Problem connecting XP machine to Win 2K network

[Cambridge Computer Recycling]

We have a mixed machine network printing through a Win 2K machine with
printer attached. As administrator I have set all machines to print happily
through the network and the Win 2K machine. We recently added an XP Home
machine to the network. The add printer wizard detects the printer on the
Win 2K machine but tell us that the driver on the Win 2K is incorrect for XP
and halts the process. There are no specific XP drivers on HPs site.
Suggestions please.

Chris.

 

[Ralph]

Buy a new printer

 

[Robert Orleth [MSFT]]

Strange - what printer is this ? What is the error message, precisely ?

There are no specific XP drivers, period, they should work fine on both XP
and W2k, and so far I have not seen a single W2k driver that didn't work on
XP, and only one XP driver that didn't work on W2k.

 

[Cambridge Computer Recycling]

Strange - what printer is this ? What is the error message, precisely ?

There are no specific XP drivers, period, they should work fine on both XP
and W2k, and so far I have not seen a single W2k driver that didn't work on
XP, and only one XP driver that didn't work on W2k.

OK

When using the printer wizard to connect to the Win 2K server with printer
attached I get this message

"You are about to connect to a printer on ****** (machine name) which will
automatically install a print driver on your machine. Printer drivers may
contain viruses or scripts that can be harmful to your computer. It is
important to be certain that the computer sharing the printer is
trustworthy. Would you like to continue?"

On selecting Yes, I get the following warning

"Windows cannot connect to the printer. The driver that you are trying to
install is not compatible with Windows XP."

And the wizard stops there.

Thoughts please.

Chris.

 

[Victor D.]

You still didn't tell what kind of printer this is???????

 

[Cambridge Computer Recycling]

OK

When using the printer wizard to connect to the Win 2K server with printer
attached I get this message

"You are about to connect to a printer on ****** (machine name) which will
automatically install a print driver on your machine. Printer drivers may
contain viruses or scripts that can be harmful to your computer. It is
important to be certain that the computer sharing the printer is
trustworthy. Would you like to continue?"

On selecting Yes, I get the following warning

"Windows cannot connect to the printer. The driver that you are trying to
install is not compatible with Windows XP."

And the wizard stops there.

Thoughts please.

Chris.

Thanks to the power of the Internet we have found a work round which others
may find useful.

First I installed the printer driver to the XP machine, not allowing it to
detect my Plug and Play and installing it to use LPT1. I then created a new
local port putting in the address of my machine
\\ccr1\hp2500CS and directing the printer to use this port. Test page
printed problem solved.

Chris.

 

[Robert Orleth [MSFT]]

Glad to hear you found a workaround. I am somewhat puzzled as to what
happened. From the sharename below I assume we're talking about an HP 2500 ?
There was a version of the 2500 driver that was known bad and hence blocked
from installing on XP, but we have an inbox replacement for it, so assuming
that all the inbox drivers are still in place it should tell you it's going
to switch out drivers. Did you do anything about deleting ntprint.inf or
driver.cab or the like ?

 

[Cambridge Computer Recycling]

Yes, this is a 2500CM. HPs site list no drivers for download at all for XP.
Windows Update for XP has offered no new driver. Where would I download it
from? I did not change anything other than directing the printer from LPT1
to the local port.

Chris.

 

[Robert Orleth [MSFT]]

It would be up to the manufacturer to write driver (every driver update you
get from Windows Update) comes from printer manufacturers. If they decide
not to write one, you're outta luck.

What is the driver name precisely that you're using on the W2k machine ? Is
this the inbox driver for the 2500 C, or is it HP's driver ?

 

[Cambridge Computer Recycling]

dj132en.exe. From HP site.

It would be up to the manufacturer to write driver (every driver update you
get from Windows Update) comes from printer manufacturers. If they decide
not to write one, you're outta luck.

What is the driver name precisely that you're using on the W2k machine ? Is
this the inbox driver for the 2500 C, or is it HP's driver ?

 

[Robert Orleth [MSFT]]

Sorry, this is not what I meant. I mean what does the name of the driver
show up as after installation when you go to the Printers folder, select
from the menu File...Server Properties and look at the drivers tab ? The
blockage of known-bad drivers keys off that driver display name.

 

[Cambridge Computer Recycling]

HP2500C series printer Windows NT4 or 2000

Sorry, this is not what I meant. I mean what does the name of the driver
show up as after installation when you go to the Printers folder, select
from the menu File...Server Properties and look at the drivers tab ? The
blockage of known-bad drivers keys off that driver display name.

 

[Robert Orleth [MSFT]]

OK - that's the printer driver that is known bad (the list is in
%windir%\inf\printupg.inf - meddling with that file is not recommendable).

But that file also lists an inbox replacement, so I would have expected that
you'd get warned about the incompatible driver but then getting the inbox
driver installed automatically.

 

[Cambridge Computer Recycling]

No. Leave it with you to figure it. Contact me direct if you need any more
info as this will be last time |I check this string.

OK - that's the printer driver that is known bad (the list is in
%windir%\inf\printupg.inf - meddling with that file is not recommendable).

But that file also lists an inbox replacement, so I would have expected that
you'd get warned about the incompatible driver but then getting the inbox
driver installed automatically.