I have an Epson 440 printer. When it starts printing the second page, it will print about 5 lines, then skip a few lines before it continues. Sometimes after the 5th line, it will spit the page out and start printing on the next page. Sometimes, it seems to print almost a double image, again on about the fifth line. Sometimes it prints okay, but rarely. I have recently reformatted the HD, got a new Asus ATX motherboard, am running a PII, 350 mgz., Windows98. Problem occurs mainly using Word & Excel97. I have reinstalled Office 97 and I think I uninstalled and re-installed the printer.

My first question is, how do I determine if the problem is caused by a bad install of Windows, or Office97 or the printer itself? There seems to be a funny problem with Word when I have a link in a document, this is why I'm suspicious that it might be Word. Opening and printing the same document from WordPad seems to work okay...at least sometimes.

I would like to try to uninstall the printer, or the drivers, however that works. I've read on the board here about uninstalling from Safe Mode. I'd like to try that. I'm fairly experienced, but I just can't seem to get this driver thing straight in my head. If anyone knows of a good article on how to deal with drivers, please post the url.

2nd question: When I go through Device Mngr, am I uninstalling the printer or just the drivers? The printer is on printer port LPT1. I see a Remove button there, but it says 'caution, you are about to remove this device from your system'. Is this what I am suppose to do?

I need baby steps here. I'll wait for some direction from you people before I add more to this.
Thxs.

first try to disconnect the printer cable from the printer for a few minutes. I once had a similar problem and this solved it.
however, if you need to re-install this printer this i how you do it.

1)go to start, settings, printers
2)select the printer you have installed
3)right click on it and select delete
4)to re-intall, double click "add printer"
5)if a wizard comes up, follow instructions and select your printer, or click on "have disk" and instert the disk that you printer came with.
6)that should install your drivers

good luck!
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So you mean I don't have to go through add/remove? There is an entry in Add/Remove for both Epson Printer Software and Epson Status Monitor. Should I do a Find > Files n Folders to make sure every entry for Epson is gone before I start a re-install?

I will try dis-connecting the cables first. I did read that elsewhere here.
Thxs CW

The Epson programs you are referring to are additional programs that will be worth uninstalling in case they are causing problems (doubtful) these are not the drivers.

The driver may have become corrupt so it may be better to download epsons latest version of their driver and software from their web site.

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Before you try removing and re-adding drivers, check the printer properties, and see if you might have gotten it set to print on 8½ x 14 legal size paper.

If not, just go to Start\Settings\Printers and delete the icon for the printer, then double click Add New Printer to re-add it. It's not necessary to go through Control Panel, and usually not necessary to remove the printer from Safe Mode, that's usually good for video or sound cards, etc.

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I have now reformatted hard drive, re-installed Windows98, Office97 and Epson 440 with drivers from Epsons web site. All settings are at default.
1st printout using Word97: Garbles at 5th line (discribed above), kicks that page out and starts a new one.
2nd Printout: Opened same document in Word Pad. Printed Perfectly.
3rd Printout: Opened same doc in Word again and this time it printed perfectly.
4th Printout: Tried an Excel Worksheet. Same 5th line garble-and-kickout problem.
5th: Printed Epson Test page. Printed fine. Go figure.
So..does it sound like it's time for a new printer? Friends have suggested they the capstan, blah, blah, blah roller thing can go on these things and it's not worth fixing it. Printer is 2.5 yrs old..just off warranty of coarse. I have used it quite a bit.

Should add, I am using a 3rd party cartridge, but have all along with no problems. $20 is a big difference in price.

[This message has been edited by Phylis Sophical (edited 06-24-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Phylis Sophical (edited 06-24-2001).]