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Getting Brother MFC-6800 printer/scanner/fax machine working

If you get stuck, there's always CUPS. Basically, you install a small virtual-machine Linux distro on your Win10 system, then network to that as a CUPS server. I can find details if you're interested.
 
Does anything show on the printer, assuming it has a display?

It has a 2 x16 character matrix LCD. Here is what it says now. Yesterday it also said to replace the drum soon.
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I rebooted my computer, deleted the printer, disconnect it, reconnected it, and now it prints! It turns out it is in port USB002, not USB001.

Now, the next problem: How do I get my computer to also recognize it as a scanner? I'm using both Win10 Paint and Paint Shop Pro 6. Neither show it as a source.

Incidentally, it still says the driver is unavailable, even though it successfully prints.
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Why on earth would Windows care which USB port you plugged your printer into? Linux doesn't care about what's plugged into what port.
Been too long from that abomination, I think.
 
Why on earth would Windows care which USB port you plugged your printer into? Linux doesn't care about what's plugged into what port.
Been too long from that abomination, I think.
Normally, it doesn't, but I had manually specified USB001. I had checked via the list in Device Manager before and after plugging it in. I was sure it was in USB001.
 
Why on earth would Windows care which USB port you plugged your printer into? Linux doesn't care about what's plugged into what port.
Been too long from that abomination, I think.

I had to deal with this irritation with a label printer at work. Raymond Chan explains: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20041110-00/?p=37343

Basically the Brother printer doesn't send a serial number to the host, so Windows has to kludge things.

The printer itself speaks PCL, so it will print with Window's built-in generic drivers.

Brother has a help page that implies there is built-in scanning support.... likely a generic WIA driver, don't expect a fancy interface: https://support.brother.com/g/b/faqend.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=mfc6800_us&faqid=faq00002994_001
 
I had to deal with this irritation with a label printer at work. Raymond Chan explains: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20041110-00/?p=37343
Interesting. I never knew about device serial numbers that are sent electronically when plugged into USB.

The printer itself speaks PCL, so it will print with Window's built-in generic drivers.
Not to get off-topic, but I contest that it will work with generic drivers. I had to go seek a very specific driver that was archived only on the on the Microsoft Update Catalog website.

Brother has a help page that implies there is built-in scanning support.... likely a generic WIA driver, don't expect a fancy interface: https://support.brother.com/g/b/faqend.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=mfc6800_us&faqid=faq00002994_001
I already followed all of that.

The question remains:
Now, the next problem: How do I get my computer to also recognize it as a scanner? I'm using both Win10 Paint and Paint Shop Pro 6. Neither show it as a source.

Incidentally, it still says the driver is unavailable, even though it successfully prints.
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Doesn't the printer send a VID/PID pair via USB? That should be enough for it to be identified.
The owner's manual has no found mentions of either "VID" or "PID".
 
I found an ISO of what must be the original installation CD on the Internet Archive.
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I extracted the ISO contents with paths, burned them to a physical CD, and ran setup.exe.

Heh. The window title is "Flash." It must run on Adobe Flash. Good thing I haven't uninstalled that. (Because if I did, I wouldn't be able to still use the Homestar Runner site!)
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And dead-ended. #*#@&$#(*&!
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Doesn't the printer send a VID/PID pair via USB? That should be enough for it to be identified.
The owner's manual has no found mentions of either "VID" or "PID".

I've never heard of VID or PID before. Here's an article that gives instructions on finding the VID/PID of a given USB device.

Here's what is listed under Computer Management/System Tools/Device Manager. I suppose it is likely one of the ones I've circled in blue.
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From top to bottom, here are screenshots of the VIDs and PIDs of those composite devices. I don't know which goes to which device that I have plugged in.
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Now that I've got these VIDs and PIDs, what do I do with them?
 
Get a linux box., "lsusb" at a command prompt shows this:
Code:
Bus 009 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 05e3:0745 Genesys Logic, Inc. Logilink CR0012
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 05e3:0616 Genesys Logic, Inc. hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 1b3f:2247 Generalplus Technology Inc. GENERAL WEBCAM
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 05e3:0610 Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0d8c:0012 C-Media Electronics, Inc. USB Audio Device
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
...and that's just the "brief" output. The detail runs for many screens. Dunno why Windows doesn't have the smarts for this.
 
VueScan is legit paid software, but it really should "just work" in Windows if Brother did things the same as HP did. My parents had an HP OfficeJet 4100 from around the same time period. Drivers were similar, 32-bit Windows XP only and never updated. When Windows Vista came out, HP support said the same thing that Brother did, just plug it in and allow drivers from Windows Update to download. It did indeed work, but both the printer driver and scanner driver were basic in function. The scanner used the generic WIA interface to configure scans. I don't recall if there was any PC originated faxing driver, but my parents never used that anyway.
 
There is a basic scanner app, "Windows Scan" in the Microsoft Store


If you scroll further down the page there are files for the scanner? Will the Windows/2000 ones work?
 
What do I do with the USB addresses once I have them? Can I assign a USB address at will?

As a side question on a somewhat-relevant webcam conflict issue I have this week, are USB addresses editable/reassignable to a device in Windows 10, or is that a matter of hardware, not operating system?

There is a basic scanner app, "Windows Scan" in the Microsoft Store


The Windows Scan app also does not recognize that a scanner is connected.
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If you scroll further down the page there are files for the scanner? Will the Windows/2000 ones work?
If you mean the app webpage, tere are no such driver files. If you mean the Microsoft Update Catalog, I already tried one for Windows XP. Windows 2000 is even further outdated from the Windows 10 that I am running than XP.
 
Here's something I found. Should I try it, or is it too suspicious?
View attachment 1251190

Having no other recourse at this point, I downloaded the trialware program VueScan by Hamrick Software.
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After installing, instantly the scanner works in Windows 10! Here's a preview scan of its own test page.

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Unfortunately, VueScan seems to be the only program that can do the scanning; I still can't get Paint or Paint Shop Pro 6 to see the scanner. I don't know what VueScan does that makes it work and makes the working proprietary. Whatever. I'm calling this a win and finally moving on to my next vintage computer project. 😌

The third function--faxing--will have to wait until and if I get a landline, which actually may happen this summer.
 
An admin or similar moved this thread to Forums/Completely off Topic/General Off Topic. Reason given was "A 2016 printer is not vintage." I don't want to make a big deal of it, but the printer is from 2004, which is a big difference from 2016. It's got a fax line too. The reason I can't/couldn't get it working is that modern operating systems no longer support it. I just wanted to add that for the record.
 
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