ALPS MicroDry Printer Drivers

This page summarizes information on ALPS printer drivers, where to obtain them, and installation procedures.

Links in References below.

Back to Index

Supported Operating Systems and Architectures

Officially-supported operating system versions for ALPS printers have been heavily extended by experimentation by users, through use of virtual machines and other workarounds.

Back to Index

Printer-to-Computer Connection

Printer-to-computer connection depends on the printer model, computer hardware, and the driver to be used.

Older PCs and notebooks have parallel ports while newer computers only have USB ports; and for Macintosh hardware older computers have only SCSI ports while never ones have only USB support.
SCSI cards can provide SCSI connectivity to PC hardware too.

Some printer models are SCSI-only, others parallel-only, some can be both parallel and SCSI, or USB and SCSI.

Parallel-to-USB adapter cables can connect a parallel printer to a computer's USB port. ALPS printers communicate bi-directionally with ALPS virtual LPT ports, so adapter cables without such capability will require uni-directional settings for parallel communication in the computer's BIOS settings.

Uni-directional Parallel-to-USB Connection and Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 Support

This section pertains specifically to Microsoft Windows operating systems, and printers prior to the MD-5500 with only parallel port capability.

It is possible to use a parallel-to-USB cable in uni-directional mode (bi-directional mode works for a subset of cables, including the official ALPS parallel-to-USB cable). Note that this does not change the fact that drivers do not work on 64-bit Windows, and 32-bit virtual machines need to be used in that case.

If bi-directional support works on the user's system, so much the better.

Pre-installation Checks

  1. Disconnect Cable:
    Ensure parallel-to-USB cable is not connected to the computer's USB port (it can be connected to the printer's parallel port).
  2. Uninstall ALPS Driver:
    If an ALPS printer driver is already installed for your intended printer model, uninstall it from the Windows Control Panel ("Add or Remove Programs", or "Programs and Features").
  3. Remove Printer Instances:
    From Control Panel ("Printers and Faxes", or "Devices and Printers"), remove any installed ALPS printer instance corresponding to your intended printer model (right click on icon, select "delete").

Driver Installation

  1. Run Driver Setup:
    Run Setup program of the driver for the particular printer model (e.g., MD-1300, MD-5000, or MD-5000P if dye-sublimation key is fitted; likewise for the MD-5500) and complete the installation.
  2. Check Printer Icon:
    In the Control Panel "Printers and Faxes", or "Devices and Printers", check that the ALPS printer icon appears for the intended printer instance (e.g., MD-1300, MD-5000, or MD-5000P, etc.).
    If after the below setting actions the icon displays "offline", right-click on it, choose the option to change the printer to "online", and the icon should now display wording to the effect that it is "ready".

USB Connection Setting

  1. Connect Cable:
    Attach parallel-to-USB cable (connected to the parallel port on the powered-up printer already) to a USB port on the computer. Wait about one minute for Windows to detect the new connection.
  2. Set Printer Connection:
    Right-click on the intended printer icon (see Driver Installation subsection above), choose the "Properties" (or "Printer Properties") and select the "Port" tab.
    Change the port from "FILE" (the default if installing the driver without a connected printer) to "USB00x Virtual printer port for USB" (where USB00x corresponds to USB001, USB002, etc.), where the intended USB00x is the one where the cable is connected. This needs to be ascertained by the user: if this is the first USB-connected device, then USB001 is the choice; if one or more USB devices are present already, then the next highest number needs to be chosen.
    Uncheck the "bi-directional support" option, and press the OK button.
    Note: if "bi-directional support" is not unchecked, the printer queue will not disappear after printing, or the printer may use CMYK inks for black-only printing, among other issues.

Note on Microsoft ALPS driver

For Windows XP, if the parallel-to-USB cable is attached to the computer (already attached to the powered-up printer) while the computer is powered up, the OS will automatically detect the ALPS printer connection, displaying such information in the lower right of the screen, and then install the Microsoft ALPS driver. This driver is marked with "MS" (e.g., "ALPS MD-5000(MS)"), and as it lacks the functionality of the native ALPS driver, it should not be set as the default printer.

To avoid confusion, this driver should be uninstalled, but the OS may automatically install it again if the user attaches a powered-up printer via the parallel-to-USB cable to Windows XP at some point. Thus, if the Microsoft driver is installed, it should simply not be set to be the default printer.

Furthermore, if the user attaches the parallel-to-USB cable to a different USB port than on initial installation, the Microsoft driver will again be installed for this new port.

Post-installation Actions

  1. Reboot Windows:
    Reboot the computer.
  2. Check Port Settings:
    In the Control Panel "Printers and Faxes", or "Devices and Printers", right-click on the intended ALPS printer icon, choose "Properties" (or "Printer Properties"), select the "Port" tab, and make sure that the "bi-directional support" and "printer pool" options are unchecked.
  3. Print Processor Settings:
    Under the print processor, depending on adapter and/or connection used, "RAW [FF Auto]" may not work; if that's the case, you need to try plain "RAW" or "RAW [FF Appended]", one of those will then work (when used with the parallel port adapter, plain "RAW" works fine).

Pre-Printing Check

Cable Connection: If you remove the parallel-to-USB cable from the computer, then before printing, power on (or reboot) the computer ensuring beforehand that the cable is connected to exactly the same physical USB port as it was during the initial installation. The cable should be connected to the powered-up printer already.

After this setup, printing will function properly; however, as a result of uni-directional communication, the computer-based printer status and error monitor do not work.

Therefore, if error lights on the printer blink, it is up to the user to determine whether the problem is one of the following common issues, to which a user soon becomes accustomed in practice:

In particular, spot colour printing and combined CMYK printing (with multiple page feeding) are fully functional.

If during printing the ink ribbon is exhausted, the printer will return the paper to the initial feeding position, the error lamp will blink, and a message that printing failed will appear in the screen lower right area. The procedure for the user is to open the front cover, replace the empty ink cartridge (the ink ribbon will have fed until the silver and black zebra stripes are visible) with one that still has usable amount of ribbon in it, and close the front cover again. The printer will automatically continue printing from where it left off.

References

English language drivers are available from the the ALPS group on Groups.io. The official ALPS driver page in Japanese is given for reference.

  1. https://alps.groups.io/g/ALPS
  2. http://www.alps.co.jp/brand/printer/drive/driver.htm

Back to Index