Epson Picturemate issues

I'm having some issues with a brand new Picturemate installed on an PC with
an Intel D850 motherboard.

1. If the printer is powered up when powering off, the PC will take
*forever* to boot, appearing as hung. If the printer is off when powering
up, everything works as expected. You can then power up the printer and
continue on.

2. The Picturemate is not the default printer and yet on some occasions it
becomes the default.

Both problems fall into the "annoying but not bad enough to ditch the
printer" category but it would still be nice to eliminate them.

BTW: print quality is excellent; I would recommend this printer highly, esp.
for those folks (such as my wife) want a simple process to get 4x6 prints
out.

Any hints or suggestions welcome.

Thanks, George