My coworker was having trouble getting anything intelligible to print. When you pressed the "Online" button on the printer, it just prints page after page of gibberish, whether you've requested anything to print or not.
After uninstalling/reinstalling and changing a few settings to no effect, I called Panasonic. The phone number in the manual directed me to a second phone number, which, in turn, directed me to a third, where I waited 20 minutes on long-distance hold. When I finally got to talk to someone, she explained that the Win2K and XP drivers for this model don't actually work, and that I should install drivers for the Epson FX-850 instead. I did that and it still printed gibberish. She told me to call the warranty hotline and see about getting it repaired. From the serial number, they could find out if it was still under warranty.
Of course, when I actually called the warranty number, it turned out that not only was she mistaken about the serial number, but that she should have charged me $18 for giving me any advice about the printer at all! Hell, she didn't even ask for my name, let alone a credit card number. Oh well. Guess I got a freebie.
Anyway, I tried hooking the printer up to a Windows 2000 machine. I installed the Epson FX-850 drivers and printed a test page. Perfect. Worked great. Elated, I took the printer back to my coworker and set it up again exactly the same way I did in '2000. Result? Why, the same old gibberish, of course.
Even stranger is the fact that this printer used to work fine on the same XP machine that I'm now having trouble with. Unfortunately there were a lot of other problems with the XP computer that required a reinstall (you know the type of coworker; she installs every damn little piece of crap software/spyware she can find and ends up hosing her Windows install). After the reinstall was when the gibberish characters started.
I'd really like to just chuck this printer out the window, but this is only a one-story building, so it wouldn't be very satisfying. Oh, and I'd probably get fired, too, I guess.
Anyone have any suggestions?
After uninstalling/reinstalling and changing a few settings to no effect, I called Panasonic. The phone number in the manual directed me to a second phone number, which, in turn, directed me to a third, where I waited 20 minutes on long-distance hold. When I finally got to talk to someone, she explained that the Win2K and XP drivers for this model don't actually work, and that I should install drivers for the Epson FX-850 instead. I did that and it still printed gibberish. She told me to call the warranty hotline and see about getting it repaired. From the serial number, they could find out if it was still under warranty.
Of course, when I actually called the warranty number, it turned out that not only was she mistaken about the serial number, but that she should have charged me $18 for giving me any advice about the printer at all! Hell, she didn't even ask for my name, let alone a credit card number. Oh well. Guess I got a freebie.
Anyway, I tried hooking the printer up to a Windows 2000 machine. I installed the Epson FX-850 drivers and printed a test page. Perfect. Worked great. Elated, I took the printer back to my coworker and set it up again exactly the same way I did in '2000. Result? Why, the same old gibberish, of course.
Even stranger is the fact that this printer used to work fine on the same XP machine that I'm now having trouble with. Unfortunately there were a lot of other problems with the XP computer that required a reinstall (you know the type of coworker; she installs every damn little piece of crap software/spyware she can find and ends up hosing her Windows install). After the reinstall was when the gibberish characters started.
I'd really like to just chuck this printer out the window, but this is only a one-story building, so it wouldn't be very satisfying. Oh, and I'd probably get fired, too, I guess.
Anyone have any suggestions?
