Promlem with Epson USB printers and Windows 7 on ONLY ONE of my PCs.  They work fine on the other.
Problem with Epson USB printers and Windows 7 – Need printer, USB, Windows-7 expertise! Prediction: This is a USB problem. Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit Epson CX-4800 or Epson CX-7400 – problem is identical on both Problem summary: I have 2 seemingly identical Windows-7 / Epson printer pairs. One pair worked great. The other pair is SLOW. When I print a Test Page, it takes 10 seconds to see “Test Page sent”. It then takes another 40 seconds until the Epson “progress” window appears and printing begins. IMPORTANT OBSERVATIONS: I actually have TWO Windows 7 64-bit PCs and TWO CX-7400 printers (and ONE CX-4800 printer) Call the players: Ken’s (Bad) PC (HP Pavillion – brand new) and Ken’s printer (CX-7400) Don’s (Good) PC (Desktop) and Don’s printer (CX-7400) Don’s PC prints to EITHER printer fine – no delay – boom! Ken’s PC prints to NEITHER printer correctly. Both have these same nasty delays. Note: As a test, I hooked up a CX-4800 – Epson’s predecessor to the CX-7400. It acted exactly the same (SLOW) as the CX-7400 on Ken’s PC. Windows-7 and Epson printers: When one first attaches an Epson printer to a Windows-7 PC, software gets installed and the printer works FAST – but envelopes print misaligned. This is the case for BOTH the CX-7400 and the CX-4800. However, the printer installed is the Epson ESC/P-N (NOT the CX-7400 or CX-4800). If you then right-click on the ESC/P-N and choose Printing Preferences, you see a button that reads “Upgrade to latest version.” If you click on that driver and software updates occur. The printer changes to CX-7400 from ESC/P-N. Now envelopes work correctly but it is VERY, VERY SLOW. Note: This is the behavior on Ken’s (Bad) PC. Don’s (Good) PC does NOT have these issues. Don’s PC behaves correctly. I have compared LINE-BY-LINE-BY-LINE all printer properties and settings between Don’s PC and Ken’s PC. They are IDENTICAL. Same options. Same drivers. We have tried different cables. USB comparisons (quite different): Don’s (Good) PC shows this: Universal Serial Bus Controller Standard enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller Standard Open HCB USB Host Controller USB Root Hub USB Root Hub USB Virtualization USB Virtualization Connection Driver Ken’s (Bad) PC shows this: Generic USB Hub Generic USB Hub Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset family Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset family USB Composite Device USB Composite Device USB Mass Storage Device USB Printing Support (interesting) USB Root Hub USB Root Hub
April 14th, 2010 12:33am

I suggest you do the following steps on the problematic computer. Step 1======Start Windows Explorer, and then rename all files and folders in the following two folders: c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86 To rename a file, we can right click the file and select Rename. Step 2 ======1. Click Start, type REGEDIT in the Start Search Bar, and then press ENTER.2. Navigate to and then click the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environment\Windows NT x86 View the list of subkeys. There should be only the following subkeys: Drivers Print Processors If there are any keys other than those listed above, follow these steps: a. On the File menu, click Export. b. In the File Name box, type a descriptive name for this key -- for example, type WindowsNTx86regkey -- and then click Save to save it to your local Desktop. We can use this backup of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environment\Windows NT x86 registry key to restore the key if you experience any problems after you complete this procedure. c. Delete all keys other than Drivers and Print Processors. Step 3======Navigate to and click the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors registry key. View the list of subkeys. There should be only the following subkeys: BJ Language Monitor Local PortMicrosoft Document Imaging Writer MonitorMicrosoft Shared Fax MonitorStandard TCP/IP PortUSB MonitorWSD Port If there are any keys other than those listed in above, follow these steps to delete them: a. On the File menu, click Export. b. In the File Name box, type a descriptive name for this key -- for example, type Monitorsregkey -- and then click Save to save it to your local Desktop. We can use this backup of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors registry key to restore the key if you experience any problems after you complete this procedure. c. Delete all keys other than the 5 listed above. Step 4. Disconnect the printer cable from the computer, and then restart the computer. Step 5. Reconnect the printer cable to the computer, install the printer according to the manufacturer's installation instructions, and then check if the issue persists. Hope it helps.Arthur Xie - MSFT
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April 14th, 2010 11:11am

Hello Cardinal24, Might it be as simple as the Printer's USB cable is NFG? Try using Don's usb printer cable on Ken's computer, to see if it is the cable that is the problem. That's my 2c williamdinbc
April 19th, 2010 3:05am

I had similar issue with an Epson Artisan 810 that was networked. Also in Epson Printing Preferences the ink levels didn't work and the "Maintence" tab's "Option and Information" button was disabled - and so auto-duplex was not enabled. I use win7-64, and in my case on the *same* computer I tested by swapping boot drives and booted a fresh copy of win7 and installed the Epson software. It worked perfectly, whereas booting from my real harddrive produced considerable waits anytime a program was accessing the printer settings for the Epson printer, and again waits before printing started. I tried everything - deleting EPSON registry keys, uninstalling, re-installing, re-installing with "have disk" method, adding the printer's IP address to the Hosts file, etc. I finally did 2 things that ended up making it work. I'm not sure which of the two things helped: 1. Delete all the files/folders in C:\Windows\Prefetch\* . 2. Delete all the the entire EPSON folder located in C:\Windows\ProgramData . 3. Reboot . Cheers, Evan
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April 30th, 2010 9:34am

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