How to / Checking Printer Condition and Maintaing

Checking the Printer Status

For Windows
For Macintosh

For Windows

Using the Progress Meter

When you send a print job to the printer, the Progress Meter will open, as shown in the illustration below.

The Progress Meter indicates the progress of the current print job and provides printer status information when bidirectional communication between the printer and computer is established. This meter also displays helpful tips for better printing and error messages. Refer to the appropriate section below.

Epson Printing Tips

Tips for getting the most out of your EPSON printer software appear in the text box at the bottom of the Progress Meter window. A new tip appears every 30 seconds. For more details on a tip which is currently displayed, click the Details button.

Error messages

If a problem occurs during printing, an error message will appear in the text box at the top of the Progress Meter window. For more detailed information, click Technical Support to access the Technical Support Web Site for help.

When the ink runs low or out, a How to button will appear below the text box. Click How To and EPSON Status Monitor 3 will lead you step-by-step through the cartridge replacement procedure.

Using EPSON Spool Manager

EPSON Spool Manager is similar to Windows Print Manager. If it receives two or more print jobs at one time, it holds them in the order that they were received (with printers on a network this may be called a print queue). When a print job reaches the top of the queue, the EPSON Spool Manager sends the job to the printer. From the Spool Manager, you can view print status information about the print jobs which have been sent to your printer. You can also cancel, pause and resume, or restart selected print jobs.

Note:

EPSON Spool Manager is not available for Windows XP and 2000.

For Windows Me and 98

After you send a print job, an EPSON Stylus Photo 925 button will appear on the taskbar. Click this button to open the EPSON Spool Manager.

Using EPSON Status Monitor 3

EPSON Status Monitor 3 displays detailed information on the printer status.

Note:

Before using EPSON Status Monitor 3, be sure to read its README file. To open this file, click Start, point to Programs and then to EPSON or EPSON Printers, then click EPSON Stylus Photo 925 Readme.

Accessing EPSON Status Monitor 3

There are two ways to access EPSON Status Monitor 3:

Double-click the printer-shaped shortcut icon in the Windows icon tray. For details, see Monitoring Preferences.

Open the printer software, click the Utility tab, then click the EPSON Status Monitor 3 button.

When you access EPSON Status Monitor 3, the following window will appear.

Viewing information in EPSON Status Monitor 3

EPSON Status Monitor 3 provides the following information:

Current Status:
EPSON Status Monitor 3 provides you with detailed printer status information, a graphic display, and status messages. If the ink runs low or out, the How to button will appear in the EPSON Status Monitor 3 window. Clicking How to displays ink cartridge replacement instructions and moves the print head to the ink cartridge replacement position.

Ink Levels:
EPSON Status Monitor 3 provides a graphic display of the amount of ink remaining.

Note:

EPSON Status Monitor 3 provides an estimate of the number of pages that can be printed, based on the amount of ink remaining. For the color ink cartridge, the chamber with the least amount of ink remaining determines the level that is displayed for all of the colors in the cartridge.

Ink Cartridge Information:
You can view information about the installed ink cartridges by clicking the Information icon.

Technical Support:
You can access the Technical Support Web Site from EPSON Status Monitor 3. If you encounter a problem, click Technical Support in the EPSON Status Monitor 3 window.

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For Macintosh

Using EPSON StatusMonitor

EPSON StatusMonitor monitors the printer. If it detects a printer error, it will inform you with an error message.

When the ink runs low or out, a How to button will appear. Click How to and EPSON StatusMonitor will lead you step-by-step through the ink cartridge replacement procedure.

You can also use this utility to check ink levels before printing. When open, EPSON StatusMonitor displays the amount of ink remaining at the time it was opened. To update the ink level information, click the Update button.

Accessing EPSON StatusMonitor

Follow the steps below to access EPSON StatusMonitor.

Click Print or Page Setup on the File menu of your application. The Print dialog box will open.

Click the StatusMonitor icon button or click the Utility icon button and then the EPSON StatusMonitor button in the Utility dialog box. The StatusMonitor dialog box will open.

Using the Configuration Settings dialog box

To change the way that the StatusMonitor utility monitors your printer, or to change the way that your printer handles print jobs, follow the steps below.

Note:

This feature is not available with Mac OS X.

Click Print or Page Setup on the File menu of your application.

Click the Utility icon button.

Click the Configuration button. The Configuration Settings dialog box will appear.

In the Configuration Settings dialog box, you can make the following settings:

Error notification	Choose the method by which EPSON StatusMonitor will notify you in case of an error.
Warning	Choose how you want EPSON StatusMonitor to notify you if a warning message becomes necessary.
Temporary Spool folder	Specify the folder in which print data will be temporarily spooled.
Temporary High Speed Copies folder	Specify the folder in which multiple-copy print data will be temporarily stored.
Data will be sent to the printer after being stored on your disk.	Select this check box to prevent horizontal banding in printouts that contain images by having the computer temporarily store image data on its hard drive. The computer will then send the image data to the printer as a whole rather than as rectangular bands.
Check for errors before starting to print.	Select this check box to have the printer check for errors before starting to print.
Check the ink level before starting to print.	Select this check box to have the printer check the ink levels before starting to print.

Using EPSON Monitor3

After you send a print job to the printer, you can use the EPSON Monitor3 utility to check, cancel, or change the priority of print jobs that are queued for printing. This utility also shows the status of the job currently being printed.

Accessing EPSON Monitor3

To access EPSON Monitor3, follow these steps.

First, turn on Background Printing in the Chooser or in the Background Printing dialog box.

Send a print job to the printer.

Select EPSON Monitor3 from the Application menu at the right end of the menu bar. The EPSON Monitor3 dialog box will open.

Note:

You can also open EPSON Monitor3 by double-clicking the EPSON Monitor3 icon in the Extensions folder.

Managing print jobs using EPSON Monitor3

Using EPSON Monitor3, you can manage print jobs as described below:

Use the buttons below to hold, resume, and delete print jobs. Select the print job that you want to manage, then click the appropriate button.

Hold

Pauses printing and keeps the current print job at the top of the print queue

Resume

Resumes printing

Delete

Stops printing and deletes the print job from the print queue

Click Stop Print Queue to stop printing. Click Start Print Queue to resume printing.

Use the buttons below to start the printer utilities.

Print head cleaning

Starts the Print Head Cleaning utility

StatusMonitor

Starts EPSON StatusMonitor, which displays the amount of ink remaining

Double-click a file in the list to preview it (this function is disabled when you are printing an ESC/P command file).

Double-click Copies to change the number of copies to be printed for the selected print job.

Click the Show details arrow to open an extension at the bottom of the EPSON Monitor3 dialog box similar to the one below. The extension displays detailed information on the selected document's printer software settings.

Changing the priority of print jobs

To change the priority of print jobs in a print queue, follow the steps in this section.

Note:

You can also change the priority of print jobs whose print times were previously set in the printer software's Background Printing dialog box.

In the Document Name column, select the print job for which you want to change the priority.

Click the Show details arrow to open an extension at the bottom of the EPSON Monitor3 dialog box, similar to the one below.

From the Priority list, select Urgent, Normal, Hold, or Print Time.

Note:

If you select Print Time, a dialog box will open where you can specify the date and time that the document will print. Make sure that your printer and computer are turned on at the specified time.

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