Epson 1290 Status Monitor for shared printers (Windows 7)

[brian_mk]

I have an Epson 1290 that still works perfectly. It is connected to a 32 bit windows XP machine via the parallel port. The 32 bit XP Epson printer driver is V5.20.

I wanted to be able to print from a laptop running 64 bit windows 7. There is no windows 7 driver available for that printer (32 or 64 bit) but I discovered that the 64bit XP driver works fine. I can print files, initiate head cleaning, print nozzle test patterns etc.

The only thing I can't get to work is the Epson status monitor 3 on the laptop. It is supposed to allow monitoring of ink levels and status for shared printers over a network. In this case it reports a 'Communication Error' message after a timeout period of several seconds.

File & Printer sharing is enabled on the XP machine and the firewall is configured accordingly. Just to be certain, I tried turning off the firewalls completely on both machines - no difference.

The check box to 'allow monitoring of shared printers' under 'printing preferences->speed & progress->monitoring preferences' is ticked on both machines.

The XP server machine has a service running called E_S00RP2.EXE (visible in Task Manager) which I'm pretty sure is the Epson software responsible for communicating between the local printer and the status monitor(s) on remote client(s).

I contacted Epson support but they have not come back with a solution. I guess they just consider it an unsupported combination.

Does anyone here have a solution or ideas I could try?

 

[websnail]

One thing to try first would be to see if the status monitor will even work if the printer is directly connected to the Win7 x64 machine. If it does then I'm not sure what to suggest to resolve the issue but if it doesn't it will at least indicate if you're wasting time trying to get it working.

Just a thought.

 

[brian_mk]

One thing to try first would be to see if the status monitor will even work if the printer is directly connected to the Win7 x64 machine. If it does then I'm not sure what to suggest to resolve the issue but if it doesn't it will at least indicate if you're wasting time trying to get it working.

Just a thought.

Good idea websnail. Here's what happened...

First I had to connect the printer via USB to the Windows 7 laptop as it has no parallel port.
Windows 7 then automatically installed its own USB driver for the 1290 named 'Epson Photo Stylus 1290 (M)'.
This driver doesn't support all the 1290 functionality.
It does not include the Epson status monitor under the 'Maintenance' tab.
It does, however show ink levels under the 'Main' tab which updates if you click on a 'get ink levels' button.

I then tried adding another 1290 printer on the same USB local port (USB001) but using the XP 64bit driver which I had already installed. It's the same printer, on the same port but has a different name and different driver.
In Control Panel->Devices and Printers, you still get a single local USB printer icon.
When I right click on the icon and select Printing Properties or Printing Preferences, I can now select between the two printers (each with a different driver).
If I choose the XP 64 bit driver, then I get all the 1290 functionality including the Epson status monitor.
The status monitor works as it should and correctly reports the ink levels.

So, the conclusion is that both the XP 64 driver and status monitor work perfectly on 64 bit Windows 7 if the printer is connected to a local USB port.

What doesn't work is the status monitor in the XP 64bit driver when it is connected to a shared printer on a remote 32 bit XP machine.

Incidentally, I tried using Wireshark to look at the network traffic on the 32bit XP server machine when the status monitor on the Windows 7 client is trying to retrieve the information (firewall turned off).
I can see the incoming UDP request packets from the client (source port :53781). They are targeted at destination port: 3259 ('epncdp2' = "Epson Network Common Device..."). There are no outgoing response packets - hence the timeout.

This suggests the problem lies with the service running on the XP machine: Either it is not receiving the incoming status request packets or there is some kind of compatibility issue between the 32 bit and 64 bit software handling the status message protocol. Either way, it is not sending back a reply.

I have also tried it in the other direction i.e. run the status monitor on the XP machine and try and retrieve the status from the USB printer on the Windows 7 machine. I get the same problem - timeout followed by 'Communication Error'.

Epson support has been little help. I just get a reply that says in effect 'not all 1290 printer functionality is available on Windows 7'.

 

[stratman]

What about trying 32 bit drivers on both computers?

 

[brian_mk]

Unfortunately the 32 bit XP driver will not install on a 64 bit machine.

It would be interesting to try a 64bit XP machine (not Windows 7) with a shared printer on a 32bit XP machine. I bet that doesn't work either. Has anyone tried that combination?

I assume it works when using two 32 bit XP machines or two 64 bit XP machines but I don't have the kit to try that.

 

[brian_mk]

Further to my last reply...

Although you can't install a 32bit driver on a 64 bit machine, you can add one using the 'Additional Drivers' option under Printer Properties->Sharing.
However, drivers you add in this way are not actually installed on the local machine. They are copied and installed on a client machine when it first connects to the shared printer (assuming the client did not have an up to date driver already installed).

I tried this by downloading the latest 32 bit XP 1290 driver to the Windows 7 laptop and configuring a local USB printer on that machine for sharing. When I connected to this shared printer from my 32 bit XP machine, it automatically copied and updated the XP driver. The XP driver version is now reported as V5.22/P instead of V5.20 I had originally.

This new driver is used even when I go back to using the printer locally on the XP machine. This behaviour is somewhat annoying - I did not really want to update the local XP driver in case it created new problems.

 

[websnail]

Is it not possible to install the 32 bit drivers in compatibility mode? Not that I've tried but I have a vague memory of it having been done/tried in the past.

 

[brian_mk]

I did try installing the 32bit drivers in compatability mode on the 64bit machine, but I got an error message telling me the installer could not be run.

 

[websnail]

I did try installing the 32bit drivers in compatability mode on the 64bit machine, but I got an error message telling me the installer could not be run.

Yeah... I dug back and realised my memory was bad on this one. There is no way to use 32 bit drivers on a 64 bit native OS. Vista 64 drivers sometimes but not the old XP 32 bit type.

 

[brian_mk]

I'm reviving this old thread as I recently bought a new Windows 10 64bit desktop and am having problems connecting to my old Epson 1290 over a network...

The Epson 1290 is still working fine and is connected to my old 32bit XP desktop. I am trying to configure a networked printer on the new Win 10 PC so that I can print via the XP machine.

So far I have been unable to make it work.

If I connect the 1290 directly to the Win 10 machine via USB, Win 10 automatically installs the 'Epson Photo Stylus 1290 (M)' driver in the same way as it did on my Win 7 laptop. The 1290 works ok with Win 10 when connected as a local USB printer.

If the 1290 is connected to the XP machine and shared, I can see the shared printer in file explorer on the Win 10 machine. However, when I try and add a new printer via control panel, Win 10 cannot find a driver. I can't find a way to get it to use the same Epson Photo Stylus 1290 (M) driver it uses for a local printer.

I tried installing the 64 bit Win XP driver from the Epson website on the Win 10 machine. It installs ok, but the add printer wizard still can't find the driver. (This worked when I originally tried it on my Win 7 Laptop).

Any suggestions?