FIX for EPSON Print CD V2.02 - EPSON Stylus Photo R200 - MAC OS 10.5.9

Question

I thought I'd post this ridiculously long info sheet on what finally got my R200 to work with EPSON Print CD and 10.5.8 just in case it might help someone else BEFORE they spend days searching for a solution.
Check the printer driver information in System Preferences, Print & Fax. If it says anything other than EPSON SP R200 Series, you’ve likely located the problem. My system showed the Gutenprint v5.1.3 and /or CUPS/+GIMP... I originally replaced the Gutenprint driver file with the CUPS... file thinking this would solve the Gutenprint driver problem. But, as I continued to look into what was going on, I think I found out that both driver files are actually considered Gutenprint driver files.
1. Select the hard drive where the operating system is located.
2. Select Library/Printers.
3. Select the Epson folder and delete it and then Empty Trash to make sure it’s gone.
4. Select Library/Preferences.
5. Select the Epson folder and delete any files that are there.
(Steps 4 & 5 might not be necessary, but I’m listing everything that I did.)
6. In System Preferences, select Printers and Fax. Control click in listing area and select Reset Printers.
7. Load the Leopard Installation CD and select Optional Installation.
8. Select Printers and select Epson. This will reload the printer drivers for all the EPSON printers that are included on the install CD.
9. Go back to the System Preferences, Printers and Fax window. Click on the + sign to add a printer.
10. There will likely be a listing with Printer Name as EPSON Stylus Photo R200, Kind as USB.
11. Click on an arrow in the Print Using: box and select EPSON SP R200 Series. The printer icon changed dramatically at this point, with a rainbow of colors on the document shown coming out of the printer.
Note: **Working within the Print & Fax app seems to be key to getting the settings corrected.** Someone else pointed out that they also found this necessary. However, I couldn’t get the proper “Print Using:” option to appear until I cleaned out the Library/Printers/Epson folder, “Reset Printers”, and reloaded the EPSON printer drivers from the Leopard installation CD.
I had previously done the “Reset Printers” and reloaded the printer files, but as was advised against in the post I mentioned, I selected the “More Printers” option. That’s where I found the EPSON Stylus Photo R200 listed with the CUPS+Gimp ... and the Gutenprint driver listing options. Selecting what appeared to be the Gutenprint alternate printer driver didn’t help at all. I’m not sure if the EPSON SP R200 driver file was missing from the original listing of printer drivers or if I just missed it. I certainly would have looked for it if I had known it was the one that’s needed.
12. Open the EPSON Print CD V2.02 app. Although I had already installed the Easy Print update, I got a message saying that the application needed the update to work. So, I reinstalled the Easy Print update.
13. After reinstalling the Easy Print update, I reselected Update Printer Information. Much to my amazement, I got a message and a progress indicator showing the Printer Information was being updated to reflect the EPSON Stylus Photo R200 printer.
14. When the Update Printer Information process had completed, I clicked on Print and suddenly found that I was able to choose Select Printer and pick the EPSON Stylus Photo R200 and CD/DVD wondrously appeared in the Media Type.
After this point, all the other instructions that are provided from EPSON seemed to work just fine.
Hopefully, there’s enough information in here somewhere that people with other operating systems and printers might at least be able to get a clue . . .

Answer 1

I dug around on the Epson site and found this which seemed to address the exact problem so they obviously know about it. Unfortunately even these rather drastic steps failed to solve the issue for me.
http://www.epson.co.uk/Printers-and-All-In-Ones/Inkjet/Epson-Stylus-Photo-2100/D rivers-Support?target=article&extn=.html&articleId=3798