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Printing with Windows

Using the Printer Utilities

Status Monitor 3
Nozzle Check
Head Cleaning
Print Head Alignment
Printer and Option Information
Speed & Progress
Monitoring Preferences

EPSON printer utilities allow you to check the current printer status and to perform some printer maintenance from your computer screen. For Windows 95, 98 and NT 4.0, utilities to check the current printer status are also available.

To use the utilities, click the Utility tab in the printer software window, then click the button for the utility you wish to use. For information on how to access the printer software, see Accessing the printer software.

Note:

The letter in parentheses after the utility name indicates the shortcut key for that utility. Press Alt and the letter on the keyboard to open that utility.

Do not use the Nozzle Check, Head Cleaning, and Print Head Alignment utilities with printers connected to your computer through a network.

Do not use the Nozzle Check, Head Cleaning, and Print Head Alignment utilities while printing is in progress; otherwise, your printout may be marred.

Status Monitor 3

Status Monitor 3 provides you with printer status information, such as the amount of ink remaining, and checks for printer errors.

This utility is only available both of the following conditions are met:

The printer is connected directly to the host computer via the parallel port or the USB port.

Your system is configured to support bidirectional communication.

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Nozzle Check

The Nozzle Check utility checks the print head nozzles for clogging. Check the nozzles if you notice print quality has declined and after cleaning to confirm that the print head nozzles have been cleared. If the nozzle check indicates the print head needs cleaning, you can access the Head Cleaning utility directly from the Nozzle Check utility. See Checking the Print Head Nozzles.

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Head Cleaning

The Head Cleaning utility cleans the print head. You may need to clean the print head when you notice print quality has declined. Use the Nozzle Check utility first to confirm that the print head needs to be cleaned. You can access the Nozzle Check utility directly from the Head Cleaning utility. See Cleaning the Print Head.

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Print Head Alignment

The Print Head Alignment utility aligns the print head. Use this utility if you notice a misalignment of vertical lines. Follow the on-screen instructions to use this utility.

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Printer and Option Information

This utility allows the printer driver to confirm printer configuration information. It also provides specific information regarding certain characteristics of the printer, such as the Printer ID.

Depending on the configuration of your system, the information displayed in the Printer and Option Information dialog box may be updated automatically, or may need to be entered manually.

If a message appears in the Current Settings window prompting you to enter settings, or if you change the printer configuration, follow the steps below to make the necessary settings manually.

Click the Settings Sheet button in the Printer and Option Information dialog box to print out information about your printer and options. This requires that A4 or Letter size paper is loaded in your printer. You will see a printout similar to the one below.

Make sure the settings in the utility match the information on the printed Settings Sheet. If they do not match, correct the settings on the screen to match the information on the settings sheet.

Click OK to exit this menu and save your settings.

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Speed & Progress

You can make settings related to print speed and progress in this dialog box.

The available settings are as follows.

High Speed Copies

To print multiple copies of your document faster, select High Speed Copies.

Show Progress Meter

To monitor the progress of your print job, select Show Progress Meter.

EPSON Printer Port (For Windows 95 and 98 only)

To speed up the data transfer rate to EPSON printers, select EPSON Printer Port.

If your computer supports ECP mode, enable DMA transfer to speed up printing.

For more details, see Using Speed & Progress.

Note:

You cannot make this setting if your printer is connected via the USB port.

Always Spool Raw Datatype (For Windows NT only)

Select this check box to have Windows NT-based clients spool documents using the RAW format instead of the EMF (metafile) format (Windows NT-based applications use the EMF format by default).

Try using this option if documents spooled in EMF format do not print correctly.

Spooling RAW datatype requires less resources than EMF, so some of problems ("Insufficient Memory/Disk Space to Print", "Slow print speed", etc.) can be solved by selecting the "Always spool RAW datatype" check box.

When spooling RAW datatype, print progress as displayed by the Progress Meter may differ from actual print progress.

Monitoring Preferences

Click this button to open the Monitoring Preferences dialog box where you can make settings for EPSON Status Monitor 3. The settings are described in detail in the next section.

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Monitoring Preferences

When you click the Monitoring Preferences button, the following dialog box appears.

You can make the following settings:

Select Notification

Displays the current error item notification settings.

Select the appropriate check boxes to specify the error types for which you wish to receive notification.

Select Shortcut Icon

Select the Shortcut Icon check box to have a shortcut icon placed in your Windows taskbar. Clicking the shortcut icon in the taskbar will open EPSON Status Monitor 3. To select which icon will be displayed, click the icon your prefer from the choices given; your selection will be shown at the right.

Allow monitoring of shared printers

When this check box is selected, a shared printer can be monitored by other PCs.

Note:

Click the Default button to revert all Select Notification settings to their defaults.

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