Trouble connecting to network printer

[erby]

I have a new laptop with windows 7 home premium (64 bit) and I am trying to connect with a shared printer on my home network. The printer is connected through USB to a 32 bit desktop with XP SP3. All windows updates are up to date on both machines.

I have both computers on the same workgroup and can see and access shared files and directories on both computers. I can see the XP printer from the windows 7 laptop. No matter how I have tried to connect with it, I get a connection error.

I have dowloaded and installed the latest drivers for the printer (Lexmark X1150). There has been an updated XP driver which I just installed on the desktop. The printer does not have a windows 7 driver, but it says to use the vista driver, so that is the driver I installed on the windows 7 laptop. I can access the printer and get it to work if I plug it directly into the windows 7 machine (so I assume that means the driver works).

I am just using windows firewall on both computers with AVAST security software. Tried to connect with both firewalls completely turned off, with no luck.

I've tried to connect to the printer on the XP machine in these ways:
1) by "add a new printer", "network printer", specifying \\xpdesktop\lexmark. A window pops up that says “connecting to Lexmark X1100 Series on xpcomputer”. Then in a few seconds that window says “finishing installation” and an error window pops up that says “windows cannot connect to the printer. Operation failed with error 0x0000000d”

2) by double clicking on the printer I can see in the network places. Same result as above…

3) by "add a new printer", "local printer", and specifying the \\xpdesktop\lexmark port. It tries to download a driver from windows update but my printer is not on the list, and my disk has nothing for windows 7. (why can't I browse to a driver... and it should be already installed anyway???)

4) by plugging in the printer directly to the laptop. Then plugging it into the desktop and changing the port on the laptop to \\xpdesktop\lexmark. I can do that without error, but when I go to print I get a message that windows “cannot communicate with the printer”.

I’ve spent over 8 hours trying to get this to work. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[madmansam]

Are you setting the printeras a shared printer on the XP machine ?

 

[erby]

yes, I sure am. That's the first thing I did.

 

[madmansam]

( ....I have dowloaded and installed the latest drivers for the printer (Lexmark X1150). There has been an updated XP driver which I just installed on the desktop. The printer does not have a windows 7 driver, but it says to use the vista driver, so that is the driver I installed on the windows 7 laptop. I can access the printer and get it to work if I plug it directly into the windows 7 machine (so I assume that means the driver works). )

ok... above is where you went wrong IMO.....
1. just uninstall any drivers to do with the printer on Win7 machine first and reboot.
2. now try to add the printer again normal way as you did before.
3. windows will ask that a driver is needed and it will install that driver without you taking any part in this.
4. You should get a result now.
Good luck.

 

[erby]

Thanks Madman,

Quickly tried to figure out how to uninstall the driver, but I can't find the "print management" option under administrative tools for some reason. I'll have to try again tonight when I have more time. I'll be back...

 

[madmansam]

no you will not find it in print management... what you do just remove the printer START >> DEVICES AND PRINTERS>> remove the printer from there and reboot and go through adding a network printer again and let windows install the printer network driver ... for the benefits of this forums please let us know how you got on please

 

[erby]

Well, I removed the printer and rebooted two or three times but it would always reappear again. Then I saw there were three documents in the queue waiting to be printed. It doesn't let me cancel these and they don't go away when I reboot. When I select cancel all documents, the status bar says "error processing command". Seems like I need to kill these jobs before I can completely remove it. How do I do that?

Thanks!!!

 

[madmansam]

yes.. thats right...to kill the jobs try that from the other computer the printer is connected to..try to print or cancell or just unplug the printer and replug.

 

[erby]

OK, so I killed the print jobs, then I uninstalled the drivers, then restarted the computer. Then I added a new printer, "network printer", then selected the shared printer from the list. A window popped up that said "searching for a driver". That was up for 10 seconds or so, then it changed to "finishing installation", then it suddenly gave the same error as before: "Windows cannot connect to the printer". "operation failed with error 0X000000d".

Argh. What can I do now?

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Disconnect the printer from power supply/reboot/ then clear all existing docs in queue/shut down/plug in printer and restart.
It worked for me one time when I had your problem. IMO

 

[erby]

Just powered down and rebooted everything... both computers and the printer.... no change.
Just tried again to plug the printer directly into the windows 7 laptop. Windows downloads a driver automatically and the printer works fine from the laptop!?! It works fine from the desktop too! But then I plug it into the desktop and get the cannot connect error when I try to add it as another new printer through the network. Does that mean its not a driver issue? Is there something else that controls network printing, like the print spooler?

 

[madmansam]

In network advance setting ... is file and printer sharin got a tick in it ? also..can you try to disable your firewall .. I dont know which internet security you using but you can disable that as we for now ...It might be an Issue with security ... we have tried it all except the security.

 

[erby]

Well, I finally got a hold of Lexmark customer service. I described the problem to them and they said, "um, yeah, printer sharing doesn't work between 32 bit and 64 bit systems". I said, "is it just this printer, because it is 6 years old?". They said "no, its all printers. You should get a wireless network printer." They offered to send me a coupon for 20% off a new one.

For all the things I've read out there about trying to fix this problem, I can't believe I haven't heard about this before. Is this true??? Has anyone else heard about this? I'm way too cheap to buy another printer when this one works fine. This is frustrating. Isn't there some kind of work around?

 

[JerryFerreira]

Erby,

I had a very similar problem. My notebook is Win 7 Pro, desktop is XP SP3 with Canon printer attached by USB. I spent one week on trying to fix it. Uggh! I finally got it working. Maybe what I did will help.

Unjoin from the HomeGroup network. This is the new network that Windows 7 automatically installs so that two or more computers with Windows 7 can easily network. Unfortunately, not everyone has the both (or more) computers all with Windows 7, such as in our case.

Go to Control Panel, Network and Sharing. Under the section "View your active networks", check to see if it says HomeGroup: Joined.

If it does, click on the Joined link. Under the bottom section "Other homegroup actions", click on the "Leave the homegroup..." link. A window should open with three choices. Click on the first option "Leave the homegroup". Close the Control Panel window. Reboot.

Add the printer as you did before using the "Add a local printer" option and make it a "Local Port" from the drop-down menu.

 

[erby]

Thanks Jerry. I tried that too and no luck.

I also tried this thing I found on another forum:
1) on XP machine with printer connected, download but do not install 64 bit driver. extract files into temp folder.
2) Go to-> printer properties> sharing tab> add additional drivers, select the 64 bit machine (although there is only an XP 64 bit option, no vista or windows 7)
3) then you are supposed to be able to browse to the driver file and install that as well, which should allow printing from the 64 bit laptop. But I browse to the extracted driver file and it still can't find the driver.... so this didn't work either.

Then I downloaded the trial copy of Network Magic on both computers and tried to set it up through that. No magic there....

I think the available drivers are just not right to do this.

I've wasted too much time on this. I'm officially giving up.

Time to fork out some mula for a new wireless printer.

Thanks to all for your help.

 

[Gmac]

I have had this same problem and tried everything. Ended up going to the ptr manufacturer's website (Canon) and downloading and installing on my xp machine the windows 7 driver for my printer. Miraculously my netbook running windows 7 starter edition was now able to wirelessly download my printer driver from my xp pc. I don't quite understand what happened but it worked and my xp pc and windows 7 lan attached pcs still print fine as well.