Windows 7: cant install printer driver when sharing HP printer

Hi,
I have just installed Windows 7 32 bit on a desktop PC which has a HP deskjet F2180 attached to it via USB. I downloaded the Windows 7 32 bit full feature driver and installed it. I have also enabled the printer to be shared on the network.



Now I have also just installed W732 bit on a Laptop. Both computers in are the same homegroup with same password etc.

When i try to add printer, network printer ... it finds the F2180 HP printer pretty quickly. However when it goes on to connect and download the drivers I get an error ..

"Unable to install printer. Driver files are missing or incorrect ...".

I have been searching for a solution to this, or to try and understand the problem but with no success. It would be really appreciated if anyone can shed any light on this?

Thanks in advance, Mike.

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums, Mike.

You may need to turn off password protected sharing in Homegroup's advanced settings.



You may also need to install your printer's HP driver to your laptop rather than the Windows driver.

Many thanks for this idea.

I have just managed to try this out, but without any success. I can't see why it thinks the driver files are "missing or incorrect". I found and downloaded a HP network printing troubleshooter ... but that couldn't even see the printer attached to the other PC.

Pretty much scratching my head at this point !!

Any ideas?

Have a look at this tut in case there's anything you're missing.

Driver Install - Add Printer Wizard

Thanks for the info ...

I have been trying to add the printer as a network printer. However even going through the route of local printer with \\computer\printername doesn't change the error i eventually get....

I just tried picking a different driver ... a HP F3000 series driver rather than a HP F2000 series driver ... and it installed ok! Seems the HP F2000 driver is no good. Have put some messages on HP Forums, but not optimistic!

Many thanks for your help ... if you have any other suggestions i would be glad to hear of them.

Mike

You may have been to this site, but I'll post it just in case you haven't.

HP Deskjet F2100 All-in-One Printer series*-* Download drivers and software - HP Business Support Center

Thanks seavixen ... I appreciate the thought.

I've been using this page to get my driver for the F2180 Software & Driver Downloads HP Deskjet F2180 All-in-One Printer - HP technical support (United Kingdom - English)

I really don't know where i go from here ... will continue to try hp forums. I noticed that HP website says Windows 7 has the basic driver for F2180 in the OS so i just need to select it from the list during the add printer wizard. Tried that but with no success (actually it has F2100 series driver). Am i being a bit dim on this, but it should work shouldn't it?

I'm going to try installing the printer directly via usb to the laptop, so i know the driver is installed. then put it back on the desktop and try to use the local port to add it.

Mike

All I have left is to ask you to make sure you're downloading a 32-bit driver and not a 64-bit driver.

One other small point, when you're grabbing the driver from HP, do you save it to your hard drive first, and then install it?

If not, try it and make sure you right-click the installer first then choose run as adminstrator.

first connect the printer to usb on the other computer. Does it install printer drivers and is it printing fine?
is so, disconnect and connect printer back to original computer. From other computer go to printer settings and "Ports" tab. Add a port something like \\Nameofsharingpc\nameofprintershare

post results

thanks for the advice ...

well i connected the printer to the laptop and tried to install the full feature drivers.

All appeared to be going well, hp install asked me to connect the printer which i did. However windows not the hp install s/w told me the device had failed to install (gave me a list of drivers for the device ... all installed ok except the "HP F2100 series driver").

hp install s/w left hanging and i had to kill the process.

Now i need to cleanup after this mess and see if there's something been left around which is preventing the install...

Any know of a good cleanup utility -- i use ccleaner normally.

Mike