and just doing that alone didn't work for me. Even with the status monitor disabled, my document still wasn't sent to the printer. It's almost like the driver was still trying to get information back from the printer, even with the Status Monitor disabled. So I also turned off bi-directional printing. You can do this by right-clicking your printer in Control Panel, selecting Properties, clicking on the Ports tab and then clicking the Bi-directional Print checkbox so that it is NOT checkmarked. Bi-directional printing is only necessary when you need to receive information from the printer. If you turn it off, you can still send information TO the printer, you just can't get anything back FROM it. Doing this, along with disabling the Status Monitor allowed me to print. Note that turning off bi-directional printing with the Status Monitor enabled will NOT work because then the Status Monitor wants to receive status information from the printer and is unable to do so.
This is a work-around, not a fix. The downside of this is that you won't be able to see your print progress or your ink levels when you print a document. However, in the case of the CX5800F, you can check your ink levels using the printer's LCD status panel. As for the print progress, well, you can sort of tell that by looking at how much of the paper has fed through the printer.
If anyone affiliated with Epson, especially Epson Support, is reading this, GET YOUR ACTS TOGETHER, FOLKS! To start with, put this solution on your support site's knowledge base or FAQ. There are lots of references to this problem all over the web, yet NOTHING on your support site! Better yet, fix the ****ed Status Monitor! And for cryin' out loud, give your customers some decent support! Don't ignore e-mail requesting help! I'm very happy with my CX5800F in general, but this one problem makes it impossible for me to recommend Epson products to anyone else. It's not worth the grief.
Oh, man. I was soo excited when I read your post. I have the Epson CX7000F, and like you have had all the same problems. Unlike you, though, I actually called the "no help" desk and spoke with them for hours over several days. So, they DID send me a brand new printer, just like mine. Because my printer was only a few months old and about the 7th or 8th Epson, I've bought. But, it worked for about 2 days, and is doing the exact same thing. I tried your suggestions and they didn't help me, UGH!!! I wished they had, now I guess I'll have to call Epson back. If you find anything else that works, please post and I'll give it a try. Likewise, if by some one in a million chance, Epson can do something, I'll pass it along.
"mamallama" <mamallama.3bm7gr@no.email.invalid> wrote in message
news:mamallama.3bm7gr@no.email.invalid...
>
> Oh, man. I was soo excited when I read your post. I have the Epson
> CX7000F, and like you have had all the same problems. Unlike you,
> though, I actually called the "no help" desk and spoke with them for
> hours over several days. So, they DID send me a brand new printer, just
> like mine. Because my printer was only a few months old and about the
> 7th or 8th Epson, I've bought. But, it worked for about 2 days, and is
> doing the exact same thing. I tried your suggestions and they didn't
> help me, UGH!!! I wished they had, now I guess I'll have to call Epson
> back. If you find anything else that works, please post and I'll give it
> a try. Likewise, if by some one in a million chance, Epson can do
> something, I'll pass it along.
I've had this message using an Epson through a USB hub.
At startup, the hub doesn't always initiate so the connection to the printer
is not complete.
--
Brian
"Fight like the Devil, die like a gentleman."
"Communication Error" Epson Stylus 
Linear Mode
