How to fix Star Micronics printers when you have recently upgraded to Windows 10
Introduction
This guide explains how to fix problems occurring with Star Micronics printers after you upgrade to Windows 10 from an older version of Windows, or when you have updated your current Windows 10 device to a newer version of Windows 10. This fix is required for the TSP100 series to print; however, other models will lose the ability to get status from the driver if this fix is not applied.
Supported Printers: Star Micronics Printers using TSP100 futurePRNT software and StarPRNT software
Supported Interfaces: All Interfaces
Supported Environments: Windows 10 (32/64-bit)
Devices Needed: Star Micronics Printer, Windows PC or tablet
Software Needed: TSP100 futurePRNT software, StarPRNT software, Bidirectional Control Tool
If you don’t have the Bi-directional tool installed
Left-click on the Windows start button in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.
Now navigate to the “Windows System Folder” located under “W” open the folder and then open “Control Panel”.
Control panel will now open, under “Hardware and Sound” please open “View Devices and Printers”.
Under the printer’s section you will see your Star Micronics printer’s driver icon.
Please right click on this icon and select “Printer Properties”.
The Printer Properties window will now open.
Please go to the “Ports” tab and confirm that “Enable bidirectional support” is checked. If this setting is not checked please do so and click “Apply”.
To confirm if these changes resolved the issues with the printer click on the “General” tab in printer properties and click on “Print Test Page”.
If the test page fails to print, reboot your computer and repeat the aforementioned process. If the test page continued=s to fail, please reinstall the driver. Proceed to section IV of this guide for instructions how to uninstall nd reinstall the printer driver.
Downloading and using the Bi-directional tool
Please go to our support website www.Starmicronics.com/support. For product type select TSP100 futurePRNT, StarPRNT Intelligence, or StarPRNT for Portable depending on your printer model.
The web page will refresh and under recommended you will see the Bidirectional Control Tool. Please download this application.
Once downloaded navigate to the folder where you saved it. Right click on the folder and left click “Extract all” and the window below will appear.
Left click on “Extract”
A new window will appear (as seen below) please open this folder.
Now you will open either the “x64” or the “x86” folder depending on what operating system you have. For 64bit systems please choose “x64” and for 32bit operating systems choose “x86”.
Now open and run the “SMJEnableBidiControl” application.
The application will now open as seen below.
Please type in the letter “Y” and press enter and the application will close.
To confirm that “Enable bidirectional support” setting has been applied
Left click on the Windows start button in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.
Now navigate to the “Windows System Folder” located under “W” open the folder and then open “Control Panel”.
Control panel will now open, under “Hardware and Sound” please open “View Devices and Printers”.
Under the printer’s section you will see your printer driver icon.
Please right click on this icon and select “Printer Properties”.
The Printer Properties window will now open.
Please go to the “Ports” tab and confirm that “Enable bidirectional support” is checked.
Uninstalling printer and reinstalling
To uninstall the software and the driver from the windows computer please follow these instructions. Remove the printer from “Devices and Printers” This can be done by right clicking on the printers Icon and left click on remove device. You will then have to uninstall the Star Micronics software. To do this navigate to “control panel” “programs and features” and then “uninstall a program”. Scroll to the Star Micronics software highlight it and right click and then left click on “uninstall”
Once you have removed the software from the Windows computer you can go to our support website www.starmicronics.com/support to download the software.
Search our Help Center if you need help reinstalling the printer and software.