Epson 740 Printer Woes

S

Spiral Girl

Registered
Hi,

I have an older Epson 740 printer that works great and used to use it for my older iMac G3. Then my sister started using it with her Powerbook PC G4 (that's a couple years old but running on OSX).

The other day she decided to use our newer printer with her laptop and stuck me with the Epson 740 and I'm on an iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 1 GB. The problem is I can't figure out how to get this printer to work. The CD that comes with it has the circle thing with a line slash through it for the install part. Then I went online to download the driver but it looks like an appleworks type thingy. The apple scripts thing came on and I just couldn't get it to open (have no clue how apple scripts work anyway).

So I figure I'll just transfer the software from my sister's laptop onto this computer but that didn't work either. Any ideas. I read in the new Macworld where someone wanted to get apple works on their new intel Mac from their ibook and Macworld described the version number and said it was possible (can't remember the version number offhand).

Any ideas or am I not able to do this with my intel iMac?

S.
 
Spiral Girl said:
...

The other day she decided to use our newer printer with her laptop and stuck me with the Epson 740 and I'm on an iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 1 GB. The problem is I can't figure out how to get this printer to work. The CD that comes with it has the circle thing with a line slash through it for the install part. ...
Click to expand...
Have you tried to setup the Epson 740 using the Printer Setup Utility? The Epson drivers should have been supplied with your computer. If they are not pre-installed, check the optional installations on your computer's System Restore optical disk.
 
Mister Me,

Thanks for the suggestions. So I go into the printer utility app which looks like what I did yesterday and I look and only see the new printer listed, when I click add I then see the Epson 740 listed with it turned on of course. Then when I try to click add at the bottom of the screen it is faded out and never comes on.

So I have two disks that came with the iMac Mac OS X Install Disk 1 that has instructions to start up from and do a hardware test. The second disk is Mac OS X Install Disk 2 and mentions at the bottom it's part of a hardware bundle purchase. Which one do I want to re-install and will it mess up what is on my machine?

S.
 
Natobasso said:
Looks like they don't offer a Mac OS X driver. I'm surprised it even worked for you in Mac OS X! ...
Click to expand...
MacOS X drivers for Epson printers, including the 740, are provided by Apple with your computer or your copy of MacOS X. They are either preinstalled or provided as an optional install.
 
Natobasso and Mister Me,

Natobasso, thanks for the links and I will check them out as I really would like to get this working with my new intel iMac if possible.

Mister Me, thanks for your reply. What disk do I install? I have two that came with my iMac. Weird I had replied to you but it didn't show up at all. Anyway I did do the printer utility thing and when I go to add printer I see the Epson 740 show up on the right and then there is an Add button below but it stays faded out so I can't add it at all.

I have Mac OS X Install Disk 1 and 2 (1 is the the one to start up from OSX, is that the one I want to install?) If so can I retain my stuff I have on here now. From memory when I did it way back I did a partial install when my computer crashed and did the keep original stuff.

S.
 
Your Epson 740 is very old (worked in OS 7!) and I imagine that apple dropped support for it in Tiger seeing as you can't activate it in Print Center.

That means you're missing the driver. That means that we're back to Epson's driver site because apple's website links back there too in reference to Tiger printer drivers, and there are no Mac OS X drivers on Epson's site. No drivers.

For any hope of installation you'd need an OS X driver and Epson no longer has one. However, your best bet is the cd that came with the printer, which is what I think MisterMe is referring to.

Have you repaired permissions and restarted your Intel Mac machine yet? This might shake things loose and make your printer work:
apps/utilities/disk utility/repair permissions.

Are you connected to your printer via usb?
 
Natobasso,

Thanks for your help. Yes, I did the repair disk permissions and tried the original disk a couple of days ago but the installer apps for it have a white circle and a slash through them so can't access them. Also when I tried to install the driver through the site it wouldn't work.

My sister's Powerbook G4 does have OX9 on it along with OSX and I think that is why it worked for her. Guess I can't get it working with this Mac. I read somewhere about getting OS9 to work on intel so maybe I can look into that option. I do have the original computer disks and could do a reinstall and see if somehow the driver is installed on there?? I just did imigration assistant from my sister's powerbook when I got this iMac and have only ever done a partial install with the original disks.

S.
 
If you can somehow manage to install OS 9 on your machine then epson has the drivers for that on their website. You'd have to print through OS 9, though. Why not just get a new printer for $100-125 and save yourself the hassle?
 
Natobasso,

Thanks for all your help.

Think I'll give the Epson back to my sister since she can use it with her machine and I'll use the newer Lexmark which works fine on my iMac.

S.
 
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