Printer driver for Lexmark Optra E310 on Windows 10

I just upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and discovered that my old laser printer Lexmark Optra 310 did no longer work and was not recognized as a printer by W10. Googling on printer drivers for E310 for W10 did not turn up anything useful (mostly the list of dubious driver download sites), but then I thought that I somehow made the printer work under Windows 7 and tried to find out how I did that some years ago. This was more fruitful and it turned out that the same trick worked in Windows 10. Here is the link to the trick:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/need-to-run-lexmark-optra-e310-with-windows-7-is/8b1d3e5a-e86d-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5

In case the link expires, here are the instructions again:

Installing Optra E310 Printer Driver in Windows 10

  1. “Start” > “Control Panel” > “Devices and Printers”.
  2. “Add a Printer”.
  3. “Add a Local Printer”.
  4. Select “Use existing port” > Select “USB001” from “Pull-Down menu”.
  5. Press “Next” button.
  6. Press “Windows Update” button.   {wait while new drivers are downloaded}
  7. Select Manufacturer “Lexmark”.
  8. Select Printer “Lexmark Optra E312” PS or MS.
  9. Press “Next” button
  10. Rename “Optra E312 to E310”.
  11. Press “Next” button.
  12. Press “Finish” button.
  13. End.

Update on 2015-12-11

I installed a bunch of Windows updates today and after that, the Lexmark E310 printer was no longer available. I tried the above procedure, but was unable to get past the “Devices and printers” window that tried to search for the printer but found nothing. I then searched in Windows for “add local printer” (or rather the equivalent in Swedish) and found another more useful dialog where there was an option “The printer I am looking for is not listed”. After that I could follow the steps above to get back the ability to print using this old laser printer.

Update on 2016-09-23

Today I got the “Windows 10 Anniversary Edition” update. It took a while to install (about on hour on a laptop and maybe 20 minutes on a more powerful machine). Again the printer stopped working and I tried to get it working using the above method (remove printer, add printer, printer is not listed etc), but after this I was not able to print. Instead I got some error message from Windows. I almost gave up, but then uninstalled the printer and turned it off and on. After that a test page that I had previously tried to print came out of the printer! I reinstalled the printer in the same way and after this it seems to be working. Phew.

Update on 2017-07-16

After getting the “Windows 10 Creator’s Update”, the printer disappeared again from the list of printers in Windows. The printer settings are no longer located under “Devices and Printers”, but under “Printers and Scanners” (why keep anything consistent when you can change it?). It was however reasonably straightforward to get the driver to work again using the guidelines above, but adapted to the new dialogs. Here is brief list of how to navigate the settings to get the printer working again:

  1. Turn the printer on
  2. Run Printers and Scanners
  3. Add a printer or scanner
  4. The printer that I want isn’t listed
  5. Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings
  6. Select the port USB001
  7. Use the driver that is currently installed (Lexmark E312)
  8. Change the printer name to Lexmark Optra E310
  9. Select if you want to share it on the network

 

11 thoughts on “Printer driver for Lexmark Optra E310 on Windows 10

  1. Thanks for the info “Printer driver for Lexmark Optra E310 on Windows 10”. I Think I did the same with W7. Good to know that it works with W10 as well.

    Best regards,
    Mikael

    1. Printer was no longer detected 2022-08-18.
      I removed as much as possible but can’t remove the port.
      Not possible to find the E312 driver anymore
      Installed:
      “Lexmark_Universal_v2_UD1_Installation_Package_02072022.exe”
      from:
      https://www.lexmark.com/en_us/support/universal-print-driver.html
      Manual added a PS3 printer to the old port.
      It worked!
      Maybe I can use this old printer for another 20 years 😉

  2. Hi thanks for he explanation. I remember i did the same under win 7 but now under win 10 I don’t have the possibility to do step 4 Select “Use existing port” > Select “USB001” from “Pull-Down menu”. There is now USB001 entry in the Pull-Down menu. Also no other USBXXX entry. Only LPT and COM.
    I tried to create a new local port with that name but this is also not working.
    Don’t know why I don’t have the option USB001 available. I tried all three available usb ports but for all it behavs the same.
    Any idea or suggestion?
    Many thanks in advance and best regards,
    Andreas

  3. Thanks a lot for the information.
    I followed your instructions and the update on 2015-12-11 and..
    it works!!!
    Many thanks and best regards
    Pierre

  4. Thanks for posting this – especially with the comments for the various Win10 updates – it worked for me. It’s great to know that I don’t have to keep an old XP or Vista PC around to continue to use my trusty Lexmark.
    One thing I don’t understand is why the E312 wasn’t on the printer list straight off – it only appears after runnining the Update option (so don’t miss out that step in the instructions folks!). After all, it pre-dates Win10 by many years! Maybe it was just a case of MS leaving off a lot of printer drivers from the initial deployment to save space.

    1. Here I am again, 5 years later!
      I can’t believe how difficult MS keeps making this job. I know I had my E310 working in Win10 before (same PC, two HDD swaps ago). No sign of the Optra E310 on the Update list now.
      I tried the Universal Driver workaround that Mikael suggested. That appeared to run (I selected Postscript 3, as per his suggestion), but no new printer appeared in Windows. Then I ran through the Manual install process again. This time the Universal Driver appeared on the driver list. I chose this and let it install to USB001. It offered to do a test print, but that failed. There’s a “Get help with printing” link on the test print pop-up, but that just takes me to a web site advertising Win11. (Are you crazy, Microsoft?! I’m having enough trouble with Win10!) So I went into the Printer properties and tried changing the port to the other USB alternative (“USB005 Virtual printer port for USB”). Success!

  5. The “Lexmark Optra E312” doesn’t appear anymore in the list after clicking on the Windows Update button. I chose “Lexmark E320 (MS)” instead and I managed to print a test document.

    1. Hi guys i managed to print a correct testpage in Windows 10:

      1) Goto Lexmark and Download the Universal Driver (https://www.lexmark.com/en_us/support/universal-print-driver.html)
      2) Install the whole package (a lot of printer driver will be installed)
      2.1) I also installed the E320 pre version (Windows XP), but i think its not needed it anyhow ends up with an error
      3) Install any Lexmark (i have chosen the E360 was the closest) and name it “E 310”
      4) Goto to the Printer driver tick Driver and choose the “Lexmark universal driver”
      5) Testpage worked

      Upon the Printerinfo:

      Caption:
      Configuration File: C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\UNIDRVUI.DLL
      Creation Class Name: Win32_PrinterDriver
      Data File: C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O40.GPD
      Default Data Type:
      Dependent Files: C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O40M.GPD C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O40.GDL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O40.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O40.TXT C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O4B.GDL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O4B.XML C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O4BW.XML C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O4A.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O4C.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O4Z.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OUI.CHM C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O4Z.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1O40.INI C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OUA.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OUB.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OUC.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OUD.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OUE.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OUF.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OUG.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OUH.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OP0.XML C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OPU.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OBC.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OBJ.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OPT.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OPT.XML C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OTD.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\LMUD1OIMG.PNG C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\UNIRES.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\STDNAMES.GPD C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\STDDTYPE.GDL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\STDSCHEM.GDL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\STDSCHMX.GDL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\TTFSUB.GPD C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\PCLXL.DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\PCLXL.GPD C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\P6FONT.GPD C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\PJL.GPD C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\P6DISP.GPD C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\PCL5ERES.DLL
      Description:
      Driver Path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\UNIDRV.DLL
      File Path:
      Help File: C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\UNIDRV.HLP
      Inf Name:
      Installation Date:
      Monitor Name:
      Name: Lexmark Universal v2,3,Windows x64
      OEM Url: http://www.lexmark.com
      Started:
      Start Mode:
      Status:
      Supported Platform: Windows x64
      System Creation Class Name: Win32_ComputerSystem
      System Name:
      Version: 3

  6. Thank you for the post. Because of you , I have made my OPTRA E310 printer a shared printer for my win 10 computers. My optra T612 died.

  7. Have same problem of using old 310 printer and finding it not working again (this time offline and could not be got back online).
    I can confirm that first instructions still good to get it working again August 2022.
    thanks for only useful guidance on web.

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