Windows 7 - Trouble connecting to network printer

I have a new laptop with windows 7 home premium (64 bit) and I am trying to connect with a shared printer on my home network. The printer is connected through USB to a 32 bit desktop with XP SP3. All windows updates are up to date on both machines.

I have both computers on the same workgroup and can see and access shared files and directories on both computers. I can see the XP printer from the windows 7 laptop. No matter how I have tried to connect with it, I get a connection error.

I have dowloaded and installed the latest drivers for the printer (Lexmark X1150). There has been an updated XP driver which I just installed on the desktop. The printer does not have a windows 7 driver, but it says to use the vista driver, so that is the driver I installed on the windows 7 laptop. I can access the printer and get it to work if I plug it directly into the windows 7 machine (so I assume that means the driver works).

I am just using windows firewall on both computers with AVAST security software. Tried to connect with both firewalls completely turned off, with no luck.

I've tried to connect to the printer on the XP machine in these ways:
1) by "add a new printer", "network printer", specifying \\xpdesktop\lexmark. A window pops up that says “connecting to Lexmark X1100 Series on xpcomputer”. Then in a few seconds that window says “finishing installation” and an error window pops up that says “windows cannot connect to the printer. Operation failed with error 0x0000000d”

2) by double clicking on the printer I can see in the network places. Same result as above…

3) by "add a new printer", "local printer", and specifying the \\xpdesktop\lexmark port. It tries to download a driver from windows update but my printer is not on the list, and my disk has nothing for windows 7. (why can't I browse to a driver... and it should be already installed anyway???)

4) by plugging in the printer directly to the laptop. Then plugging it into the desktop and changing the port on the laptop to \\xpdesktop\lexmark. I can do that without error, but when I go to print I get a message that windows “cannot communicate with the printer”.

I’ve spent over 8 hours trying to get this to work. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Are you setting the printeras a shared printer on the XP machine ?

yes, I sure am. That's the first thing I did.

( ....I have dowloaded and installed the latest drivers for the printer (Lexmark X1150). There has been an updated XP driver which I just installed on the desktop. The printer does not have a windows 7 driver, but it says to use the vista driver, so that is the driver I installed on the windows 7 laptop. I can access the printer and get it to work if I plug it directly into the windows 7 machine (so I assume that means the driver works). )

ok... above is where you went wrong IMO.....
1. just uninstall any drivers to do with the printer on Windows 7 machine first and reboot.
2. now try to add the printer again normal way as you did before.
3. windows will ask that a driver is needed and it will install that driver without you taking any part in this.
4. You should get a result now.
Good luck.

Thanks Madman,

Quickly tried to figure out how to uninstall the driver, but I can't find the "print management" option under administrative tools for some reason. I'll have to try again tonight when I have more time. I'll be back...

no you will not find it in print management... what you do just remove the printer START >> DEVICES AND PRINTERS>> remove the printer from there and reboot and go through adding a network printer again and let windows install the printer network driver ... for the benefits of this forums please let us know how you got on please

Well, I removed the printer and rebooted two or three times but it would always reappear again. Then I saw there were three documents in the queue waiting to be printed. It doesn't let me cancel these and they don't go away when I reboot. When I select cancel all documents, the status bar says "error processing command". Seems like I need to kill these jobs before I can completely remove it. How do I do that?

Thanks!!!

yes.. thats right...to kill the jobs try that from the other computer the printer is connected to..try to print or cancell or just unplug the printer and replug.

OK, so I killed the print jobs, then I uninstalled the drivers, then restarted the computer. Then I added a new printer, "network printer", then selected the shared printer from the list. A window popped up that said "searching for a driver". That was up for 10 seconds or so, then it changed to "finishing installation", then it suddenly gave the same error as before: "Windows cannot connect to the printer". "operation failed with error 0X000000d".

Argh. What can I do now?

Disconnect the printer from power supply/reboot/ then clear all existing docs in queue/shut down/plug in printer and restart.
It worked for me one time when I had your problem. IMO