Michel's Blog - some personal comments on life in SW France - Welcome to Michel's Place (michelsplace, michelsplace.fr)

Minolta CF3102 / CN3102e Drivers working on Windows 8.1

29/1/2014

Installing Minolta CF3102 / CN3102e / Fiery X3ein Windows 8.1

The rather wet spell of weather has persisted, and outside the ground is now very wet indeed - the water table is almost at surface level - so with no option to work outside in the garden I've turned my mind to sorting out the Minolta CF3102 over the last few days.
The Minolta drivers have not been updated since 2008, and although they installed and worked fine on Windows 7, I was unable to get them to install on Windows 8 / 8.1. I initally foudn a work-around, using a different Fiery driver which was available in Windows 8.1, and then modifying the ppd to talk to the 3102. Whilst this worked, it didn't have the more intuitive GUI of the original drivers. By attempting to install the printer manually, rather than using the "Add printer" wizard, I discovered that the root of the problem was that the drivers are not digitally signed. This led me to research how to overcome that issue, and the successful outcome is shown in the picture above. I've added some detailed information about this to the CF3102 page of this website for anyone else who may wish to use a similar machine under Windows 8 or 8.1. The FieryX3e (called CN3102e by Minolta) was used on quite a number of different models and makes of printer/copiers about 10 years ago, so my guess is there are still quite a lot of them out there. After spending some time fine tuning the colour balances, mine is now performing well once again.

After a rather wet spell ....

25/1/2014

.... over the last couple of days, the clouds finally cleared around lunchtime today and we had a lovely afternoon. It was very mild and the temperature peaked above 17c.
The wet spell gave me a chance to spend some time working on the Minolta CF3102 - since its move to France last September it had a problem which took some time to locate a spare part to be able to fix it. I've now managed to get it running again and printing from Windows 8.1. There are technically no drivers available but after a lot of time I've come up with a work-around. When time permits I'll write an article about it to add to the CF3102 page.

A bright afternoon ...

20/1/2014

Hellebores

..... tempted us out for a walk in the sunshine. The air had a bit of a nip, but it was 11c when we got back, so for this time of year that's not at all bad.

I spotted some splendid hellebores blooming beside the road in the village - in their sheltered corner they were looking particularly good.

We checked the garden carefully for any sign of mole activity when we got back from our walk - all's clear for now.

Out for drinks and a film with friends this evening - that will be a change from our usual routine.

The first of this year's flowers ...

15/1/2014

Winter Jasmine

..... on the winter jasmine opened today.

It's little more like winter, too, since it's only 7C outside and a fine, persistent drizzle has led to a rather gloomy sort of day. The forecast is better for tomorrow, though!

I've been spending some time fine tuning the colour profile of the Ricoh 3800C recently. and I think that I now have it as good as it's going to get.

I made a start looking at the Xerox 7300 profile this morning, but that looks like it may be a bigger job.

A mild January so far ....

13/1/2014

Hazel catkins

.... with a maximum of 17.7C recorded on the 10th and a minimum of 4c on the 5th.
The hazel tree is adorned with catkins already, and they looked striking against the blue sky this afternoon.

Our "détaupeur" has been doing its business, and after dispatching 4, I think the plot is clear for the time being. I've spent the last couple of afternoons flattening the many molehills so that any recurrence will now be immediately evident. Should there be any further activity, it should be easy to nip it in the bud next time.

The good weather continues ....

10/1/2014

Viburnum

.... with temperatures up to 15 or 16 again over the last few days. This has enabled further work in the garden, and the annual leaf clearing exercise is more or less done now. Some areas have already been cleared two, or even three times, but hopefully that should be the last major effort on that job for this season.

The mild weather has encouraged the viburnum to open its flowers over the last few days - the scent was very noticeable when I went out to take this photo this afternoon.

Prepared for dinner .....

4/1/2014

..... as our friends are coming round this evening.

The day began bright and mild, with an overnight low of 10c it's certainly a better start to the year than we had in 2013.

I treated myself to a new computer monitor, which arrived today. My trusty old Sony was still going, but it was a big old CRT - I must have had it 15 years. You can't beat its quality, even so. Hopefully this new Samsung will last as long!

After some heavy rain ...

2/1/2014

Artwork in InDesign

... during the night, there has been a gradual improvement in the weather today, and some pleasant spells of sunshine have lifted the temperature to 14c, which is a good level for the start of January!

I've been working on my photo yearbook over the last few days, and the first proof came off the press this morning ... a few tweaks will soon have it ready for this year's print run.

We're off to our neighbours for apéros this evening - always a sociable event.