[RESOLVED] Epson Status Monitor 3 failure in XP

[shiva_42]

I'm seeing a lot of references to the problem I describe below:

Have 2 Epson inkjet printers, both connected via USB to a Win XP Pro (SP1) PC. Both of these printers, with the appropriate software, worked perfectly under Win98SE.

Downloaded the newest drivers and Status Monitor from Epson's website, and installed the printers. Drivers are ok, but the Status Monitor 3 software isn't showing ink levels, etc. in XP, and each printer job is taking between 5-10 minutes to spool and begin printing the first page. Status monitor always shows "communication problem", but the printers DO eventually print.

Lots of references to similar problems under XP. Does anybody know an actual solution or workaround to this problem? I'm hoping to not be forced to disable this background monitoring, as the ink-level monitoring is pretty important when I'm printing large photos.

Epson's own support team suggests I simply turn off all functions of the monitor, but don't offer ANY explanation or solution to the actual problems (d***heads!).

Any help is welcome...