I used to work at a place that had an Epson 3000. We were running it on OS 9 with the ADB port connection. It was a great printer. We were using the Epson Stylus RIP software to emulate Postscript compatibility. Are you running OS X? What exactly is it doing when you hook it up?

We bought the network card and access it thru a hub.
No problems at all with OSX.
Some new probs with OS9 with that new Epson Driver.
Also, and I can't remember the exact order, but you have to do 2 updates in the correct order or you start over.
Illustrator 10 on OS9 outright HATES that new Epson driver.
Sometimes for no apparent reason it will give an out of memory error too in just about any program in OS9. A reboot will usually start up the print spool and you can get your print. I have a feeling, although it doesn't say so on Epson's site, that the new driver is more for OSX.

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing