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Printer Sharing Driver Issues - 32bit vs. 64bit
Howdy,
I have read on this forum a few people with printer sharing issues, but my problem seems to be a bit different, heres my problem:
I have a HP Server that is running XP Pro 32bit, & has a HP Laserjet 1220 printer shared across the network on a parallel port, all machines running XP (32bit & 64bit) connect with no problems, no drivers needed. I then installed Windows 7 32bit on a old laptop of mine, this also connects to printer over network, no drivers needed. I then installed 64bit 7 on my PC & another laptop, both of these machine could not connect to the printer, they can see the printer with no problems, but when I go connect, it says something like loading driver, then connecting to windows update, then comes up with an error & says driver not found.
It gives me an option to load the correct drivers myself, which I have been unable to do, the drivers for the printer are part of the XP & Vista & Windows 7 CD\DVD, HP says the printer will work with 32 & 64bit, no Windows 7 drivers (32 or 64bit) or Vista(32 or 64bit) are on the HP site for this printer.
As a test I tried the following:
I then tried something else, I got an old Dell PC i had around & installed 32bit 7 on this & connected the HP printer, then shared across the network & within a few minutes had all computers working with printer fine, XP & 7 (32 & 64bit) machines.
I then connected the printer to my PC & booted up in XP 64bit & shared printer, yet again had all machines working fine.
Even renamed Dell machine(32bit 7) network name same as the HP Server(32bit XP) network name, got all machines working on printer on dell 32bit 7 PC, then swapped printer back to HP server & shared again, 64bit 7 machines went straight back to the first issue "loading driver, then connecting to windows update, then comes up with an error & says driver not found".
From these problems it seems that the HP Server(32bit XP) is trying to hand out 32bit drivers over the network to the 64bit 7 machines & the 64bit 7 seems to get a bit lost on loading the right drivers which it has as part of the OS as when connecting to the dell machine which is running 32bit 7 the 64bit 7 machines have no problem loading the right driver.
I have tried to install x64 printer drivers on the HP Server to hand out over the network, but cannot find any to download that work.
One strange thing happened I was not going to say as it makes me more confused, when i removed the printer from Dell PC & reconnected it back to the HP Server, I then jumped on the laptop with 64bit 7 & tried to connected to the printer on the xp server & a screen popped up with a window 'installing drivers' only sore it for a second & it worked I was able to print to from the 64bit 7 laptop to the 32bit xp server...lol. Jumped straight back on my PC(64bit 7) but back to the old error 'connecting to windows update this may take sometime'...then error no driver found...
Sorry for the speech, any help would be great
Farley.