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Posted on 11/17/2017 4:00:31 PM PST by dayglored
Updated Microsoft's latest batch of software updates for Windows has been blamed for a mysterious ailment befalling some poor old Epson dot-matrix printers.
Reg readers let us know that, after installing this week's Patch Tuesday payload from Redmond, their Windows boxes no longer work with Epson's dot matrix printers (which are still a thing, apparently, especially among those working with accounting software like Sage).
"I had two clients today whose Epson dot matrix printers stopped working after applying this month’s cumulative update on Windows 10 and Windows 7," one tipster told us. "It just seems to eat the print job."
In a discussion thread on the cockup, netizens report having the same problem with their Epson printers being unable to print out documents when the dot-matrix devices are connected to their Windows 10 PCs via USB.
Other printer types, such as inkjet printers, are not thought to be knackered by the latest patches.
"I have 40 computers in my firm with dot matrix," wrote user Saintneo. "My customers are upset I can't print invoices to them. This is outrageous."
Other folks have suggested the problem can be traced back to the KB4048954 update on Windows 10, KB4048958 on Windows 8.1 and KB2952664 on Windows 7. Some users have reported that removing those updates fixes the problem.
The software patches were bundled with Microsoft's November security fixes that addressed multiple exploitable flaws in Windows, Edge, and Office. It is not unusual for Patch Tuesday releases to cause unintended stability problems, which is rather annoying: either don't patch and get hacked, or patch and lose access to stuff.
Last month, for example, a misconfigured update was blamed for a bad batch of patches that caused Windows boxes on WSUS to blue screen when trying to boot up.
Neither Microsoft nor Epson have responded to a request for comment on the matter, and there's no word yet on when a fix could be released. Once again, Patch Tuesday is followed by Facepalm Friday. ®
Microsoft and Epson are now officially working to resolve this bug.
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dot matrix printers (which are still a thing, apparently)
They are handy when you have multi part documents
Microsoft is like Hillarys Govt. “We’re going to take some things away from you for your own good.”
Bummer, man. You need a dot matrix to print on carbonless paper, but I’m not sure why anyone needs that these days either.
Print something at least once a week whether you need to or not. Or buy a laser printer.
Buy a cheap laser. I rarely print anything any more, save for envelopes, coupons, lists, recipes, copies of receipts, etc., and I don’t remember the last time I bought a cartridge or drum for my Brother Laser.
You can't wear out those business class printers, and they are very cheap to pick up used. And parts are readily available.
Good point. I used a dot matrix for many years just to print labels. They just looked better to me. But they finally stopped making the labels I was using.
I despise printers to no end.
Printers, Lotus Notes, state fairs, sports, democrats, ethanol based fuel, and big book collections all vie for what I hate most.
cause nobody uses multi-part forms anymore... right??? microsh!t doesn't sell hardware, so why do they have to phouc wi EVERYTHING???
They are so cheap these days you could literally throw one out when the original toner cartridge is done (5,000 pages or so) and save money compared to a ink jet.....I am on my second toner in 7 years and it will be time to look at a new printer in another 2 years or so....
What’s your beef with “big book collections”?
He just had to move one. :}
He just had to move one. :}
Yup. That would explain it. LOL.
I still have a lot of dead tree books, but for quite a while now, I've bought nothing but ebooks. I've gradually been reducing the dead trees down to just a bare minimum of stuff I don't have electronically. I've got almost 2000 on my ebook reader. Makes moving them a lot easier.
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