<b>Epson Stylus Color 800: network printing problems

a. Ernest Payne writes that "all attempts to set a zone using the Epson Zoner 1.2 software that ships with the Ethernet interface for his Epson Color Stylus 800 result in freezing the Mac." Epson tech support told him: "The Epson Zoner is not compatible with system 7.5.2 or above. No update is currently available." One technical support person said that the software will not be fixed to work with that printer.

b. Thomas Maler claims there is a bug when printing at 1440dpi from Performa 6360 to Stylus Color 800 on a LocalTalk network. "When the document (3.5Mb Photoshop file) is 28%-31% finished spooling, the printing stops and the network seems busy, the printer seems busy (green light flashes), but nothing happens. The same document printed from Power Mac 7300/200 on the same network prints fine."

Update: Thomas traced this to the 54xx-64xx L2 Cache Reset extension. When he disabled it, the problem disappeared.

c. Tom Cody did get the 800 to print out his 3Mb Photoshop file over a LocalTalk network, but it took over 25 minutes at 720dpi. Printing a similar file from a PC took only a few minutes. He further writes: "Even after it prints, I must reset the printer to print another sheet because the Print command says the printer is being used by another user."

See a previous item for more on the 600/800 printers. By the way, Epson plans to release a new six-color inkjet printer; MacWEEK has the story.