HCL - old printers on Vista Business

[- Bobb -]

I went to HP.com and found drivers for LJ3, but what's the point of Vista
HCL if device not listed in it ?

I have friend who's going to buy new PC's for business.
I would like to check up front if his old printers will be plug and play.
( They like them - print checks on them - would rather not deal with new
printers now.)

I went to :
http://winqual.microsoft.com/HCL/Default.aspx?m=v

I have to choose
Vista
\
Devices or Systems
OR
" Works with Windows Vista & Windows Vista Basic "

Know what ? - even when I don't specify a specific device and choose "ALL"
, NOTHING " Works with Windows Vista"

I thought I was going to search HCL for
"LJ3" ( or Hewlett Packard (HP) Laserjet 3)
and
"Epson abc"
and have it show me - go/no go.

So on the left side I click
printer/scanner...
Let's assume he has a
HP LJ3
Epson abc
Canon Model 123 scanner
Click Drop-down for HP,
Of course, it returns every HP printer - in ... some order.. I clicked on
sort by name - still not right, but eventually I get to page 13 and see "
HP Laserjet" but no Laserjet 3. And that means ?

Searching Printers & Scanners for "laserjet", returns too many hits to be
useful.
Searching Printers & Scanners for "laserjet 3" returns - ' No products
were found. '

That's when I went to mfr website and found drivers there.
I STILL don't know... when they buy the new PC's from Dell and plug in
their printers, is Vista going to have the driver for an LJ3 and others,
or Must (should) they download it from HP and have ready on floppy. I'll
have them save to floppy, but defeats whole purpose of HCL if still unsure
at boot time.

 

[retroman]

I went to HP.com and found drivers for LJ3, but what's the point of Vista
HCL if device not listed in it ?

I have friend who's going to buy new PC's for business.
I would like to check up front if his old printers will be plug and play.
( They like them - print checks on them - would rather not deal with new
printers now.)

I went to :
http://winqual.microsoft.com/HCL/Default.aspx?m=v
<snip>

Hi Bob,

The HP printers listed on that page include only those "certified for
Vista" (meaning relatively recent models). Older HP printers that
"work with Vista" use the drivers included with Vista. I just checked
and the Laserjet 3 is indeed listed in the HP section of the Vista
"Add a New Driver" dialog. I don't know if that list is on online
anywhere, but the HP Support site would be the place to look for other
models.

As noted by HP on their site, their drivers often don't support
"advanced" features in Vista. This caveat even applies to current
models that are "certified for Vista".

My guess is that the LJ 3 will work just fine after adding a parallel
port for it. It's old enough that it doesn't include anything that
could be considered "advanced" now.

Doug M. in NJ

 

[- Bobb -]

Hi Bob,

The HP printers listed on that page include only those "certified for
Vista" (meaning relatively recent models). Older HP printers that
"work with Vista" use the drivers included with Vista. I just checked
and the Laserjet 3 is indeed listed in the HP section of the Vista
"Add a New Driver" dialog. I don't know if that list is on online
anywhere, but the HP Support site would be the place to look for other
models.

As noted by HP on their site, their drivers often don't support
"advanced" features in Vista. This caveat even applies to current
models that are "certified for Vista".

My guess is that the LJ 3 will work just fine after adding a parallel
port for it. It's old enough that it doesn't include anything that
could be considered "advanced" now.

Doug M. in NJ

Thanks Doug.

I suspected that they WOULD work but wanted to be sure that at first boot
these older (2000/XP era ) printers would be recognized and auto-find the
drivers ( to do the 'same old job they've always done with older versions
of Windows".) So maybe "LASERJET" in HCL means ' all versions (
Lj2/Lj3...) of Laserjets'. ( For deskjets it listed each model
individually so not sure of " Laserjet".
I was trying to avoid driving to their office and running " Vista
compatablity' utility from MSFT site.
I think to be safe I'll do that before they actually place their order to
buy PC's. ( Otherwise they'll be calling me AFTER they buy them to get
everything working. )

Thanks again.

 

[retroman]

I suspected that they WOULD work but wanted to be sure that at first boot
these older (2000/XP era ) printers would be recognized and auto-find the
drivers ( to do the 'same old job they've always done with older versions
of Windows".) So maybe "LASERJET" in HCL means ' all versions (
Lj2/Lj3...) of Laserjets'. ( For deskjets it listed each model
individually so not sure of " Laserjet".

Bob,

You're quite welcome.

Just to be clear on this, the Laserjet 3's that I have used will not
install automatically because they are not USB and are not "plug and
play" devices. The driver has to be installed with the "Add a
Printer" wizard.

Doug M. in NJ

 

[- Bobb -]

Bob,

You're quite welcome.

Just to be clear on this, the Laserjet 3's that I have used will not
install automatically because they are not USB and are not "plug and
play" devices. The driver has to be installed with the "Add a
Printer" wizard.

Doug M. in NJ

Thanks Doug,

I wasn't aware that non-usb printers wouldn't be auto-found. Do you know :
is that just for printers ? Or apply to ANY non-usb devices in Vista?

2000,Xp etc would find my old HP710 deskjet printer whenever I 'd plug one
into reconfig'ed PC. Do you know... will they get a pop-up " found new
device" and then have to select the appropriate device ? Or that won't
even happen ? They'll have to " control panel - printers - add a printer -
etc" ( Not a big deal either way - would just like to tell them in advance
what to expect)
Thanks again.
Bob

 

[retroman]

I wasn't aware that non-usb printers wouldn't be auto-found. Do you know :
is that just for printers ? Or apply to ANY non-usb devices in Vista?

Bob,

Sorry, I did not mean to generalize about the behavior of non-USB
devices in Vista, printers or otherwise. I don't have an answer for
that question. What I do know is that the Laserjet 3 that I work with
is not plug and play. It's way too old for that -- it dates from the
early 1990's.

Doug M. in NJ