Windows 7: Windows 7/XP problem

My trusty Kyocera Mita FS-3800 monochrome printer worked perfectly with my Dell Dimension C521 running Windows XP (with SP3) and also networked from my wife’s older Dell running XP, via a Linksys router with Internet connection. We recently replaced my wife’s Dell with a new Compaq running Windows 7, setting up the same network, which enables file sharing, but apparently not printing.

Although the Compaq shows the printer icon it will not print, showing <Test page failed to print. Would you like to view the print troubleshooter for assistance? (No help at all!) Operation could not be completed (error 0x00000006)>. If the printer is connected directly to the Compaq, it works perfectly from both computers, but this means having to power up the Compaq if I wish to print from the Dell.

I spent over an hour on the phone with the very friendly software support guys at John Lewis (where we bought the Compaq) and they agreed that I’d done everything correctly and they were stumped. A Windows 7/XP problem, they said. Other than doing what Microsoft obviously wish me to do i.e. upgrade from XP to Windows 7, does anyone have any ideas?

So, to begin, what machine is the machine plugged into/hosted off of? Sorry for asking, but your explanation made me a little confused as to exactly how the machine is plugged int.

Sorry for the confusion, which is what comes of trying to economise on words!

The printer is plugged into my Dell, as it was before my wife's Dell was replaced by the new Compaq. The Compaq can "see" the printer but it won't print. If the printer is plugged into the Compaq it works fine from my Dell via the LAN. So XP>Windows 7>Printer is OK but Windows 7>XP>Printer is not.

There is nowhere on the Microsoft help sites to pose a question about interfacing between XP and Windows 7 - I suspect because Microsoft doesn't want the question asked. They'd rather I upgraded my XP to Windows 7 - but why the &*^% should I have to?

Have you looked for 64bit drivers from Kyocera? I'd say start with downloading the newest drivers available for it onto the Windows 7 machine.

Thanks for the suggestion. I thought I had the latest drivers, but decided to start again and looked for Kyocera downloads. The one I chose downloaded suspiciously quickly and won't open. I'll try again tomorrow. Too tired tonight!

Hi John, welcome to sevenforums. Try the solution provided in this older post at entry number 5 :-
XP to 7 Printer sharing

Good luck

Hi there,

Unfortunately it most likely isn't a simple driver issue; the fact is, Windows 7 and XP don't play nicely when it comes to network anything. Here is what I would do:

1. On the XP machine, open the network connection properties. You should see items like IPv4, etc in this window. Do you see something called Link Layer Topology Discovery? If not, you must download it.

2. On your Windows 7 machine, go to your Network folder. Does a gold bar come down from the top saying "Network discovery is not enabled"? If so, click that bar and enable it. Do the same if it says anything about file and printer sharing.

Go with that for now; let us know if any of this works.

Good luck!

Sent from my Evo 4G. Please to excuse my engrish typing

Amazing what a good night's sleep will do! Thanks, WebMattR, it was the driver wot done it!

I'm still finding my way around Windows 7, and I can't get used to some of the things it does automatically. Anyway, it WORKS! Thanks for all the suggestions.

I'm glad we were able to help you. If you have any other questions or concerns arise, just start a new thread, and we'll give you whatever info/help/etc. we can on the topic.