Drivers
An Idiots Guide to installing a Print Driver

Under Windows v3.x
Under OS/2 v2.x or OS/2 Warp v3.x or v4.x

 
Under Windows v3.x

Dont worry about the title - if you've got here we assume you have got confused about the driver installation or cant find the manual.

Windows v3.x, particularly the later versions comes with a great number of Print Drivers, including some for SEIKOSHA printers although these do not appear under the initial listing. To display the further listing Insert Disk 7 then click on Other Unlisted printers. There are also some drivers included for the SEIKO Instruments ColorPoint printers. If there is no specific driver for your SEIKOSHA printer then you will need to know its Emulation. The Emulation is determined by either Dip Switch settings or by front panel choices. Check the Emulation page for your printer before proceeding, the emulation page also has hot spots to Dip Switch settings.

  1. Open the Control Panel, this is normally inside the Main folder. Inside the Control Panel you will see an Icon for Printers. Double Click this to open the Printer dialog screen.
  2. Choose the Add button. If you have not installed a printer, Control Panel chooses the Add button for you.
  3. In the List Of Printers box, select the printer you want to install. If your printer is not listed or does not emulate a printer that Windows supports, but you have a printer driver for it, select Install Unlisted Or Updated Printer.
  4. Choose the Install button. The following two steps do not apply if the printer you are installing uses the same printer driver as another printer already installed on your system.
  5. Insert in drive A the disk containing the printer driver, or type a drive letter and directory path in the text box. (the printer driver you need may be on the Additional Printer Drivers disk.) You can also use the Browse button to find and select the drive and directory where the printer driver is located. When you are finished using the Browse dialog box, choose the OK button to return to the Install Printer dialog box.
  6. In the Install Printer dialog box, choose the OK button. If you are installing a driver not included with Windows, a dialog box appears, listing several printers. Select the printer you want, and then choose the Install button.
  7. If Control Panel prompts you for font files, insert the disk that contains font files. Then choose the OK button. The printer name appears in the list of installed printers.
  8. Go to the next step to assign a port to the printer.
Note: Do not change the port assignment for your printer if you are currently printing documents to it. If you do so, your documents will disappear from the Print Manager queue. Your documents will still print, but you will not be able to perform Print Manager tasks, such as pausing and resuming printing or viewing status information, for those documents.

To assign a port to a printer

  1. If you are not already in the Printers dialog box, choose the Printers icon in the Control Panel window.
  2. Choose the Connect button.
  3. From the Ports list, select the port you want to assign to the printer. If you select a COM port, you might need to change the communications settings.
  4. If you want to change communications settings, choose the Settings button, complete the Settings dialog box, and then choose the OK button.
  5. Go on to the next step to change the Timeouts settings. Or choose theOK button in the Connect dialog box, and then choose the Close button inthe Printers dialog box.
Changing the Timeouts Settings

You can use the Timeouts settings to adjust the amount of time Windows waits before sending you a message about printing problems. Changing the Timeouts settings is optional. The only time you should need to change the default settings is when sending complex Postscript files, particularly colour files.
To change the Timeouts settings

  1. If you are not already in the Connect dialog box, choose the Printers icon from the Control Panel window, and then choose the Connect button.
  2. Specify the Timeouts settings you want.
  3. Choose the OK button.
  4. Go on to the next step or choose the Close button in the Printers dialog box.
Specifying Printer Settings

Many printers have specific settings (such as page orientation, paper size,and graphics resolution) that you can specify to get the printing results you want.

To specify printer settings

  1. If you are not already in the Printers dialog box, choose the Printers icon from the Control Panel window.
  2. Select the printer you want to use.
  3. Choose the Setup button.
  4. Select the settings you want.
  5. To select additional settings that are specific to your printer driver,choose the Options button, set the options as needed, and then choose the OK button.
  6. Choose the OK button again.
  7. Go on to the next step or choose the Close button in the Printersdialog box.

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Under OS/2 v2.x or OS/2 Warp v3.x or v4.x

Dont worry about the title - if you've got here we assume you have got confused about the driver installation or cant find the manual.

OS/2 and OS/2 Warp come with a great number of Print Drivers, unfortunately none for SEIKOSHA printers although there are some drivers included for the SEIKO Instruments ColorPoint printers. Support in OS/2 is patchy for Dot Matrix printers and we would suggest that wherever possible you use the IBM emulation, if it is provided on your printer. The Epson drivers provided, do not recognise Printer fonts and automatically go into Graphics mode and bitmap all fonts. This will slow the quickest printer to a snails pace.

However we have found an Epson Driver which seems to work reasonably well for Dot Matrix machines using ESCP/2 (FB-375, SL-96, CDP only in the SEIKO Precision range) but you can by all means try this driver on other printers. This driver is provided "as is" and as a service to our customers. If you are having problems with this driver then we can only suggest going back to the drivers supplied with OS/2....With thanks to Epson Deutschland GmbH. Download DOTMOS2.ZIP (4.9MB) Driver

You will need to know the emulation for your SEIKOSHA printer, so Check the Emulation for your printer before proceeding.

  1. Open the Templates folder. This could be on your desktop, inside the OS/2 System folder or indeed anywhere you or your system administrator has put it.
    Inside the Templates folder you will see various icons one of which should be "Printer". You are also likely to see "Network Printer".
  2. Drag the "Printer" or "Network Printer" object and drop it onto any blank part of your desktop - you can hide it in another folder later. To Drag and drop an object, place your mouse pointer over the object, press and hold the second (usually right button) and move the object to desktop - releasing the mouse button will drop the object.. The "Create a printer" screen will appear. Name the new Printer i.e. "SEIKOSHA BP-7800II" and choose a printer port I.e. LPT1 for the first Parallel port. Click the "Install New Print Driver.." Button.
  3. You are now presented with the "Install New Printer Driver" screen. This will list all the Printer Drivers shipped with OS/2. Move down to your chosen emulation (IBM 2391 PPSII) then click the "Install" button. Provided the OS/2 Warp CD is in your CD drive the drivers are copied at this stage. If you installed OS/2 from diskettes then a prompt will appear asking you to insert the relevant disk(s). Press OK to Install the Driver and follow the on screen prompts.
  4. You will be returned to the "Create a Printer" screen. Press the "Create" button to create the printer object and if there is a corresponding WINOS/2 driver you will be asked whether you wish this driver to be installed as well.
Your Printer object should now be ready to accept jobs. You may need to go into the Printer setup and Job properties to set default page sizes, paper paths etc to get accurate print outs.

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