Epson printer problems: follow-up info

Regarding the continuing reports of problems with the Epson Color Stylus 600 and 800:

a. Leland Ho had a problem with his Performa 6400 sometimes not recognizing his Epson Color Stylus 800, occasionally leading to a system crash. With the help of Epson Tech Support, he found that the Mac should be turned on and allowed to complete its startup sequence before turning on the printer. "According to Epson, if the printer is turned on first, then when the Mac is turned on, it sends a signal through the printer port to see if something is connected. The printer thinks this signal is information to be printed. However, upon receiving the signal it results in the paper jam light going on and the Epson (EX) print driver becomes corrupted. If I try to restart my CPU it locks up because of the corrupted print driver." He now keeps a spare copy of the driver handy, as a replacement for the next time his active copy gets corrupted.

b. Otherwise, don't forget to check this previous item (scroll down a bit to find it) for the most common work-around for the problem of the Chooser not recognizing the printer.

c. Similarly, don't forget to check Epson's FAQ file for the printer (again, as previously mentioned here on May 7). Alan Mitchell did and discovered the following tidbit that solved his problem: "If you must use Background printing, your system must have a minimum of 6MB of unused RAM that can be dedicated to the EPSON Monitor2 and your operating system. If you are using Background printing, go to the EPSON Monitor2, go to File and select Get Info. Change the Minimum amount setting to 2000 and the Preferred amount setting to 3000, then close the EPSON Monitor2."