Older Printer Drivers for Newer Printers on Mac

[Freehold Fred]

My Dad has a iMac G4 with both 9.2 and 10.1. His Epson 740 bit the dust this week.

My brother picked up an Epson CX6000, but the min requirements are 10.2.8 and of course it is USB 2.0. The Mac is 1.1.

1) Is making this printer work on this machine a lost cause?
2) Is there a way to get the drivers to work in 9 or 10.1?
3) Isn't going from 10.1 to 10.2 an entirely different o/s and not a simple upgrade? If he already had 10.2.6, the 10.2.8 would be simple.
4) I have a CX62 that does have drivers for 9, but not sure if the ink cartridges are working last time I tried

Suggestions

[Tortanick]

I thought you may be able to use the CUPS drivers instead but OSX only started useing CUPS at 10.2 so no chance of that.

However if you mean an Epson stylus CX6000 it apparently dose work with CUPS, but the Linux Printing Database gives only a minimal amount of details, nowhere near enough to manually add the driver so that probably wouldn't have worked either.

[kelly]

Mac OS-X, 10.1 is pretty old. The present OS (Tiger) is 10.4 the next OS will be coming out in the fall, code name Leopard and will 10.5.

10.1.X is a different OS than 10.2.X. Like going from Win 95 to Win 98. You have to buy the OS, or the upgrade.

Do you really need to print from OS-9? If not, just update to the present 10.4 also know as Tiger, $129.

Something to consider if you need to print from OS-9, but only rarely: Use the free PrintToPDF printer for OS-9. It'll make a pdf that you can then print in OS-X.

[mylanta]

There should be a 2.0 usb card for mac just like there is for Windows pc's.

[kelly]

Don't worry about USB 2 on the printer and 1.1 on the Mac. USB 2 is backwards compatible. The printer will just print at USB 1 speed.

[Seth]

Don't worry about USB 2 on the printer and 1.1 on the Mac. USB 2 is backwards compatible. The printer will just print at USB 1 speed.

Good point.

And considering the actual print speed is extremely slower than even USB 1.1, I can't see how it would make any difference.

[Freehold Fred]

Just to bring closure:

I upgraded the Mac to 10.4, installed the Epson 6000 printer and all is well.

My Dad's apps, Appleworks and Printshop are really 9 apps, so he boots in 10 and in accessing them the Mac loads vestiges of 9 as well (REAL COOL, MS). Printing from these 9 apps in 10 works, but the print GUI varies from app to app.


My Dad, at 94, even figured out how to print envelopes on his new printer. There is hope for me, but I will have to wait a bit to see.

[mylanta]

Wow that's incredible Fred....every printer is different too.

[mylanta]

Wow that's incredible Fred....every printer is different too.

[Guest117]

Rich, when you're 'WOW'd', you're wow'd twice as much.:D

[Freehold Fred]

Let me tell you, when we are all near our life's journey end, we should all give thanks to the personal computer age we live in. While we all get frustrated now and then with this or that not working, my Dad looks at it as challenge, something to do to keep busy. Where he lives, he tells me, there are very few people he can talk to that have their 'marbles' and can talk back.

Fred

[mylanta]

OOPs!!!

[Terry Hanushek]

R

Two Wows and an Oops ... that certainly pumps up the old post count :D

:focus:

T