El Capitan/Epson 3880 Problem

**Richard Wasserman** · 16-Jan-2016, 16:03

I got a new Imac which is running El Capitan 10.11.1 to replace my fairly ancient one using OS 10.8. When I try to print to my 3880, connected with a USB cable, I get a communication error notice. I have installed a new print driver, restarted the computer and printer, and did lots of googling, muttering, and head scratching. Nothing has worked. Help please!

**ScottPhotoCo** · 16-Jan-2016, 23:13

I recently went through the same thing. I had to do an uninstall of the old software and a clean install of the current driver followed by a restart and a complete reset of the print settings in System Preferences. Re-add the printer. Then it worked for me.

**Ari** · 17-Jan-2016, 08:03

Same thing happened to me, albeit with a different printer (R2880); the new OS was also causing problems with the laser printer, Time Machine and a few other applications.
I did a clean install of everything, and while I was doing that, I decided to go back to using Mountain Lion (10.8.5) since that always seemed like the most trouble-free OS.
There are several ways you can install older OSs on your new computer, should you decide to go that route. Everything is online.
I haven't heard too many good things yet about El Capitan.

**Richard Wasserman** · 17-Jan-2016, 08:23

Thanks Tim and Ari. I will do a clean install and hopefully that will solve my problem. So far everything else is working just fine, actually more than fine—much faster, with a much nicer monitor than before.

**Richard Wasserman** · 17-Jan-2016, 08:48

It worked! Thanks guys!!!

**Ari** · 17-Jan-2016, 11:37

That was fast, Richard. I'm glad it worked.

**rich815** · 17-Jan-2016, 13:39

Thanks for this info. I have a nice iMac (about 4 years old or so) but have left myself with Snow Leopard since I use a few scanners (Epson 4990 and Nikon 4000/9000) with Vuescan and an Epson 3880 printer. All work great and....if it ain't broke....you know? I did just updated my son's MacBook Pro 2010 to El Capitan last night. He reports its running great. It has a FireWire connection so I'll test all the above first before upgrading my iMac but it's good the hear the above was successful for at least the 3880.

**Richard Wasserman** · 17-Jan-2016, 14:14

Originally Posted by rich815

Thanks for this info. I have a nice iMac (about 4 years old or so) but have left myself with Snow Leopard since I use a few scanners (Epson 4990 and Nikon 4000/9000) with Vuescan and an Epson 3880 printer. All work great and....if it ain't broke....you know? I did just updated my son's MacBook Pro 2010 to El Capitan last night. He reports its running great. It has a FireWire connection so I'll test all the above first before upgrading my iMac but it's good the hear the above was successful for at least the 3880.

I am extremely pleased with the new Imac. It has an SSD and I maxed out the RAM, and it's amazingly faster than my old one. Plus the 5K monitor is a bit of a revelation to me.