Solved Connecting to Laserjet on USB port on shared resource, home network

[zapp22]

hi guys I'm stumped here.
I have a common printer: HP Laserjet 3050, usb-only, attached to a system running windows xp pro 32-bit on a shared network [not a homegroup] with 3 to 5 other systems.
if I walk over with my windows 7 notebook and attach to usb, it works fine.
but with it attached to my windows xp fileshare system which all systems use for file sharing, and it is set to share with 'everyone', the other systems can 'see' and attempt to mount it as a shared printer but driver will fail.

I have the right PCL 6 drivers and point the windows 7 systems to the right folder but will get an error "cannot find driver". it is the same driver I use for local access via USB port.
I'm assuming there is something amiss in the networking of the PC and its shared resources.

for instance, do I need to set sharing by network user-name credentials directly to the Printer [in other words, "Everyone" will not suffice] ?
or what...

appreciate the help on this archaic way of connecting

 

[D3LL]

I remember having this issue with XP and Seven. For some reason they don't work with each other problem. I did find a fix for my issue let me have a dig around I'll see if I can remember how I done it.

 

[Ztruker]

Is this where you got the Win 7 drivers (32 and 64 bit) from? Drivers & Software for HP LaserJet 3050 All-in-One Printer - HP Support Center.

 

[zapp22]

thank you d3.
zt - yes and no. originally I just hooked my win7 laptop up to the usb cable and it auto-installed the driver from windows update, dubbing it the Laserjet 3050 PCL 5.
so when I worked to get it on the net, I plugged in the usb to the Windows xp pro machine, and fetched the drivers from that page you are looking at. the smaller package [I was trying to go lean] failed, but the big wad succeeded. it installed successfully under win xp [32] as "Laserjet 3050 PCL 6" device. it prints successfully locally on that system, just as it did on my laptop. I have it marked as shared, and gave full permissions to everything/one.

i can browse it across the LAN, looks fine, but when I try to use it, win7 pulls up the 'gotta do drivers' dialog, and no matter how I try to point it at the folder, it comes away 'not found'. on the last round I tried again to get it to go to Windows update and find the driver auto, and it seems to have hung - in other words, the window stays open forever - waiting on windows update [whereas on the SAME System... the one I'm typing this on, it found the drivers in about 3 seconds flat when it was hanging on the usb port]

update: so, forcing winupdate to refresh/rebuild the list of printers may have been part of the problem instead of solution 'cause it drops some of the older printers, apparently including any/all 3050's.

I am showing the USB setup just fine and it works, as said. how do I lookup the exact driver file that is in play there? maybe I can force it to load that driver for network use....

 

[zapp22]

this iis what I get, ad infinitum...

grr... i should have said: the image you see in the background, of an installed printer with a bang ! on it is the USB installation I mentioned, not across the wire. the bang is because I sent a print job to it while it is disconnected from usb wire.... not to be confused with the job at hand

 

[Ztruker]

So the printer is attached to the XP system via USB and you want to share it with the Windows 7 system via your local network, right?

You shared it on the XP system.
You installed the drive o0n the Win 7 system.
If you use Network to browse from the Win 7 system to the XP system you can see the printer and if you double click on the printer it should be added to the Win 7 system as a network printer you can print to.

 

[GokAy]

If the Windows 7 is 64bit maybe you need to also provide the 64-bit driver to your XP PC. Can you actually see both 32 and 64 bit drivers are available in additional drivers section of your printer setup?

 

[zapp22]

For those in the future searching this topic, here is an answer in brief. this is one way to resolve, which worked in this particular case. it is not the only way. the printer mounted and worked fine on another windows 7 x64 system on the lan - no drama whatsoever, but I would point out that one connected via ethernet port not by WIFI [same router, same AP, etc]. on another laptop - windows 10 x64 connected by WIFI - no issues. just found it, clicked on it, win updates found the needed driver and installed.

I had to manually install it as a LOCAL device, manually create the port, and then give the network location: \\servername\resource-name [in this case hpj3050]. once this was done, I was able to point it to the right folder for drivers and it installed ok.
using this method, the default name length for the resource MAY have been an issue as the names should be limited to 8 characters or less for manually-installed devices. but for other machines connecting to the LAN, when the device is accessed the name that appears on the client end is the default long form - spaces and all...something like 24 characters in all. this regardless of having renamed it