Solved Canon network printing driver problem

[robmar0se]

I have a PC running Vista HP/32 with a Canon IP4300 installed via USB, specified as shared. No issues on that PC.

I also have a new laptop with Win 7 HP/64 which when we try to add the printer it can see the the printer, but says it can't find a driver. When we direct connect the IP4300 to the laptop, it installs the driver fine (driver is embedded in Win 7 so no disk is required).

When we put the printer back on the Vista PC, and try to add the IP4300 again as a network printer it continues to say it can't find a driver.

All other network aspects, sharing files/folder between the 2 pc's, are working 100% okay.

Is this because win 7 it trying to load a Vista driver? Can we load the driver manually, if so, where can we find the driver?

thanks for any advice here.

 

[FliGi7]

What steps are you performing to add the printer? I have found that sometimes I need to click the "Add Devices" button instead of "Add Printer" button for a networked printer to get it to connect and work. Why, I have no idea.

 

[robmar0se]

Hi researching these forums, have subsequently found a possible solution which should work for Vista to Win 7 - Thanks to Jimbo45 - will give it a try - about time MS solved this Win7 glitch though.

http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/4602-xp-7-printer-sharing.html#post75102http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/4602-xp-7-printer-sharing.html#post75102

Thanks also to FliGi7, we have only tried adding a printer, but try yr solution if Jimbo45's doesn't work.

 

[FliGi7]

I would actually try mine first as it's less involved and takes no manual configuration (and I'm not just saying that because it's my suggestion). I just prefer to take the simplest route first.

 

[EvilOzzmess]

Have you tried uninstalling the printer from both computers, deleting the driver (again on both computers) and then reinstalling the printer and it's driver on both computers? Sometimes, for whatever reason, this is necessary when trying to set up a network-shared printer.

If you want to go for this, first back up the drivers (just locate the driver's folder and make a copy of the whole thing). Then:

Uninstall Driver > Uninstall Printer > Reboot > Reinstall Driver > Reinstall Printer.

You should do this on each of the computers you intend on networking the printer on. Don't forget the all-crucial step of rebooting the PC, to "lock in" the driver changes otherwise it might not truly delete them before your "fresh install" of the same.


I had this same problem with an old Dell AIO printer (forget what model, circa 2004). It would print off of my physically connected 7 x64 Notebook using the Vista x64 driver (no 7 driver) and it worked with our Dell Dimension 3000 physically networked, however it simply REFUSED to register anything with the Vista Laptop... despite the driver being used stating "Vista 32". Nothing I tried would get it working, connected or wireless. It was just dead.

I gave up after a while of trying anything and everything and just bought a new WiFi Canon MX340 and now everything is OK. I never bothered installing or connecting it physically to the XP Desktop because it would be more trouble than it's worth (it might even jack our wirelessly connected PC's connections so I'm just leaving it alone).


Sorry I can't be of more help other than offering my own experience with largely the same issue here.

Hopefully somebody else can help you better.

 

[robmar0se]

None of these solutions worked for me.

Trying Jimbo's solution just gave me "access denied"

Trying FliGi7's solution gave no results - just kept searching for 4 hours and gave no "new" devices.

Evil's solution gave the same results.

In summary the Canon printer works fine on a Vista HP/32 PC directly connected; it also works fine on a brand new samsung 7 HP/64 laptop directly connected. But when connected to Vista as shared (\\pcname\printer name), the 7 PC can see the printer but cannot connect either because it can't find a driver (via adding network printer), or access denied when kidding it as a local printer. All other network sharing aspects working fine, folders/files are shares between the PCs (both ways) - no homegroup setup.

This is really silly as usually it should be a doddle to share a local printer between 2 pcs. :banghead:

Anyone git any new ideas, please?

 

[FliGi7]

Edit: I just realized how this printer is connected. All this time I thought it was directly connected to the network (which is why my previous suggestion made sense) but now I'm realizing it is connected to a Vista machine and then shared to the network. Am I right on this?

If so, it seems that printer sharing on the vista machine would be the problem. Check out the following link and make sure these options are all enabled:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Enable-file-and-printer-sharing

Also, check out this tutorial on sharing amongst different systems:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/...d-printers-with-different-versions-of-windows

The crux of this issue lies in the Win 7 system being able to see the shared printer on the Vista machine on the network. Only after we get that to happen, can we connect to it properly. It should show up in your Network on Win7.

 

[robmar0se]

Thanks for that, Steps outlined are exactly what I have done. The Win 7 PC can see the printer on the Vista PC, but when the printer is selected it starts the connection process which ends with the diagnosis that no driver found. We do not get any option to install a driver, as per "If a dialog box appears asking you to install the driver, click Install driver. " (step 5 of the latter link).

What I am going to try next is to install the printer Vista 64 bit driver on the Vista 32 PC, as currently it only has the 32 bit driver installed (Win7/64 may be looking for a 64 bit driver?).

 

[FliGi7]

Ah, it seems the only problem is that the Win 7 x64 machine you're trying to use to connect to the printer is lacking the proper driver, then. Win7 x64 needs the specific Win7 x64 driver, which can be found here:

Canon U.S.A. : Support & Drivers : PIXMA iP4300

Nothing should need to be done on the Vista PC. If everything can be seen, it should be as simple as getting that driver, installing it on the Win 7 x64 machine you're trying to network the printer to, and then adding it again as you've done before. This time around it should find the proper driver.

 

[robmar0se]

Hi again....

Thanks for your input. What you've said is the problem. Because if you're right why doesn't it work, as the Canon 64 bit driver has been loaded onto the Win 7/64 PC all along (in fact when the printer was directly connected via USB to this PC, it worked fine).

So it must be something else. Maybe something to do with using differnt OSs of differnt bit construction.

What I will try, (the PCs are offsite), is installing the Canon 64 bit driver on the Vista PC. Maybe also trying the other way round. Can't believe that Micrsoft don't have a solution to this!!

 

[FliGi7]

You might want to make sure the firewall on the Win 7 PC allows printer sharing as well.

 

[robmar0se]

Win 7/64 printer netwroking issue.

The adding of the Vispa 64 bit driver didn't work. (Incidentally contacted Canon about this - they washed their hands and pointed to Microsoft!).

I'm beginning to doubt my own competance! Except to say I did a similar network setup today, adding a Samsung XP/32 lappie to a Win7/64 desktop, the latter also had a Canon printer attached (MP610) - went through without a hitch!

I will try the suggestion posted by FLiGi7 - prepared to try anything! Would be surpised if the firewalls are doing this if we can share files/folders, but will need to eliminate any possible Windows firewall issue.

We will also try un-installing the printer from the Visa/32 PC and re-installing (since we have added the Vista/64 driver) and then reset the sharing options.

 

[robmar0se]

network/driver printing issues win7/64

Well we are really at a loss now.

We tried uninstalling the printer from the Vista/32 system and reinstalling (after a reboot) - still same errors when trying to add a printer via the network to the Win7/64 PC.

We also tried disabling the firewall on both machines and trying again, with exactly the same results.

So as I say we are at a total loss as how to get this to work.

HELP!!

 

[FliGi7]

Could you screenshot the error you're getting?

 

[robmar0se]

Eurika!

Fixed - but not a logical answer to this problem.

So if you have a Vista hp/32 PC with a printer attached and you want to share this with a Win 7 hp/64 pc/laptop you need to download the Vista/64 printer drivers to the Win/64 PC - NOT the Vista/32 drivers as this doesn't work.

Anyone understand the convoluted logic here, why Win7 isn't more helpfil here - my guess this is a bug in Win 7.

Thanks FliGi7 for your perseverence.

 

[FliGi7]

That's interesting. Needing the 64-bit drivers for a 64-bit system is certainly required but not sure why you need the Vista version as compared to the Win 7 version. Now I'm wondering if you had installed the Win 7 x64 drivers in compatibility mode for Vista 64 if it would have worked as well.

Regardless, congrats!

 

[robmar0se]

That's interesting. Needing the 64-bit drivers for a 64-bit system is certainly required but not sure why you need the Vista version as compared to the Win 7 version. Now I'm wondering if you had installed the Win 7 x64 drivers in compatibility mode for Vista 64 if it would have worked as well.

Regardless, congrats!

The Canon Win 7 drivers are embeded in the Win 7 OS - you can't install them seperately (not available in Canon support either) - note that the Printer worked fine when direct connected to Win 7.

Hence my conclusion that this is a Win 7 bug!!

 

[FliGi7]

That's interesting. Needing the 64-bit drivers for a 64-bit system is certainly required but not sure why you need the Vista version as compared to the Win 7 version. Now I'm wondering if you had installed the Win 7 x64 drivers in compatibility mode for Vista 64 if it would have worked as well.

Regardless, congrats!

The Canon Win 7 drivers are embeded in the Win 7 OS - you can't install them seperately (not available in Canon support either) - note that the Printer worked fine when direct connected to Win 7.

Hence my conclusion that this is a Win 7 bug!!

You can install them separately. I posted the link earlier to the canon drivers website where you can download them for Win 7 x64:

"ip4300vst64200ea23us.exe iP4300 Printer Driver Ver. 2.00 (Windows 7 x64/Vista64/XP x64"

 

[robmar0se]

You can install them separately. I posted the link earlier to the canon drivers website where you can download them for Win 7 x64:

"ip4300vst64200ea23us.exe iP4300 Printer Driver Ver. 2.00 (Windows 7 x64/Vista64/XP x64"

The drivers on your US site are actually the Vista 64 drivers!!!
(ip4300vst64200ea23us.exe ) If you search the European default Canon site no Win 7 drivers are listed, and as I said the drivers embedded in Win 7/64 don't do the job PIXMA iP4300 - both Canon websites could be clearer, but perhaps the US version is better.

Anyway I think this may confuse anyone else with the same issue - the point is at the end of the day, that in this scenario one does actually need the VISTA /64 DRIVERS.

 

[FliGi7]

The "vst" in the title doesn't denote it as a specific Vista driver as that file name is the same file you would use for XP as well, and there couldn't/wouldn't have been a Vista driver produced for XP. The driver package has obviously been updated to include drivers for all 3 systems so that you can use this package for any of them and it will simply detect, extract, and use the ones necessary for the current system.

To be clearer, you don't need the specific Vista drivers, you need this driver package from the website for any system that is Vista or Win 7 (or XP for that matter).