Epson SX200, Windows Vista & InkSaver 2 stops printing

Inksaver used to be a marvellous product.  I had it installed in Windows/XP on my HP PSC2110 and it worked a treat.  Today, in desperation at the rate of cartridge use I downloaded and installed the free trial version of Inksaver 2.0 - which it claims works with Vista and Epson. 

IT DOESN'T.

The printer clicks and whirs, but no paper is fed and the job disappears from the print queue.  The Inksaver test page works, but that is all.

With Inksaver disabled my printing capability returns.

Worse still - there is nowhere to report the problem on the web site. 

Time to uninstall.

Shame - it was one of my favourites.

Vista SP2: first problem.

Windows has blocked startup programs.

It's another one of those messages I hate. Where is the option to allow, and to not ask again?

Still after SP2 my Cobian backup interface is not allowed. Its not something I need thgat often. The backups run to the external disk, and the tidy up programs take care of removing the old ones.

It seems SP2 has changed the way it decides what's allowed and what isn't. Fortunately its already known about @ Cobian.

Vista it seems just gets more broken - I haven't found anything new or improved is S2.

Windows Vista SP2

Its nearly time for Windows 7. I have been reading some ods and bits - the person who invented the Office 2007 'ribbon' is in charge of the user interface (UI) - scary!
I can tell its nearly time for Windwos 7 because today I was offered Vista SP2, and somewhat apprehensively let it install. As with all windows installations it takes a long time and requires a reboot. Apart from that gripe, it all went smoothly. My CD still works too, so something is going right. My machine is not noticable slower (or faster).

Internet Explorer 8 - First Impressions

This blog entry was prepared using internet explorer 8 which has just downloaded as part of the latest set of updates. I had seen it arrive at work on Thursday. I had decided NOT to download it at work. So this morning on Vista the download began - and immediately failed. The error code said I should restart a service but that was just caused by the update site being too busy I expect. The 'try again' button did the trick.

From here, the blog entry is prepared using Firefox. Firefox is a browser, it is reasonably fast and reasonably stable. When I try to save pictures it does not usually disappear from my computer screen. This is what happened:
I switched to the IE tab to read the "What's new", and decided the IE8 picture might look quite nice on the blog. I right clicked and selected "save pictures as ..." The save menu appeared, it stayed there long enough for me to register that it is a GIF then IE8 and the save as menu disappeared.

I'll load it from Firefox, I thought, but on Firefox it is an animated GIF. Oh well, back to the good old faithful 'screen print' and "The Gimp". Caught the image, edited and saved it. Back to Firefox and blogger to upload the image - BANG! No Firefox. Windows Explorer does the same.

I re-boot the machine for the second time. Now all appears OK. So what did the last stage of the IE8 install do to my Windows Explorer?

IE8 install first impression -9/10 (that's minus 9 out of plus 10)

Now back to IE8 for the remainder:

So, lets compare and comment on a few of the regular browsing features:

This being Vista, I had to download a clock first, its slow enough without the desktop gadgets.

1) New Tab

IE - 6 seconds, 3 seconds, 10 seconds, 3 seconds

FF - 1 second, instantaneous, instantaneous, instantaneous, instantaneous

2) www.google.com

IE - 1 second (including an avert for google chrome)

FF - 1 second (no chrome advert)

3) Initial sign-on to facebook (not times)

IE - started

FF - started

FF - finished

IE - finished

4) reload of facebook home page, by clicking HOME

IE - 3 seconds

FF - 3 seconds

5) Google Mail, 100 items to page, a re-load

FF - 6 seconds

IE - 10 seconds

Hardly a scientific test, but enough for me to be staying with Firefox.

New Features

The only one that attracted me was the InPrivate feature. If it really does stop the storing of loads of data then it is a very good idea indeed.

Look and Feel

Its a browser. and its fairly intuitive. Some strange things though:

The Windows Update link is on the Safety Menu, not the Tools Menu

the tabs are coloured to pair them together when you do 'open link in a new tab' That is quite clever. They are also kept together. That's also an improvement on IE7.

Of course, it doesn't have FF's adins - like ADBlok Plus, which means some things have a different look and feel, and may explain a little (not all) of the load delays.

Overall impression - its OK, but its still quite slow.

Every Time ????? / No Time

Every Time ?????
10 new updates applied today, then I thought I'd install my software - think again! - No DVD drive.

I have now applied this patch 3 times. That equates to every time I need the DVD drive after Vista updates are provided I think.

No Time (Yellow Lines)
The dreaded yellow lines have been down for over a week now. That means we have to spend a long time juggling cars. (I can't juggle) I requested a residents scheme, and was told that it was not appropriate because it would impede the free flow of traffic. Where I wonder does the traffic go? Up to the top of the hill and back down again. So how much traffic is there? Almost none, except at school times, but those are the times when waiting is banned. Tomorrow will see the first test of this new imposition.

It's Broken, but not Vista

Apart from my Arm, my shower and my printer are both broken. Now it appears my blog is broken as well!
For lent, I have been following some new blogs and twitter. As part of that I discovered Church Mouse, which is now in the interesting Blogs list. Today it says '5 weeks ago'. This is rubbish, Mr Mouse does daily updates, or there abouts. Some of the other blogs have never updated, now I have one that's predictable, I have reported the problem to Blogger, or at least to a discussion page. We'll see.
Working in reverse order, I have borrowed an old HP deskjet 5550 from my daughter. It has been in out loft for 2 years, carefully wrapped in its original plastic bag, and sellotaped in the box. Getting it down and set up with 1.3 functioning arms was interesting, but that's not the point. Once set up it worked straight away. I downloaded the drivers for the old XP machine, and carefully following the instructions, ended up with two printer definitions sharing the same queue (I think). Anyway, when I tried to delete the original printer definition, the newly created one stopped working. The printer though had already printed a test page, in colour only. So I'll need a new cartridge, what does it take? HP56 and HP57 - exactly the ones that I had already bought a stock of for the hpsc2110 that has now broken. God is Good!
Then I thought I'd check the status in Vista - it's drivers are included in the base distribution, just plug it in. I DID AND IT WORKED! Vista 1, XP 0 Stunning, amazing, unbelievable, but true. I can now print and read my sermon in the usual way.

Improved angles, New exercises and Old frustrations

Today was physiotherapy day. I worked from home, but didn't get as much done as usual. There were two reasons for this, the short description of each of these is pain and tiredness.
Pain, because the physiotherapist had spent some time manipulating the arm, and had succeeded in getting it to move more that I have. She also checked my progress, by checking the angle I can raise my arm forward, sideways and behind my back. There was an improvement, but not that great an improvement. I have to learn how to use the muscles that have been damaged by the accident and the following operation. I cannot feel those muscles moving, perhaps because they are so weak, or perhaps because my brain hasn't learnt how to understand their signals yet. My tendency is to use the muscles that I know how to work - if I do that I will learn all the wrong movements, and will end up with neck problems. That is a good motivation to get it right. I have also been given a new exercise to help me to raise my arm. It involves putting a scarf over a door and holding on with both hands. I try to lift my right arm, and support it by pulling down on the left, this extra extension also adds to the pain. I won't say that the pain relief is useless, but it certainly isn't very effective. With the new exercise and the manipulation the pain has been constant today, even with the maximum dose of codeine.

Tiredness, because I had a really bad night. I slept poorly, and was woken easily. Mike and his girlfriend came in around 2:30am, I was still not properly asleep, and they woke me up - being noisier than usual. I was uncomfortable, so started the days pain killers before 3am, which is very early. I did sleep a little. Slightly later than I should have I dragged myself out of bed and downstairs for a cup of tea. Later in the bath I remembered that I should be fasting for a blood test (to rule out possible causes for loss of bone density), so the test will have to be on Monday.

Aside from all that my Vista system has taken on another strange behaviour. Every so often my ability to browse the web ceases, the browser just sits and waits for ever. When I log off Firefox is still running, so a restart is required. so now its off to the web to find probable causes and try to fix things. I will start by re-installing Spybot and Zone Alarm as they have both recently been victims of Vista's security mechanisms. Changes to both have failed because Vista will permit some things and not others.

Vista strikes again

Working from home had been going well. Although the desk configuration is different, I was beginning to get used to it. This morning when I started the machine the image was offset to the right. That happens sometimes. When I logged on to work the screen was compacted. I checked the resolutions they had changed under Vista. That happens sometimes too. I still have no idea why. There must be some sort of fundamental fault - but where. I got the screen drivers (the video drivers have already been updated) and tried to install them, but Vista reports that they do not support installation (?!).

Here's the process to recover Vista and my carefully matched screen resolutions.

Restart pressing F8
Select the 640x480 option
Complete the reboot
Logon as an aDministrator
Set the screen resolution you want
Re-boot
Logon as an Administrator
Set the screen resolution to the one you want - it should now be available
Restart Vista
Logon as the Administrator and confirm the screen resolution is still available
Logoff
Logon as a User and reset the resolution to the one you require, which should now be available.


I'd left the CD in the reader throughout this procedure, so now lets see if the screen drivers can convince Vista that 1680x1050 is a valid resolution.

One up-side to this, my anger and frustration at Vista generated enough adrenalin to mean the pains in my shoulder ceased!

Better Together / Vista SP1

Firstly, last weeks sermon is here.

Secondly, I spend the morning meeting with the vicar and fellow readers at a half day for clergy and readers designed to get us working together better. We have unique circumstances. I know everybody has, but we have really unique circumstances. Warner, our incumbent, is recovering slowly. He may never fully recover, and we have to learn to work with him in the best way we can. We do not suffer from any of the issues raised in the conference, or at least I don't think we do. Nevertheless, it was a good exercise to go through, and started us thinking about how things might be in the future.

Thirdly, I have had another go at applying Vista SP1. It worked. The CD-drive worked, and so did the network. Could this be fixes that Microsoft have provided in the interim? Could it be that the start-up that found an error and took 40 minutes to correct it (and stopped the printer working) the other day has done the trick? Could it be that the CHKDSK /F that I ran afterwards, that fixed 5 files index entries has had an influence?
I cannot say, I have no way of even finding out. The good news is that SP1 is in and apparently working. The bad news is that the printer isn't, but that's not a problem for today. Too much change in one day is bad for the system (both Windows, and Pete).

Later I will be learning how to dance.


Yes, really.

Dell Inspiron 530S & Vista - still no network drivers

Microsoft's procedure resulted in another evening wasted in installins and backing out sp1. Given that I sent them the config information from the machine I was surprised that they asked me to install drivers that were the same as the ones I had.

Also the procedure I was given did not work.
Uninstall the driver
Reboot
Install the driver from the new file.

Vista installs the old driver (which it insists is the best option) before I have a chance to say no.
The network card is:
Intel(R) 82562V-2 10/100

I'm now waiting for a response, interestingly there are some people using SP1 with this network card and having other problems.

Now Vista takes longer than XP to both boot up and shut down.

Dell Inspiron 530S & Vista - DVD Drive is back

Vista SP1 support sent me a long procedure, which is better than anything I'd found on the web:

Step 1: If you have installed any CD/DVD-burning software, please temporarily remove them from "Control Panel"-> "Programs and Features".

Step 2: Modify the Registry

====================

1. Click the Start Button, type regedit in the "Start Search" text box and then press ENTER.

2. Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

3. Right click the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} entry, choose "Export", select Desktop in the Save in box and type backup in File Name. Click Save.

Please Note: The backup file is on the Desktop and named backup.reg. We can simply restore the registry by double-clicking the backup.reg file.

4. Highlight this key ({4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}), on the right pane, and then check if Upperfilters and Lowerfilters value are present. If so, please right click on the values and select "Delete" to remove them.

5. Restart the computer

Step 2 fixed it - onwards to the Network card. Strike while SP1 support is free.

Dell Inspiron 530S & Vista - the nightmare continues

Still no DVD drive, but that's for another time.
Today's problems are all around the display. My display is a NEC MultiSync LCD 2070WNY, and has worked with 5 or 6 other computers without problem.

• My display settings are set to 1680x1050 @ 60Hz on this account, but on the administrator account the best I can get is 1480x1050 @60Hz. When I try for the higher settings the monitor reports "Out of Range", and the settings drop back to what was previously defined.
• The "Out of Range" message sometimes appears in mid-flight. The next boot "Out of Range" is all you get. Then I have to use the F8 key at start up and select "Start in low resolution", the settings then (miraculously?) correct themselves and I can re-boot again.

I have recovered my cruzer readyboost 4Gb USB memory stick from my son (it wasn't helping his XP system). I want to use it for the regular backup of the important files.

• Now the Inspiron 530S will not boot at all with it plugged in. Unplug it, boots fine, plug it in - just a cursor on the display about 3 lines down.

Dell Inspiron 530S + Windows Vista

The CPU fan mount broke on my Evesham (running XP/SP3) - not the worlds greatest machine, but not quite two year old.

So as an emergency replacement I bought a Dell from PC World. It has Vista Home Premium. I've spent a few days building my fairly complex environment, and moving setting and files from the old machine (which will run, but only if its flat on its side).

Already I hate Vista.

• My start-up programs are blocked - because they are not registered with microsoft
• I am constantly asked to approve what I've just told the computer to do
• I cannot always get onto the network when I logoff one user and logon as another - DHCP wont get an address (why does it need to?)
• I have put all my personal shortcuts in the usual place (in a folder under the start menu for all users) but I'm not allowed to create shortcuts there. Shortcuts have to be created on the desktop, and moved.
• Once the Shortcuts are there they can be found by the search, but the folder will not expand.
• While importing address books for thunderbird, the import dialog showed only 3 of the four file in the folder. Typing the name worked, and the addresses were imported.

So I thought I'd let SP1 install - BAD Move!!!
After SP1 my network driver is blocked and my DVD drive doesn't work

• System restore to the rescue? - No - as usual!
• After system restore the system starts to install SP1, which this time fails and is backed out (as part of the process)
• The list of applied fixes says it was successful!
  
• Now I have a network - great, but no DVD - "This device cannot start. (Code 10)" - Very helpful.
• A fix recommends deleting a registry hive and re-booting.
• I cannot get access to all of the registry hive (access denied AGAIN!), and the piece I can't see doesn't get exported - so no backup if I do this.
• The solution to the problem according to Microsoft - apply SP1!

Does it remind you of "There's a hole in my bucket"?

Where now - Linux maybe?