Problem Sharing Printers

[Vince]

Hello:

I may end up having to post this in a Vista group but thought I would start
here first.

Ok I had a network with 4 XP machines. Printer sharing went just fine. I am
aware of how to share the printers I also work othere places with more
systems.

Now for the issue. My printer shares were working just fine but then I lost
an XP Machine to lightning. I replaced it with a Vista machine. Of course I
had to download and install Vista drivers in the computer.

Once I did that the shared printers worked just fine as expected.

Well Vista turned out to be a mess on my network and I could not use the
software that I must use. So I decided to build a new XP Machine. Everything
works well including all file sharing, however now I can no longer access
the printer that is on the new machine from the others. Details of issue
below.

On new machine I installed the printer that we always use at that location.
I can print to that printer from the machine it is actually connected to. I
shared the printer and then choose to uninstall from the other machines.
Then I went to printers and added it back in from accross the network from
the machine it is now installed on.

Well it installed just fine which again tells me the network is working or I
could not have gotten to this printer. However when I try to print to it I
get document failed to print. This happens from every machine except the one
the printer is actually connected to.

This leads me to believe that somehow there are updated Vista drivers left
over in the machines that once used this printer when connected to a Vista
machine.

I am looking for a way to somehow to force XP into replacing the drivers on
those machines with teh proper drivers or maybe manually removing the
drivers and reinstalling them. I just can not seem to figure out where those
are located on the client machines.

If I can not figure this out I will be forced to get a new printer because
in the long run it would be cheaper than the time involved in rebuilding the
other machines.

Anyone help with this would be great.

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Is the Guest account (or Simple Sharing) enabled on the host computer?

If not this is probably the easiest approach. Bear in mind it offers little
security if there are file shares on the same computer, though.

 

[Lem]

Hello:

I may end up having to post this in a Vista group but thought I would start
here first.

Ok I had a network with 4 XP machines. Printer sharing went just fine. I am
aware of how to share the printers I also work othere places with more
systems.

Now for the issue. My printer shares were working just fine but then I lost
an XP Machine to lightning. I replaced it with a Vista machine. Of course I
had to download and install Vista drivers in the computer.

Once I did that the shared printers worked just fine as expected.

Well Vista turned out to be a mess on my network and I could not use the
software that I must use. So I decided to build a new XP Machine. Everything
works well including all file sharing, however now I can no longer access
the printer that is on the new machine from the others. Details of issue
below.

On new machine I installed the printer that we always use at that location.
I can print to that printer from the machine it is actually connected to. I
shared the printer and then choose to uninstall from the other machines.
Then I went to printers and added it back in from accross the network from
the machine it is now installed on.

Well it installed just fine which again tells me the network is working or I
could not have gotten to this printer. However when I try to print to it I
get document failed to print. This happens from every machine except the one
the printer is actually connected to.

This leads me to believe that somehow there are updated Vista drivers left
over in the machines that once used this printer when connected to a Vista
machine.

I am looking for a way to somehow to force XP into replacing the drivers on
those machines with teh proper drivers or maybe manually removing the
drivers and reinstalling them. I just can not seem to figure out where those
are located on the client machines.

If I can not figure this out I will be forced to get a new printer because
in the long run it would be cheaper than the time involved in rebuilding the
other machines.

Anyone help with this would be great.

Thanks

I'm not convinced that Vista drivers are the cause of your problem (you
ought to be able to see info about the driver files by right-clicking on
the printer icon and selecting properties), but if you want to remove
drivers and re-install, see:
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm

 

[Vince]

Thanks for your reply. Sorry it took so long to get back but at my other job
we lost a major computer to a hard drive death and I had to get it working
first it was the priority.

Anyway I was fairly sure as you were that it had something to do with the
Vista drivers. I confirmed that today because my boss wanted a faster
printer so we got a refurbished Laser Printer from our local printer shop
with a faster first page out and it works and shares just fine.

So now I am happy and if I have the time I downloaded a program called
universal extractor that I can use to extract the contents of the other
printers setup file and find out the names of the drivers and maybe find and
delete them from the XP Machines.

Got to tell you Vista has caused me more issues than it was worth. The
company to a 15% hit but getting rid of the Vista machine was the best
decision I made all week.

For me we have a local recycler that takes in used machines and anything
that is somewhat modern with XP they will resell for a fair price. I think I
am going to grab a few while the getting is good.

Vista may be fine in the future but for now it is a nightmare.

V