Earlier I wrote that installing Snow Leopard on my Macs instantly turned my Epson 2200 printer into a very large paperweight. It is completely unusable for quality printing now. Over the past few days I’ve been working to try to find out what is going on, whether there is a work-around, and what Epson recommends to resolve the issue.
I can now report that…
… the printer still doesn’t work and Epson is completely silent on the whole issue.
If you have a 2200 (or any of several other popular Epson printers of similar vintage) it is my recommendation that you should not upgrade to OS 10.6 Snow Leopard until this is sorted out – or you may well lose the use of your printer.
I’ve summarized some additional information about the situation in a comment that I have added to the original post.
FYI:
Stylus Photo 2200 Mac support page is here:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?oid=14402&prodoid=20306147&BV_UseBVCookie=yes&infoType=Downloads&platform=Macintosh&x=16&y=9
It looks like there are 3 updates available for the 2200 on Epson support page (skipping the Snow Leopard prompt). I installed just the driver (top of the list) and I get all the features and more, Roll paper, etc. Seems like a solid update. I will install the other two updates (Easy Print, etc.) next.
Be careful not to choose the Epson Gutenprint driver when you add the printer via System Preferences, or you will get limited features.
Also, it took a few minutes for the Stylus 2200 to show up as available in the Add Printer dialog in OS X 10.6.2.
Good luck!
I too am having this problem. I will go check out the drivers mentioned above.
I want to post something I’ve noticed about Epson support for the 2200. It’s getting harder and harder to find supplies for the printer such as paper and ink cartridges.
1. Is Epson phasing out support for this printer?
2. Does anyone know a source of compatible, archival ink that I can use to refill old cartridges? (I have a box full of empties.)
3. I purchased the PostScript 3 software for this model from Epson and could never get it to work properly. Any advice?
Thanks … I did find it, downloaded it and can now print the basics. However, I cannot figure out how to load the extra features such as borderless printer, roll paper, minimize bargins, etc. Any suggestions?? Is this possible or do I need to wait for Epson to add this feature.
Again, thanks very much for such a quick response.
So, if the driver for the 2200 works and is available, how do I find it? I just checked the Epson website and did not find it on the “Snowleopard” pages. But some of you seem to have it. Can you help
First off, ignore the “snow leopard” pages – they still do not show any driver for the 2200. Instead just go look directly for the 2200 in the support area and find the available downloads for it. The newest driver was at the top of the list as recently as a week ago.
Dan
It is a shame that neither Apple nor Epson has come up with a solution since the release of Snow Leopard. We, consumers expect–as we should that such companies as Apple and Epson would communicate with us and proactively work to solve the problems they cause us. I have lost tremendous amount of time and resources trying to figure out and correct the problems relative to upgrades and incompatibility only to learn, “Oops, we [Apple and Epson] are yet to figure it out.” Such inefficiency should stop!
Kamissa, I share(d) your frustration over this issue, the very long time it took to resolve it, and the lack of communication about it. While Apple doesn’t have a perfect record, in this case it appears that the shortcomings were primarily those of Epson. Aside from not having the updated drivers ready when the new OS was released (and many drivers were, in fact, available), Epson bungled the process. The indicated on their web site that non-working drivers would work. They then simply removed all reference to “Snow Leopard” drivers for a time leaving customers to guess. They never did issue a clear statement about their plans, though apparently help desk people were giving different customers different stories.
The new drivers are now available and they seem to work… but if you go to the “Snow Leopard” pages at Epson’s web site (at least as late as earlier this week) the indication is still that no driver is available to the 2200!
Dan
Dan I have an Epson R2400 that I use to print my photographs and had the same problem when I updated to Snow Leopard. The Epson web site claims they’re working on updated drivers but I’m not holding my breath. The open source Gutenprint drivers for Epson that come with Snow Leopard will work but the print quality is just not the same. I’m sorely tempted to roll back to Leopard on one hand but don’t want the hassle on the other. For now I’m uploading the files for the prints I really need to an online print service.
Wow, I did not realize that the 2400 is affected by this as well. In one way, that makes me a bit more optimistic about the 2200 – it seems less likely that Epson would leave 2400 owners high and dry since that printer is newer than the 2200.
It looks like my temporary solution will probably be to install CS4 on an older non-Intel Mac that I have sitting around and then print from that machine.