Epson Color Stylus 600 driver for XP

[Paperboy]

I'm using my old Epson Color Stylus 600 printer on an upgraded Windows XP system. Epson doesn't have an XP driver for the 600, but XP installed a resident driver that allows the printer to work. The resident driver, though, doesn't allow the print manager window and ink status monitor to work.

Does anyone know of any workarounds that might restore these features? I've read on one Web site that Epson's Color Stylus 600 driver for Windows NT 4.0 will work in XP and restore full functionality. Anyone heard this? Would I run any risks if I tried it?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

[Potato Salad]

well you wouldnt be running any risks but if the driver didnt work all youd have to go is go to the device manager and rollback you the driver to the previou son that worked.
NVM DONT LISTEN TO THIS POST. NT 4 driver wouldnt work need to find an XP driver or use the current one you have.

[Potato Salad]

Well im srry to say ur kinda outta luck.http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supAdvice.jsp?cookies=no&noteoid=17766
If you go to this link you will find that windows XP has built in drivers for your printer. Scroll down past the ones who's names are links ur printer is about 15 down from teh start of teh ink-jet printers colum.

[Potato Salad]

If you read that thread about the NT.4 and already downloaded adn installed it then rightclick my computer select properties]go to hardware and select device manager]find your printer right click and select properties] go to drivers and hit rollback] that will put your printer on the driver you started with

[Potato Salad]

I hope these posts helped sum what but its to bad i couldnt find any better drivers for xp seems that all your epsons drivers stop at win.98

[NooNoo]

I'm using my old Epson Color Stylus 600 printer on an upgraded Windows XP system. Epson doesn't have an XP driver for the 600, but XP installed a resident driver that allows the printer to work. The resident driver, though, doesn't allow the print manager window and ink status monitor to work.

Does anyone know of any workarounds that might restore these features? I've read on one Web site that Epson's Color Stylus 600 driver for Windows NT 4.0 will work in XP and restore full functionality. Anyone heard this? Would I run any risks if I tried it?

Thanks in advance for any responses.
right click, save as on this (ftp://ftp.epson.com/drivers/SC6112E.EXE)

It's the nt driver... now as to risks. Set a restore point and you should be able to go back to the restore point with no harm done. XP will tell you that the driver is not certified and not intended for XP - choose continue to ignore this message. I have installed nt drivers on xp without any harm in the past.

[Paperboy]

I hope these posts helped sum what but its to bad i couldnt find any better drivers for xp seems that all your epsons drivers stop at win.98
Thanks for trying to help. I appreciate the effort.

[Paperboy]

right click, save as on this (ftp://ftp.epson.com/drivers/SC6112E.EXE)

It's the nt driver... now as to risks. Set a restore point and you should be able to go back to the restore point with no harm done. XP will tell you that the driver is not certified and not intended for XP - choose continue to ignore this message. I have installed nt drivers on xp without any harm in the past.
Thanks for the link, NooNoo. Do you have any idea if the NT 4.0 driver really will restore the printer's lost features?

[NooNoo]

No I don't... epsons now use something called status monitor version 3. On my parents stylus 680 it's a separate download... whether that would pick up the 600 I don't know.

Put it this way - you have nothing to lose (unless of course you don't ever back up!)
Frankly I hate the status monitor - sucks resources all the time to tell me I have x amount of ink left - if the ink runs out, I can work that out from the state of the print. :)

[Paperboy]

No I don't... epsons now use something called status monitor version 3. On my parents stylus 680 it's a separate download... whether that would pick up the 600 I don't know.

Put it this way - you have nothing to lose (unless of course you don't ever back up!)
Frankly I hate the status monitor - sucks resources all the time to tell me I have x amount of ink left - if the ink runs out, I can work that out from the state of the print. :)
I just got a reply from Epson support about the NT driver. It's pretty much what I expected, but I thought it was worth a try.

"The Windows NT platform is different than the Windows 2000 and Windows XP
platform so the driver itself may not even install on your computer. You
can surely give it a try though we do not recommend it or do we guarantee
it to work."

Actually, I'm not too concerned about the ink monitor, either. I'd like to have the pop-up print manager window back, though, simply because you could use it to abort a print job in progress. I'm new to XP, though. Is there some other way in XP to easily abort a print job in progress?

[NooNoo]

yes very easy... when you send a print job down by the clock in the area techs call the "systray" an tiny printer icon will show up. You can double click this to open up the printer dialogue (you may even right click it for certain functions I think). If you have a hard time finding it or the icon is too damn small, make a shortcut by doing this:

Start, printers and faxes right click on your printer icon - create short cut. You will get an error message about not being able to create it there and would you like it on the desktop instead. Click Yes and you then have a shortcut on your desktop you can open (and see).

[Paperboy]

yes very easy... when you send a print job down by the clock in the area techs call the "systray" an tiny printer icon will show up. You can double click this to open up the printer dialogue (you may even right click it for certain functions I think). If you have a hard time finding it or the icon is too damn small, make a shortcut by doing this:

Start, printers and faxes right click on your printer icon - create short cut. You will get an error message about not being able to create it there and would you like it on the desktop instead. Click Yes and you then have a shortcut on your desktop you can open (and see).
I'll try what you've outlined when I get home later. If the systray thing works -- and I'm sure it will -- I'll probably forget about the NT driver and just ditch the ink monitor.

The dinosaur Epson printer is connected through a parellel port to a dinosaur HP scanner, and honestly I never expected either of them to work after I upgraded to XP. They're both still functioning just fine, though, so I'm kind of reluctant to upset the apple cart any more than I have to.

At any rate, thanks very much for all your kind help and advice.

[NooNoo]

My pleasure.

[Mags]

Ooh, I've got an Epson Color Stylus 600 :) printer too! Had it for years and it still works well .. if the black or colour cartridges start going down, my printer flashes and yes the little printer icon works fine.

[Paperboy]

yes very easy... when you send a print job down by the clock in the area techs call the "systray" an tiny printer icon will show up. You can double click this to open up the printer dialogue (you may even right click it for certain functions I think). If you have a hard time finding it or the icon is too damn small, make a shortcut by doing this:

Start, printers and faxes right click on your printer icon - create short cut. You will get an error message about not being able to create it there and would you like it on the desktop instead. Click Yes and you then have a shortcut on your desktop you can open (and see).
Just as you said, the printer icon was in the systray and gave me access to the printer dialogue, which allowed me to abort a job. Thanks again for the help.

[NooNoo]

Anytime!

[TechZ]

While helping a Guest in chat, I came across this page and also this MS KB that says XP has drivers for the following printers:

Epson Stylus COLOR 600 ESC/P 2

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=293378

also it seems the Epson 620 drivers work with the Epson 600.

[ralfsmith]

Can you provide me more information on this matter?

[NooNoo]

What more information do you need?

[tgell]

I did a lot of searching for this problem and came up with a solution that might help. The Epson 640 drivers for windows 2000 will let you print at 1440 dpi. When installing, XP will give a warning message but it worked for me. Also, I downloaded a utility from http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml that lets me check the black and color ink levels in the 600. It also lets me clean either the black or color cartridges and can also reset the ink counters. Best to read the documentation.