Printer Driver Versions

[rowanbradley]

I have an Epson Stypus Photo 890 printer installed on a Vista desktop PC and shared. I network to it from a notebook PC which used to run Vista also. This all worked fine and I could print on the 890 printer from the notebook. I then updated the notebook to W7, and find I can't print. When I try to connect to the network printer it says "Windows cannot connect to the printer" and "Operation failed with error 0x00000057". If I connect the printer directly to the notebook I can install a driver and I can print - I just can't do it via the network.

I contacted Epson, and they initially said that they did not support W7 for this printer. But then I did some more research on their web site and it clearly says that the do support the 890 via an "inbox" or "in box" driver. So today I tried to contact them again, and this time they said that when doing this sort of thing, the printer must be attached to the newest PC. They claim this is a Microsoft requirement.

Needless to say I can't use my notebook PC as the print server, since it's not always there. And I can't upgrade the desktop to W7 without seriously annoying its users.


There must be some way round this. Can I:

• load the W7 driver onto the Vista machine, so when I try to connect to the networked printer from my W7 notebook, the right driver is there to download?
• manually install the correct driver on the W7 notebook, and somehow prevent it trying to download the driver from the Vista machine?
• Connect directly to the printer in some different way, using a port number or similar?
• Anything else?

Hope you can help!

Thanks - Rowan

 

[Lemur]

You could take a chance an find a new model of the Epson Stylus Photo 890 that has Win 7 drivers. It just might work.

Epson Stylus Photo 1400, Drivers & Downloads - Technical Support - Epson America, Inc.

 

[rowanbradley]

No - that's not the problem. I have a Windows 7 driver that works perfectly well with the Stylus Photo 890, when connected locally. But the problem is that Windows insists on downloading a driver from the server, which is running Vista, and has a Vista driver on it, which doesn't work on my W7 notebook.

All want to be able to do is to use the W7 driver on my notebook PC to control a printer which is attached to a Vista machine over the network.

How do I do this?

Thanks - Rowan

 

[JDobbsy1987]

Hi rowanbradley,

Is this printer on a Workgroup network (e.g. at home) or on a Domain (e.g. at work)?

What version of Win 7 Pro are you running, 32 or 64 bit?

Regards,
JDobbsy1987

 

[rowanbradley]

It's on a home network, there is no domain controller, just these two PCs (plus occasional visitors) so I suppose it's a workgroup. On my notebook I'm running Windows 7 Pro 32-bit. On the desktop it's Vista Business (aslo 32 bit, if that's an option).

What difference do you think these things might make?

Thanks for your help - Rowan

 

[JDobbsy1987]

The main reason i was asking is i had an issue with Win 7 64 bit machines at work (Domain) where by double clicking the printer on the network doesn't install drivers automatically (it fails) but if i add it as if it was a local printer and then select TCP/IP and enter the I.P. address of the printer it installs drivers fine although not sure why this works

If you know the I.P of the printer it may be worth a go.

 

[rowanbradley]

Thanks for this idea, but I'm not quite sure which IP number you mean.

The printer is a USB device, not an IP device, so it doesn't have an IP number of its own. The printer is actually connected to a Silex Ethernet to USB converter, which (I think) works as if the printer was directly plugged into the server PC's USB port. If the printer was directly plugged into a USB port, it would not have an IP address at all. I don't think giving it the IP address of the Silex box will help, because I imagine that this uses some sort of proprietary Silex protocol.

Do you mean the IP number of the server PC, or what?

Thanks - Rowan

 

[JDobbsy1987]

I was thinking of it being connected to a network via Ethernet but i see you are connecting to another machine that is acting as a "Print Server"

Can you UNC on to the Vista machine from your notebook?
Start >> Run >> Type \\<Computer Name or I.P. address of Vista machine>\ >> Click OK/Press Enter.

Do you see the printer there? if yes, double click it and does it install/connect then?

 

[rowanbradley]

Yes, I can UNC onto the desktop machine, and I see the printer there. If double-click on it, it says "downloading driver", and then:
[Window Title]
Add Printer
[Main Instruction]
Connect to Printer

Contents

Windows cannot connect to the printer.
[^] Hide details [OK]
[Expanded Information]
Operation failed with error 0x00000057.

I.e. this is the same behaviour as when I use Add Printer.


I need some way of either

1. Preventing it downloading the driver from the server, and making it just use the driver that I have previously installed on the client, or
2. Installing the W7 driver on the server so when the client requests a driver it downloads the correct one. Of course the server will have to continue to use the Vista driver

Any ideas?

Thanks - Rowan

 

[Brainer]

Rowanbradley:

Would you please be kind enough to share which driver you are using
that's working well for you and from exactly which source you obtained it.


I really need to be able to print to my Stylus 890 Photo in Windows 7 right now.

Thanks


Brainer

 

[rowanbradley]

Epson uses the confusing term an "inbox" driver. I think they mean a driver that's included in the Windows 7 installation and supplied by Microsoft (although originally written by Epson). Anyway, my version of Windows 7 Pro seems to have a driver for the Epson 890, and that's what I used. If you select manually choose a driver in the printer installation dialog, it's there in the list. At least, it was for me...

I hope this helps - Rowan

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
I've posted on this Forum ZILLIONS of times about how to share printers and it doesn't matter what mix of machines you have -- the printer could be on an XP machine and you want to print from W7 X64.

Just follow these instructions



I've posted on this before but to share Printers attached to XP computers with either X-64 or X-32 versions of Windows 7 is SIMPLE. These instructions are for the Printer attached to the XP machine (but works in reverse as well).

("Stand alone" Network printers can be done slightly similarly BTW).

assume the computers are call XPMACHINE and W7MACHINE.

1) Ensure Printer on XP machine is shared - assume it's called SHAREDPRINTER.

2) On the Network Browsing on your Windows 7 machine ensure you can "See" the Printer share.

Now on the Windows 7 machine do the following (doesn't matter if it's X-86 or x-64).

3) Control Panel==> add LOCAL (Yes LOCAL) printer. I know it's on a Network but hold your horses -- what we are actually doing is "Poodlefaking" the Windows 7 machine into thinking it's running the printer.

4) Create NEW port==>Local port

5) Portname is \\XPMACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER

6) Now Windows 7 will load a driver and you'll be able to print on the XP machine.

Simple

(For a "Network stand alone printer") at 4) chose TCPIP port
and at 5) enter the IP address.


If the printer is on the Windows 7 machine and you want to print on the XP machine then do the same instructions on the XP machine --
port name in this case will be \\W7MACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER

Cheers
jimbo

 

[rowanbradley]

This works!!!

Thanks very much for that. You have solved my problem which has been bugging me for a month. You'd be amazed at how many people have told me this is impossible (including Epson support staff). The only things I'd add are:

1. Choose a share name with no spaces in it for the printer. I could not get the client Windows 7 machine to accept the port name when the share was called "Epson Stylus Photo 890" (as it is by default), wherever I tried putting in quotes.
2. I had the share on the server machine set to "render print jobs on client computers". I don't know whetehr this is important, but that's what I;ve got set, and it works.

Thanks again - Rowan

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there.

Glad it worked for you. Loads of people have used this method and its fixed their shared printing problems too.

I've requested this type of info be placed either in the totorials or made a Sticky.

It's quite simple but "Counter Intuitive" so a lot of people probably wouldn't even THINK of this type of solution.

The main point is that you ONLY need to load the printer driver on to each machine that wants to access the shared printer -- and load the correct driver for the LOCAL machine and not try to load X-86 drivers on W7 X-64 machines or any W7 driver on an XP machine.

Windows handles all the correct printing protocols.

I'm also pretty disappointed by the low level of expertise offered by some of these major companies -- once you get through the whole horror of Indian Call centres -- yet another gripe - then the quality of support staff is also pretty frightening.

If most of this type of work is going this way I'd get REALLY SCARED if large complex projects start to get off shored this way "all in Cost reduction" type excuses.

You'll in general find MUCH better help on Forums like this one.

Good luck.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[rowanbradley]

I'm also pretty disappointed by the low level of expertise offered by some of these major companies -- the quality of support staff is pretty frightening.

You'll in general find MUCH better help on Forums like this one.

I agree with you. For non-trivial questions it's almost useless using the "official" support services. It's usually better to use forums, although finding one that has enough traffic in the specific area one is interested in, and that has sufficiently knowledgeable users, and sorting those who know what they are talking about from those who don't, is still a time consuming business...

Anyway, this one is SOLVED, thank you very much!

Rowan

 

[Nodrog]

Still can't get from W7 to an XP printer

jimbo45 - your instructions are very clear except I still can't get my new Windows 7 (64 bit) laptop to print over my home network to my Canon iP4600 which is connected to my Vista (32 bit) computer. I just get "access denied". This has all worked fine for years, and still does, with all my other networked XP and Vista machines.

I have a specific question - how do I do actually do what you request below? If I look at the full network map on the W7 machine I can see the computer that has the printer connection - but I cannot see the printer. But, if I try and connect to it using the printer wizard the W7 laptop can find it with the correct share name etc.

Any help would be really appreciated.

"2) On the Network Browsing on your Windows 7 machine ensure you can "See" the Printer share."