Cyos

Well, the infinite crap machine that is Vista has struck again - now I can't install my printer drivers. At all. Even the special "Vista compatible" drivers from Epson's Vista page don't work. And Windows' excuse? "A problem caused the program to stop working", after which it politely notifies me that "printing may not be possible". Gee, you think?

The thing was, it was working before. Then I got a shiny new Raptor 10K hard drive for Xmas, requiring me to reinstall Vista (which was hard enough to do - I loathe Vista in every way). Now, the disk that came with my printer, which has worked, not once, not twice, but thrice in the past, now utterly fails at installing drivers. It tells me to connect my printer and turn it on. I do this... and nothing happens. Ever. Seriously, I waited half an hour.

So I ran the program again, this time with the printer already hooked up, turned on, and ready to go. It told me to connect it and turn it on!!!

So I go over to Epson's website, download the so-called vista drivers... and they do the same thing, this time with the added message that "A problem caused the program to stop working". It tells me, via a very obtrusive popup, that the install has failed - it tried twice, and still couldn't get it done.

I go back to the formerly faithful disk, and now, it behaves the same as the download - telling me to hook up and turn on the already hooked up and turned on printer, with the added message about how it failed, becuase something-or-other couldn't be done at this time. Which is every time.

I've tried a few more times, after rebooting, changing USB ports, et cetera. Now it just makes up new excuses as to why this formerly simple task is now impossible. "The program has stopped working". "One of the installers for this device cannot perform the required function at this time". "Drivers were not installed".

So what on earth do I do? What could cause a formerly good printer to just go kaput in a flurry of error messages?

I'm desperate here - thanks in advance for any help.

__________________
Mobo: ASUS P5N SLI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
RAM: 2 GB Corsair Dominator 1066 MHz
HDD: Raptor 150GB + Seagate 320GB SATA
GFX: EVGA 8800 GTS 640 MB
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit w/ SP1

patrickv

downgrade your PC, trust me it will save you dimes and nickles

__________________
Laptop: Thinkpad X60: Core2Duo T7200 @ 2Ghz,1GB DDR2,110GB SATA -winXP ProSP2
Work Desktop: Core Duo E2180 @ 2Ghz,1.5GB DDR2,240GB HD - XP PRO SP2
Home: Core Duo E2180 2Ghz,1.5GB DDR2,Nvidia GForce 6200TB,320 GB (2x160GB) -Dual boot - XP / OSX 10.5.2

Cyos

Can a PC with Vista really be downgraded even further?

Anyway, in your opinion, is it really worth it to go buy a new copy of XP ($150 or so)? I mean, I have another PC, and I can just bring my files there via USB for printing, so is "upgrading" to XP worth the time and money?

__________________
Mobo: ASUS P5N SLI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
RAM: 2 GB Corsair Dominator 1066 MHz
HDD: Raptor 150GB + Seagate 320GB SATA
GFX: EVGA 8800 GTS 640 MB
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit w/ SP1

addy999

i think company did not make drivers for vista plateform so you could install xp instead vista if you want prinitng.
on the other hand if you have two pcs then you can share ur expson printer from xp client via lan for printing.....

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Riders Of The Storm ~~~