[hart]

I'm using an Epson Photo 780 in OSX 10.2.5. The printer's USB cable is plugged into a USB hub, not connected directly to the computer.

I just hooked this printer up after giving up on my Photo 750. I can usually print fine, although i have to go to the Print Center to start jobs usually.

What I can't do is use the Epson Print utility. I keep getting a "communication error has occurred" message. Obviously the printer is correctly hooked up as it can print so now what?

I was thinking I needed to remove stuff from the previous printer, the 750 but I'm not sure what to remove. Honestly, I'm not completely clear on what is what in terms of printers in OSX. I tried reinstalling the driver downloaded from Epson's website and I restarted both computer and printer.

Where does the Printer Utility come from? Is it part of the driver download? I can't find it as a seperate download.

This is annoying because I can't clean the heads. Any suggestions?

Julia

[hart]

I kept experimenting and also went to apple discussions for a look.

I repaired permissions although i don't know if that did anything.

Anyway, if I click on "retry" in the "communications error" window, sometimes more than once, it seems that eventually I get through and am able to use the Printer Utility. This was a suggestion from someone with similar problem over at Apple discussions. Problems with Epson Print utility seem to be fairly common.

julia

[aaanorton]

Plug it directly into the computer's USB port and see if it works then. Is it a powered hub?