Driver for StyleWriter 11

[telford.moore]

My G3 iMac recently conked and I have got a 2001 iBook to replace it. My main need is to get it to print, using my old but very good, StyleWriter 11 printer (and Mac OS 9). I had a printer driver for this printer in my iMac, but after it conked, the only driver that I could find is in a 20-year old Zip Disk and it does not work in the iBook - damaged/corrupted, I guess. Can anyone advise where I can get a driver for the StyleWriter 11 printer?

[FdB]

Found original "floppies" carried an external usb floppy drive up to
connect to this 2009 iMac and then checked MacintoshGarden.org

Try this... http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/stylewriter-ii

A "still working" StyleWriter? Amazing.

However, noted from https://www.gla.ac.uk … the following
(concerning StyleWriter II and OS 9.2)…

• If you have a StyleWriter, StyleWriter II, or StyleWriter 1200,
use the Color SW 1500 driver that comes with Mac OS 9.2
(instead of installing your original printer software).

[telford.moore]

My problem of a conked G3 iMac using a StyleWriter II printer

I summarise the events of this problem for the possible interest of others.

I have used a StyleWriter II printer connected to a G3 iMac for some years until the iMac conked recently. I could not get another G3 iMac within a reasonable distance of me, but managed to get a 2001 G3 iBook.

I copied a StyleWriter II printer driver from a Zip disk on which I had saved a Mac OS 7.6.1 system in about 1998 (it was a back-up of my Classic II). I installed that driver into Extensions of the iBook, but the next mouse click resulted in the iBook freezing & the only ways to unfreeze it were to restart the iBook with Extensions OFF or use a CD, and then move the driver out of Extensions. This led me to surmise that maybe the driver had corrupted over time, tho that idea seemed dubious after I had tried drivers from 2 more back-up Zip disks. I looked on the web in the hope of getting a download of the driver, but tho there were quite a number of StyleWriter drivers for PC printers, I found none for the StyleWriter II printer.

I then turned to “macos 9 lives” and put a “HELP” in its Help section in the hope that someone may advise me of a website to download a driver. I was fortunate that someone replied and told me that a Color StyleWriter 1500 driver should drive a StyleWriter II printer and advised me how to get one - the fact that I failed to get one for some time was entirely my fault. Eventually, I got one by following his patient advice - from the Apple install CD that I had used to install Mac OS 9.2.2 into the iBook. However, the same thing happened as had happened with the StyleWriter II driver - putting it into Extensions caused the iBook to freeze.

I then decided that I could not possibly succeed with the project & emailed the chap from whom I had got the iBook - an Apple-trained man, who runs an Apple computer service business from his home. He was the very able technical brains at an Apple business and started his business when the Apple business that he worked at closed (his garage is packed with Apple stuff kept when the firm closed). The chap called 3 days later & brought an external floppy reader (I still had the original 4 printer driver install floppies) and a 14.2” PowerBook, as he thought it possible that my iBook had simply developed a fault (after all, it is old!). He installed the StyleWriter II printer driver (that I suspected) into the PowerBook (just as old as the iBook) & the Belkin USB serial adapter software needed and then tried to print - it did so immediately!

Telford Moore
Monifieth
Scotland