Windows Vista Print sharing In Vista

Hello, got a new laptop. It has Windows vista. Before I had Toshebia with Windows XP Home Ed. I had no problem with setting up the print sharing. Was great sitting on my laptop at one end of the house....seeing something I wanted to print and sent It to the printer on my tower at the other end of the house. Cannot figure It out In Vista....checked everything. Cannot figure out what I am not doing right. Even "help" didn't help...lol. Anyone know about print sharing In vista?
Thanks you, Bev

 

print share In Vista

Thank you for your reply. I have already tried all of the steps.....where It gets confuseing Is It asks for the printers name that is connected to the other computer (hopefully I am checking the right box) and whenever I put It....says It cannot find that printer. It should work with all of the other Input but It won't......Bev

 

Be thankful its not the other way around - trying to share a Vista connected printer with an XP machine. That one threw me for a loop the first time around and I thought I knew all about printer and file sharing.

The first thing that jumps out if you weren't successful with the instructions in that MS link - Make sure both machines belong to the same workgroup. The default workgroup settings are different between XP and Vista. To change that or just to check it, go into the Control Panel and then to System and then to Computer Name. Changes can be made from there if necessary. You will need to reboot if any changes are made and should get a prompt to that effect.

I'll stop there for starters. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

print share in vista

Hello Rockster 2u
Thank you for your reply. The thing that confuses me the most is my tower pc that the printer is hooked up to only has computer name and printer name listed in system. Vista asks for computer name....then full computer name and then the workgroup is called WORKGROUP. How would you handle that?
thanks,Bev

 

print share in vista

Hello again....did everything by the "book." The only thing that I can see that is different is lower and upper case typing in the full computer name. In the system properties for computer name It Is in lower case....In Network and sharing which shows -computer-------Linksys--------Internet, It Is In upper case....could this be the problem and how could I change that? I put exactly In my laptop what my tower has and the printer added just fine. but when I type a test page....says printing and then the error comes up.....ty

 

What do you mean the error - what does it say?

Also, did you enable printer sharing on the XP machine? Do both computers belong to the workgroup named WORKGROUP ?

 

print share in vista

Hello, Yes both computers are set to print share and both say workgroups. As for the "error" message: when I print a test page it says Document page...test page print error....because it won't print. I guess since it's telling me that it means it's on the same network. Can't figure this out. Spooling and firewall are cleared for print share too.

 

Not trying to kick a dead horse but .......... I'll assume "WORKGROUP" and "workgroups" (in your last post) is just a typo on your part and that both are absolutely identical. Did you map this automatically (letting windows find the printer) or manually (you input the network path)?

As to the error - "Document page...test page print error....because it won't print. " I haven't quite seen that exact one before, but I'll take your word for it.

Also, after whatever error you actually got, you should get a prompt for running the troubleshooter. What was your experience there?

If you look at the printer configuration from your Vista machine, what is the printer port being used?



Troubleshooting Network Printer Problems

 

print share in vista

Hello, My tower pc workgroup name is MSHome so thats what I changed my laptop workgroup name to. Directions told me to set up the add printer to network-not local because that is for a printer that is already hooked up to the pc that you have the printer on. The window I was talking about that said error in it is when you click on the printer that is printing you can check the queue in print.Tells what it is printing,etc. and that is where it says error.
For port in that same window it says LPT1. Thank you

 

OK, let me just clarify so I'm sure I understand. The workgroup name on each computer is now MSHOME.

Next - you are currently showing the printer port for this shared printer (when trying to print from your laptop and viewing the print screen from the laptop) as LPT1. Is this what you are saying?

 

print share in vista

yes....The tower pc was always MSHOME so that's why I changed this laptop to that...has to be the same right? Sure had no problem with windows xp home ed. setting up print share...don't believe i had to make most of theses changes. Thank you

 

I'm not sure what all you have done that you haven't told us about but LPT1 is a parallel port.

Lets go back and remove that printer from the laptop. That's correct - we are going to remove it. Using your laptop, go to Printers and faxes in the control panel and remove the printer. Right Click on the printer name and select delete from the drop down menu.

One more question before the next instruction set. Did the printer have a hand by its name before you removed it?



edit: I'm sorry to be dumbing this down so much - No offense is meant but it took several posts to get to the current workgroup name, MSHOME. If you re-read your responses, you will see that we were told it was WORKGROUP, followed by workgroups. Similarly, LPT1 is a setting you had to make somewhere along the way and I doubt that you have a parallel printer cable connecting your laptop to this printer. Believe it or not, this is a very simple procedure as we will try to prove after you confirm that the printer has been removed.

 

print share in vista

yes....sorry about all of the confusion. I didn't realize both computers had to say the same thing so that's why all the changes. Ok....the printer is deleted......

 

Go to the XP machine, open printers and faxes and take a look at the printer that is connected to it. Please advise - there is a hand under it's icon or there is not a hand under it's icon. If there is a hand under its icon, please advise - what is the share name?

 

print sharing with vista

yes, there Is a hand and In the properties the printer share name is:hpphotos

 

OK, lets first go to the XP desktop and verify that it is turned on and can connect to the Internet. Once thats done, fire up the Vista laptop and once everything is loaded, go to Printers and Faxes. Now, using the laptop, click on Add a printer and on the next screen select a network printer or printer connected to another machine and let Windows search for the printer. It should find your printer but you may first see +MSHOME, which is your workgroup. If this is the case, click the plus to the left of MSHOME to expand a dropdown menu. That may then expose your desktop with a + to the left of it. If yes, click that plus and the printer will finally appear. Select it and set it as default.

Please advise results and if problems, please try to articulate them succinctly.

 

print share in vista

Did as you said....got as far as workgroup printer listed,clicked on it and said it needed to have the right driver. I did do all of this before but maybe I missed something....here is the little window that came up when It said I needed the driver....that's where I got confused. I do have capture and I did capture the window that came up but can send it e-mail. Is that ok to do that? I tried to copy and paste to put it in here but capture is new to me.

 

Great. Now we have isolated the real issue. Go to http://www.hp.com and while using your Vista laptop, download and install the Vista compatable driver for your Photosmart printer. if you are given an option, use the basic or minimal driver only.

 

print share in vista

downloaded the printer driver for my vista and still would not work.