Problems with my printer

[popcorn]

It's that time of the year again, Financial year end, Audits & Tax.
I was so looking forward to getting back into photography and catching up with the forum.
But, last week Mr Gates decided it was time to improve my computer experience and upgraded my Windows.
I am not sure what happened but my computer will not communicate with my printer.

I print using an Epson Stylus Photo R3000. Two years ago the Marrut, my photograhic consumable supplier persuaded me to convert from a network connection to usb cable. Today I decided to tidy up my study and reroute the cable. Same computer, same port, same cable and samr printer, same Windows 10 and same Elements 2018 with Elements+ as an Add-on..

I setup my first print and pressed the print button, at first there was a deathly silence  followed bt a drop down window with the message "The saved printer information is not compatible with this version of Photoshop Elements, or the saved printer is no longer avaialble. You need to chech your printer settings before printing" My only optionwas an OK button. O pressed OK and continued to set up the print, but when I came to press "Print", another message appeared,  a White cross on a red circle background and the words "because the default printer could not be opened"

I tried a printer test age which printed perfectly, "You havw=e correctly installed your Epson Stylus Photo R3000". I did a nozzle test whhich was perfect and printed a word document. The computer is communicating with the printer but not through Elements.

I have tried to get help from Epson but get a robot who continues to ask the the same irrelevant questions.
Can anyone offer me a solution. I am terrified of un-installing Elements and re-installing, I have add-ons and actions. It will be a nightmare. I am not sure what will happen to my organizer.
Maybe some setting somehwere in Elements but I can't find it.

 

[Tpgettys]

It sounds like you have done all the right experiments, confirming that you can print from another program.

In Elements, when you press Ctrl-P the Print dialog should show up.   In the Select Printer drop-down at the top-right, is your printer in the list?

Here is what I see:

[Sepiana]

Aug 18, 2022 20:54:31 GMT popcorn said:

"The saved printer information is not compatible with this version of Photoshop Elements, or the saved printer is no longer avaialble. You need to chech your printer settings before printing" 

The computer is communicating with the printer but not through Elements.

Hi popcorn,

This issue (same error message, printer not working through Elements) has been reported on Adobe Support Community - Photoshop Elements. Their suggestion was to delete/restore the Elements Preferences file. The feedback received was "problem solved".

See if it will work for you.

Go to Edit>Preferences>General. Click on the "Reset Preferences on next launch" button. Ignore the "This cannot be undone." warning and click OK. Close Elements and then start it again.

[VickiD]

popcorn, after trying Sepiana's solution (which I really hope works!)...if you still can't print from Elements, try downloading a new installation file for your printer. I know it all worked before the update, but sometimes, a new installation can give the hardware a kick in the pants and make it look around again for compatable devices. It's a thought and you wouldn't have to uninstall your Elements.

[popcorn]

Hi TP
Here is the screebn shot.
It shows 3 versions of the printer, my original Network link (Epson R3000 (Network ), which I used for some time. My printing material supplier< Marrut UK, persuaded me to convert to USB cable which is Epson Stylus Photo R3000 Copy 1 ). I am not sure what the plain
Epson Stylus Photo R3000 is.


I will try your suggestion first and if it does not work will progress to Vicki's solution.
Vicki I am have no idea where to find a new installation file nor how to apply it. I would appreciate your giving me "blow by blow" instructions.

Thank you all once again for your prompt replies.

[popcorn]

Hi again TP, Sepiana and Vicki,

Success!!!
I used your method Sepiana, and within minutes I had my first print.
I will probably have to reset my properties for all three versions but such a pleasure.
That sinking feeling in tour stomach when you can't get something to work.
At least 6 hours spent yesterday, pouring through manuals, speaking to robots ( AI has a long way to go before it replaces humans )
Desperation sets in.
I know that the majority of the forum will still be in the beds ( 7 hour time difference between South Africa and most of the US) so I have to wait for the US to catch up and contact you at a decent time.). By that time I am in bed myself!
Within 4 minutes I have a reply and withi an hour Sepiana's reply, and it worked !!!
Thank you all again. One of my lucky days when I discovered this forum.
I add the photo I wanted to print. It is off my grandson, taken about 10 years ago, but they are in Cape Town on holiday and I wanted to give it to them before the left.

[BuckSkin]

Aug 19, 2022 10:10:50 GMT popcorn said:

speaking to robots ( AI has a long way to go before it replaces humans )

Glad you got your printer situation resolved.

I can sympathize with your frustrations dealing with those phone receptionist robots; however, they are accomplishing exactly what the companies who employ them meant for them to = people giving up in frustration and hanging up instead of actually ever talking to a human.

If you do finally get a human, it is doubtful they will be any more knowledgeable about the product than the robot and they will put you through a whole string of generic trouble-shooting instructions that they are reading from the list they were provided.

We just have to face reality = the last place one is going to find help is from the "manufacturer" (who is simply a marketer and probably had no hand whatsoever in the manufacturing process).

[VickiD]

popcorn...I'm so happy you were able to resolve your problem with Sepiana's solution! I, too, am amazed at all the knowledge gathered here, which is why I joined. I found a long time ago that, for the most part, photographers are the most helpful and friendly people around! This forum just bears witness to that.

[Sepiana]

Aug 19, 2022 10:10:50 GMT popcorn said:

Aug 18, 2022 22:15:45 GMT Sepiana said:

This issue (same error message, printer not working through Elements) has been reported on Adobe Support Community - Photoshop Elements. Their suggestion was to delete/restore the Elements Preferences file. The feedback received was "problem solved".

Success!!!
I used your method Sepiana, and within minutes I had my first print.
I will probably have to reset my properties for all three versions but such a pleasure.

popcorn,

Pleased to hear "Success!!!". Credit shared with the Adobe Support experts; they had the solution.

As a side note, . . .

The Preferences file is where Elements keeps track of your preferred settings. When you delete this file, Elements will automatically generate a replacement file. The only downside is that the replacement file will have the settings back to the default. This means that you will have to redo any changes you made. For example, if you have rearranged the panels, you will have to do it again because they will be back to their original (default) positions.

[Tpgettys]

Aug 19, 2022 10:10:50 GMT popcorn said:

Hi again TP, Sepiana and Vicki,

Success!!!

I'm very pleased to hear that popcorn.  I know all too well that sinking feeling and hope to never have it again!  I'm glad our team could help.

[popcorn]

This is really not my day!
I finished a post and decided to add a "snip" of an error message and lost the lot.

My evening started when I wanted re-calibrate my monitor using my Spyder. Halfway throught it gave the error "CallibrateG.iterateWP=GetWhitepointLUT retuned error =1461" The Spyder automatic error system failed and told me to contact an expert on the support web site.
After my last experience, I have a severe case of Robophobia!!.
Eventually sorted it out by rebooting multiple times. I don't know what I did right? hope it works next time.

Then I tried to open Organizer in my Elements 2018, the program loaded, displayed a blank screen and and a message that it was downloading.
Then it closed down and reverted to my original Explorer folder. I tried the same technique that had worked for Spyder, but noluck.
I have tried every way I can think of to access the program through a different path, always with same blank screen.
Any ideas?

[BuckSkin]

Aug 24, 2022 21:54:38 GMT popcorn said:

This is really not my day!
I finished a post and decided to add a "snip" of an error message and lost the lot.

My evening started when I wanted re-calibrate my monitor using my Spyder. Halfway throught it gave the error "CallibrateG.iterateWP=GetWhitepointLUT retuned error =1461" The Spyder automatic error system failed and told me to contact an expert on the support web site.
After my last experience, I have a severe case of Robophobia!!.
Eventually sorted it out by rebooting multiple times. I don't know what I did right? hope it works next time.

Then I tried to open Organizer in my Elements 2018, the program loaded, displayed a blank screen and and a message that it was downloading.
Then it closed down and reverted to my original Explorer folder. I tried the same technique that had worked for Spyder, but noluck.
I have tried every way I can think of to access the program through a different path, always with same blank screen.
Any ideas?

First question: Does the machine have Solid State Drive (SSD) or a mechanical Hard Disc Drive (HDD) ?

It has been my experience that when all manner of seemingly unrelated silly things start happening, the SSD is on the verge of crashing.

Don't run out and replace the SSD on my say so; but, research the situation and decide for yourself.

A dead giveaway is when you attempt to open "High Horsepower" programs and either they begin to open and freeze, or they open but won't perform many of their tasks.

Just in case it is imminent SSD failure, it would be a good idea to use Macrium Reflect and create a backup of the system drive to be restored to the new SSD/HDD.

My own experience with SSD have about convinced me to quit replacing with SSD and go with HDD; they might not be hardly so snappy, but are a lot more reliable.

Again, don't run out and replace the SSD on my say so.

[Andy]

Which version of Spyder are you using? I have an older one (I think a Spyder 4) and the driver hasn't been updated in some time. It continues to work for me, but no guarantees for how long.

I would suggest posting the PSE issue separately on the PSE Organizer board. It will get more visibility from our PSE experts there.

[Andy]

Aug 24, 2022 23:33:16 GMT BuckSkin said:

It has been my experience that when all manner of seemingly unrelated silly things start happening, the SSD is on the verge of crashing.

Most SSD vendors provide tools to use with their drives that will allow you to view the health of the drive. I know this is available for Crucial and Samsung drives. That would be my first step in determining if there is an issue with an SSD. SSDs do have a fixed lifespan, but they are very reliable and I would take one over an HD for reliability (in addition to the remarkable speed improvement).