Installing Canon Multipass L6000 Printer:

Get the latest driver from Canon for the L6000. The one I downloaded this week was found under Consumer Products / Multifunction:

MultiPASS L6000 Desktop Manager 3.01 (Windows XP)
It's a big file, 23.9 MB.

11/30/2005  The driver has been removed from the Canon web site. See
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=OSCompatibilityAct&fcategoryid=105&keycode=windr

BUT STAY THERE and go to SUPPORT, Printers, Multifunction, L6000.

And then Downloads, go for the XP Driver:

Desktop Manager v3.01 for Windows XP

Posted: January 2, 2002
File Size: 23.9 MB

NoDevice.com want's to charge:
http://www.nodevice.com/Printer/1/25/Printer_p7.html

Save a copy of the file - you may need to reinstall later.

Do the full install as below.

Connect it all up - power and printer cables. 

• Use the short, two way 1284 printer cable like Canon asks.
• Canon says not to connect it before the install program asks for the port. I haven't found this to be a problem.
• Plug and Play will recognize the L6000, at least for me. That's a good sign, but the wizard won't do a proper install and complete successful.
• Canon also says to turn on the printer at boot time - I haven't found this to be a problem - we have this computer powered through an older surge protector with separate on/off switches for printer, monitor and computer. Most of the time we hit the ALL (computer, monitor, printer) switch, then the front power switch on the computer, but we can and do turn the printer off and on during a work session.

Go into the BIOS of the computer - change the settings for the Printer Port to

From cold power, you'll need to enter the BIOS edit screen:
Read the screen - it may tell you what key to press to start the BIOS.
Any of these keys: Esc, F2, Delete, Control.

Navigate over to Advanced, Optional, etc settings. 

Look for IO Devices, Port settings, and look for the Parallel port option:

• Enabled
• ECP
• Not Auto for interrupts - but specify them... the defaults are fine, just don't leave the AUTO setting.

Start Windows XP

Do the Windows Update process, repeating the process until there are no additional security or driver updates that need to be done.

In the XP Control panel, choose System, Hardware, Device Manager, and then Ports.

You should see the ECP Printer Port (LPT1). Open the Properties for this.

For tab Port Settings, chick Use any interrupt assigned to the port.

And Enable legacy plug and Play detection works for this computer.

Do the normal install of the Canon Multipass driver.

We use our L6000 for on demand faxing, so I set the options to Manual.

It works fine.

Troubleshooting

Use the correct printer cable.

I tried a number of the different settings in the BIOS and XP before I went back to

ECP

Default to normal interrupt settings.

In XP, Use any interrupt assigned to port.

I didn't like the Status Monitor under Windows 98 or Windows Millennium because it ran as a full application with a stupid screen, but in Windows XP, it shows up as a Tray item plus a small toolbar with an information window. The programmers did a good job on this one.

Can this printer be shared?

All the docs and other web rants say "No."  I haven't tried - but I don't think so.

Canon is Hiring 3/2003

And, by the way, in researching this problem/solution, I found that Canon is hiring (as of 3/2003) for a software engineer:

"Position Description/Job Duties:
You will work on-site at the Microsoft facility in Redmond. You will develop printer drivers for the next MS operating system. You will be responsible for debugging, analyzing and handling issues as reported by CDA, Canon Inc in Japan and Microsoft. "

The position was advertised at http://jobs.cda.canon.com/390.shtml (which may be gone when you read this.).

Current job link for Canon Development is at http://www.cda.canon.com/ 

If you are a client or a friend and I directed you to this page, your part of the process of receiving help is to understand the issues I raise here and to ask for further clarification.

My part of the process is to create the procedures and clarify further if needed.

Craig Roberts