[cups.general] Epson printer problems

[squareyes]

Hi all,
having problems getting my Epson LQ 500 dot matrix printer to work
properly. Running Ubuntu Linux, but have had the same problem on a
number of Linux distributions.
Installed cups and gimp print, but with the driver in the list, printer
will only print left hand side of the page. Set at 300x180 quality is
poor.
Have been to the Epson site, they refer back to the cups site.
If I setup printer as 24 pin, quality is better, but still only left
hand side of page prints. Any other setup, e.g. generic results in
continuous pages of machine code that need the printer to be
uninstalled, switched off and a re-boot. If I don't re-boot, the machine
code starts up as soon as printer is switched on. Have had over 50 pages
of it on the floor.
I am on a pension, and can't afford a new printer, and as we have been
together for quite some time don't wish to retire it anyway. I only
print text. Printer works fine under Windows.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

Winton