How about
 
1. Search the forum - this has been discussed at length.
2. Send an e-mail to Lexmark.
3. Find out what printer "languages" it supports (PostScript/PCLx) and use a generic driver.

Hi Unkoon2000,
 
I also have a Lexmark 3200, and I haven't been able to get it working under Win2k. I've written to Lexmark twice on the matter, and so far I've not received any reply for my e-mails. My guess is that they are not planning on writing drivers for Win2k. Yeah, I know, it sucks. Maybe if enough people write them and complain they will see some sense.
 
Despite what Yuppie just said, I don't think this topic has been discussed in detail before; I searched the forum the first time I was looking for drivers for my Lexmark, and there werent that many posts on this. Yes, there were a few, but they didn't really answer the question of whether Lexmark has told anyone anything.
 
Anyhow, can anyone comment on how difficult it is to write new drivers, based on the NT drivers for example? For hardware like a 3D-card I would imagine it's pretty difficult, but what about printers? I can remember someone saying that the 3200 NT drivers worked with RC2 or RC3, so why not the final release?
 
Thanks for any replies!

I was the proud owner of a Z51 printer, I now own a HP 970 printer, I have talked to lexmark 4 times, sent 2 e-mails, and all I get is the same response, the updated driver's are not ready yet, HP had their driver's installed on the win2000 disc, and the drivers are working fine. I was a Lexmark man, but they screwed up bigtime, I can afford to go out and get another printer, but I'am aware of a lot of people who can't, and are stuck with a new O/S and no lexmark printer to work with it.Lexmark should have seen this coming, they didn't and believe me, I'm spreading the word.........

Yeah, I know. I was also pretty happy with my Lexmark until I installed Win2k.
 
As I've understood it the developers have had a beta copy of win2k for ages! How long can it take to make a freakin driver for a printer... (I'm not that familiar with printer drivers; maybe it does take longer than 6 months )
 
If Lexmark's answer is that Win2K is an OS aimed at the business user and the Zxx and 3200, etc. are aimed at the home user, then why on earth do they support NT4? NT is hardly a home user OS now is it? If I bought my Lexmark 3200 to be used on NT then I think it's fair that they support Win2k also.
 
I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a printer manufacturer to provide driver support for at least the OS following the one they support out of box.

I was the proud owner of a Z51 printer, I now own a HP 970 printer, I have talked to lexmark 4 times, sent 2 e-mails, and all I get is the same response, the updated driver's are not ready yet, HP had their driver's installed on the win2000 disc, and the drivers are working fine. I was a Lexmark man, but they screwed up bigtime, I can afford to go out and get another printer, but I'am aware of a lot of people who can't, and are stuck with a new O/S and no lexmark printer to work with it.Lexmark should have seen this coming, they didn't and believe me, I'm spreading the word.........

Please do spread the word. Hopefully Lexmark will see the amount of people having trouble with their Lexmark printers and finally make drivers for it...
 
What ticks me off the most is that they haven't even bothered replying to my e-mails. At least they should have a Win2K FAQ on their website. Did you notice how difficult it is to even send an e-mail to them? You have to got through the "knowledge" thing everytime...

Is there really a generic driver for the lexmark using postscript?

funny you should ask, I checked on generic drivers a week and a half before win2000 was released, and came up emptyhanded.......

Andy_25 wrote:
 
"You have to got through the "knowledge" thing everytime..."
 
Unless you're a Preferred Lexmark Reseller (like me.) Then you have a toll free number that you can get ignored on first. Then you can leave messages that are ignored too. Then you can give them your Preferred Reseller number and get a WHOLE NEW LEVEL of ignoring!....
 
I've started buying and selling HPs... At least, they don't ignore me too badly.
 
 
 
------------------
J. Byron Todd
Computer Consultant
byron@toddcomp.com
Todd Computer Solutions

Tonight I found the following Usenet message that tells how to make the final version of Win2K use the WinNT4 drivers that Lexmark has posted on their website:
http://x37.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=594269598&CONTEXT=952501825.1328414726&hitnum=2
 
I just tried it out and printing seems to be fine. Hope this helps.

I E-Mailed a friend with a 3200 as a paperweight,about the driver solution at deja.com, he tried it and after some hits and misses, he says his printer is working fine, thanks, for posting that up, we are still PISSED at lexmark for making us work for something they should of had weeks ago ready for release, and my friend says he's still going to junk his lexmark soon. It's just general principle,right?........

Yeah. I'm still really pissed at Lexmark myself. I just bought the printer six months ago and it looked for a while I would have to purchase another one. It obviously seems that the new drivers for Win2K wouldn't be too much different from the already written WinNT4 drivers since they can be made to work with a little maneuvering (although I don't claim to know anything about writing printer drivers). I'm just glad that now I can print and I don't have to depend on a company that seems to care more about the bottom dollar than customer satisfaction.

Hi Everyone
 
I have a 3200 also. I looked at that message on Deja, but I can't find a "printupg.inf".
 
I also don't have a WINNT/inf folder.
 
Is this because I upgraded from Windows 98?, and not NT?
 
Also I believe I am logged on as Administrator, but I have necer set that up on my computer before, so I figured that was the default.
 
Can anyone help me get my 3200 going?
Thankx for any help!

The "printupg.inf" is under whatever directory you installed win2k to.(for example win200/inf, if that's were you installed it.)
 
I tried the fix but for some reason it didn't work. Once I got as far as to the part where I have to "install new cartridges", but then I received the following error message:
 
"Spoolsv.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program".
 
Now whenever I start win2k the same error message appears. I suspect it's because the Lexmark installation program installed something it shouldn't have, but now I cannot even uninstall the printer. When I try to delete it I get a message saying : "Printer cannot be moved. The Print subsystem is unavailable". Also the regular uninstall has disappeared. Does anyone have an idea what this means? I have also deleted the line "lexmark 3200 series...." from the printupg.inf, but that didn't make any difference.
 
Also now when I start the setup program it says something like "spoolsv.exe is not running, do you want restart it"? When I click "yes" I get a list of printer ports and only "file" is available.
 
By the way, when I started this whole thing, I noticed that there was already a line called "lexmark 3200 series..." in my printupg.inf. Does that tell anyone anything?
 
How about the driver date? I mean how do you figure out what the correct date of a driver is? Appreciate any help! Thanks!

I was able to get my 5700 ColorFine to install just fine using the NT4 install diskettes - just popped in the diskette, start/run/a:/setup.exe and off she went. No probs with spoolsrv.exe, nothing - although I have noticed that bidirectional communication seems not to be working (the print status dialog box doesn't indicate what percentage is left to be printed as it used to in NT4). But at least I can print, install cartridges, etc etc... If I have to use my eyes to tell me when to install a new cartridge as opposed to the driver, that's fine for now.
 
drew

The hacked drivers seems to be working fine for me! Haven't seen any spoolsv.exe hang-ups yet..!
 
[This message has been edited by Avalance (edited 08 March 2000).]

Yeah, they work fine for me now also. I don't know what I did wrong the first time, but after I deleted the files that it had installed and tried again, it seemed to work without any problems. Great!

Can Anyone Please tell me where I can find this "printupg.inf"?
 
I don't seem to have it.
Ive even done a search on my system for it.
Ive also tried to find it on my Windows 2000 cd with no avail.
 
Is there anyway one of you could send it to me, and tell me where to put it?
 
my email is rmhisey@yahoo.com
 
this seems like the best way for me to get it going.
 
thanks to any who could help!

Nevermind....Stupid me.
 
 
I found that darn file!
Ha! its working

Anyone get the Z11/51 to work??
 
I tried this NT4 driver with my Z11, and it actually started printing..! Shame is though it's all over the place, it 'skews' halfway down the page, and using colour locks up the printer... Well, it's pretty unusable really, even in B&W...
 
Must be to do with the dual cartridge thing, cos the Z11 only has one at a time. Anyway, nice to see that the 'lexmark printing system' actually works and talks to the printer under W2K... so Lexmark have no excuses on the driver front....