Network Printer Spews Gibberish

[Guest]

My new Vista laptop (Home Premium) is successfully networked to my XP SP2
desktop. This XP desktop has a shared printer. I can see the printer. I
can even use the printer (Brother 1440). BUT the text comes out as gibberish
(oddly, graphics are OK). QUESTION: is this because the Vista system is
constrained to using the XP print driver? If I update the XP print driver to
Vista, will it screw up printing from the XP?

 

[Malke]

My new Vista laptop (Home Premium) is successfully networked to my XP SP2
desktop. This XP desktop has a shared printer. I can see the printer. I
can even use the printer (Brother 1440). BUT the text comes out as gibberish
(oddly, graphics are OK). QUESTION: is this because the Vista system is
constrained to using the XP print driver? If I update the XP print driver to
Vista, will it screw up printing from the XP?

Yes, this is because you need to use a Vista driver for the printer on
Vista. No, it will not screw up printing from XP because you are using
an XP driver there.


Malke

 

[Guest]

So now I have a Vista driver installed on both the XP and the Vista
computers. Each computer will print when hooked directly to the printer.
But when the Vista tries to print THROUGH the XP to shared printer, it's
still gibberish. Shall we try something else?

 

[Malke]

So now I have a Vista driver installed on both the XP and the Vista
computers. Each computer will print when hooked directly to the printer.
But when the Vista tries to print THROUGH the XP to shared printer, it's
still gibberish. Shall we try something else?

Why would you install a Vista driver on XP? Drivers are written for
specific operating systems. You install the Vista drivers on Vista and
the XP drivers on XP. It doesn't matter that the printer is connected to
the XP machine. The Vista machine still should be using drivers for
Vista, not XP. The Vista machine is able to print to the printer
connected locally to the XP machine because 1) you have a working Local
Area Network with file/printer sharing enabled; 2) the printer has been
shared out from XP; 3) you have the appropriate drivers installed on
each operating system.


Malke

 

[Guest]

I am curious how you arrived at a Shared Printer. I run the same type of
network, with my printer connected to the XP computer. I set Vista up with it
by going into Vista Networking Sharing, then "Add Network Device". Then I
weaved my way to the XP Printer: voila! Driver automatically installed on
Vista.