Hi there everyone, new to the forum and hope I am posting in the correct area.

I have this Apollo P-2150 U printer and the driver I have always used before. Now I am trying to re-install the software into the same system (win2k) that it has been in since purchasing the printer a few years ago. It ran well until recently and now I am having to reinstall the goofy thing.

It goes through all the motions: starts installation, asks for the printer to be plugged in, continues then states: Failed to align the print cartride", does not continue to allow the selection of which cartridge is on the right, etc, etc.

The printer shows up in the control panel, but that is it, no system try icon, cannot print from it, cannot print a test page, or check printer preferences. The preference window is there when I right click the printer in the control panel but the selections for the preferences do not work. The toolbox icon is in the program files, but all the icons there do not work either, so.............it does not finish the complete installation.

I have tried to install several times but it just doesn't work. If I try to let the win2k find new hardware it has an apollo 1200 driver and gives me only limited settings, but it does print from that oldy enough.

Sorry this is long, but I have 3 new ink cartridges that I would like to use up before buying a new printer. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards, have a great day.

Yes, you posted in the right forum.

Are you saying you have a driver disk that you use to install the printer driver? Assuming you do and it has worked ok prior, then it sounds like your printer has some hardware problem. I see no reason why an installation disk that has worked previously would fail to re-install the drivers over and over unless the installation disk has become defective or unreadable or unless some problem has developed in the hardware of the printer to cause failure of installation.

I'm also assuming your printer has a USB interface (since it has a letter U in the model #). Have you checked in Device Manager to insure your use port is working ok?

Prior to installing the driver have you un-installed the printer driver and all associated Apollo software before doing a fresh install?

Thank You Jerry for your response.

I have the driver that I download for win2k that was from the actual Apollo site from a few yares ago when I purchased the printer. I have kept it and use a copy for installation. The install disk that came with it was for up to win98 but they supplied this one online, if I remember correctly, it is the one I had used previously to this anyway.

Yup, I removed the software, and cleaned all left over files from the previous installs, even the temp ones, before reinstalling. It is a usb printer, and I have tried a different usb port. Even though it doesn't complete the install, the printer shows up in the control panel, but when I go to chose the printer from a document I try to print, it is listed as a printer, but not in a "ready" state.

I will have to check in device manager again after I try to reinstall in the morning , I cannot remember what was there.

As you stated and I had hope it isn't on its way out the door :(.

As I mentioned though, I can use the windows apollo 1200 driver to print but does not give me many options for settings. I suppose I can use that if all else fails.

Thanks again for you time and help, any other suggestions will be appreciated.

Please don't assume your USB ports are working. Open Device Manager and check to see that they are in proper working order. ie: not missing in Device Manager or flagged as having a problem.

Is the driver you download on dependable media, like CD-R?

The driver Microsoft included with the Windows 2000 os is only a basic printer driver, no frills included.

Jerry,

I had saved the install .exe file I downloaded onto cd-r.

Device manger-USB Printing support-Location Apollo P-200 Series -this device is working properly,

Control Panel-Printers-USB001-Virtual printer port for USB- Apollo P-2000 Series, Status-Ready

Printer properties-set as default printer, but does not show as ready staus there! No functions.

I can get the cartidges in/out, to reset, and the guide/track moves by opening the door. Communication to pc?????

that's ok if you have it saved to cd-r...that's dependable media. I thought perhaps you had it on floppy and oftentimes floppy media is very undependable.

It appears as though your printer needs servicing. I doubt you can find anyone that could fix it. Buying a new printer would probably be cheaper than what just the shipping cost to and from a service center would cost, not to count what they would charge you to repair it.

As a last resort, I'd suggest trying it on another machine to see if the problem is the same. If so that's a dead ringer indication it needs to be repaired.

I did finally give up using the apollo driver, did not get a chance to try it on another machine yet since I need a printer on this one anyway, instead, I am able to get it to work with the hp 690c driver.

Seems to do alright to get the job done. If there is a better hp driver please let me know.

I will have to bear with the "found new hardware" nag each time win2k starts up until I use up my ink supply then replace the printer.

Thanks a bunch for your help.
Regards

I have downloaded and installed what is supposed to be the latest driver/installation for this printer (APOLLOP-2100Useries_xp.exe). I had this problem once before and resolved it somehow and the printer worked for the last few years. Then recently XP would not access the printer at all. The printer dialog would just sit there and not process any print jobs. My laptop has the original software for this printer installed and the printer works without a problem. As before when I installed this latest driver, XP will access the printer but nothing is printed. It goes through the motions of printing BUT, no ink is put on the paper. This is exactly what happened last time. It will work fine with the laptop right now but not with XP on my desktop. I have a vague recollection that I had to install a different install/driver file like for a different Apollo series or something.... Can you help?

Thanks!

Randy

I suspect it's just a matter of uninstalling the current driver and re-installing the driver/software. Have you tried that?

Yes, I did that twice and used 2 different install files, downloaded separately, just in case there was a problem with one or the other... It would seem logical that it is the driver that is the problem as it would contain the data to tell the printer to eject ink for each letter etc.

I'm wondering if the driver just is not the one that works with this printer model, even though it is the one called for on all the sites.