[peraltoj001]

I recently purchased a new dell windows 7 pro x64 computer for installation in my home peer to peer windows XP network. the printer connected directly to my older windows xp desktop is an HP Laserjet 2200 dse; I downloaded the suitable drivers from the HP site and installed them first on the new computer and after many failed attempts at installing the printer as a network printer on my new win 7 pro computer, installed those same drivers on my older windows xp computer. I simply cannot install that printer as a network printer on the new computer. I get a "cannot find drivers" error message. Of note, I CAN (meaning I have) install an HP Deskjet printer that is a local printer on the same older windows XP machine, as a network printer on the new windows 7 machine, and I CAN (meaning I have) install the Laserjet 2200 printer on the NEW machine as a LOCAL printer, connected directly to the new machine via USB. I'm at wits end. Can you help??? Thanks!!!

[rgreen4]

If you are installing the printer as a USB printer, install the drivers on the Windows 7 machine first. Then plug the printer into the PC and make sure the printer works properly. Print a test page and keep it handy. Make sure to use the 64 bit drivers if you are running a 64 bit OS.

Then install the drivers on the XP machine and plug the printer into the XP machine and make sure the printer works properly.

Then share the printer on the XP machine and give it a name that is distinctive, LJ2200 would work nicely.

Then with the XP machine on, go to the Windows 7 machine and make sure you can see the XP machine and access the shared folder.

Then use the add a printer and select network printer and it should come up in the list of networked printers. If you get the message that Windows cannot find the drivers, browse to the folder that lists the drivers on the test page.

Incidentally this topic has been moved to printers.

This post has been edited by rgreen4: 26 July 2010 - 05:16 PM

[peraltoj001]

REPLY: Does it matter where on the windows 7 machine I install the x64 drivers, i.e., what folder/directory? Also, the test page for the printer when I had it connected directly to the windows 7 machine via USB port doesn't show the path to the driver. It DOES show the driver as, "UNIDRV.DLL". This driver name is NOT the same as any of the drivers downloaded from the HP website for Win 7 x64 drivers for this printer. I'm confused. Help! Thanks!

rgreen4, on 26 July 2010 - 05:14 PM, said:

If you are installing the printer as a USB printer, install the drivers on the Windows 7 machine first. Then plug the printer into the PC and make sure the printer works properly. Print a test page and keep it handy. Make sure to use the 64 bit drivers if you are running a 64 bit OS.

Then install the drivers on the XP machine and plug the printer into the XP machine and make sure the printer works properly.

Then share the printer on the XP machine and give it a name that is distinctive, LJ2200 would work nicely.

Then with the XP machine on, go to the Windows 7 machine and make sure you can see the XP machine and access the shared folder.

Then use the add a printer and select network printer and it should come up in the list of networked printers. If you get the message that Windows cannot find the drivers, browse to the folder that lists the drivers on the test page.

Incidentally this topic has been moved to printers.

[rgreen4]

The printer test page should have three lines of info at the top. It starts with Contratualations! etc. Then there is a section showing printer data name, model, etc and just below halfway in this section it will say unidrv.dll for the driver name. However, below this section should be a lengthy list headed by: Additional files used by this driver: followed by a lengthy list of files and the path.

The paths all start with C:\Windows\System32\spool\DRIVERS\X64\3\

Now this was for my HP Laserjet P2015.

Doing an inquiry on C: drive for unidrv.dll, I find a number of locations. Following the path I get to drivers and in addition to X64, I have W32x86 which I assume is for 32 bit. Under the x64 I find the folder 3 as well as folders for hp_officejet_pro_8500_a909a_series_fax.

I am hampered a bit because all of my currently active printers are connected to the network, not an individual computer. I have however, connected several printers to a PC, even one running XP and had the printer show up in the network box in both Vista and Windows 7 when installing as a network printer, Windows 7 then goes out to find the driver.

I simply do not understand why, if the printer has once been installed, but not deleted, and then connected to another PC and shared, and during the install as a network printer it finds the printer, it will not find the drivers.

Is your windows 7 machine a desktop or laptop?

One other question. From the Windows 7 machine can you "see" the XP machine across the network? You should have a shared folder on the XP. Place a test file (does not matter what it is) and make sure you can copy that file to the Windows 7 machine across the network.

Another question - does the XP machine require a log in and password?

This post has been edited by rgreen4: 30 July 2010 - 11:40 AM

[peraltoj001]

I will dig deeper into C:\Windows\System32\spool\DRIVERS\X64\3\ to see if I can find those "other locations" you mention. As for what I did, I DID install the printer directly to the win 7 machine via USB and it found what it needed, however, I DELETED the printer after disconnecting it to reconnect it to the win XP machine. I'll try it again (direct connection and installation) and this time NOT delete it after removing the printer physically from the win 7 machine. I CAN "see" the win XP machine from my win 7 machine and in fact have done data file transfer in both directions. That's one of the reasons I'm so stumped by this situation. Thanks for the assistance. Very helpful. I'll check back tomorrow. Aloha, joel

rgreen4, on 30 July 2010 - 11:32 AM, said:

The printer test page should have three lines of info at the top. It starts with Contratualations! etc. Then there is a section showing printer data name, model, etc and just below halfway in this section it will say unidrv.dll for the driver name. However, below this section should be a lengthy list headed by: Additional files used by this driver: followed by a lengthy list of files and the path.

The paths all start with C:\Windows\System32\spool\DRIVERS\X64\3\

Now this was for my HP Laserjet P2015.

Doing an inquiry on C: drive for unidrv.dll, I find a number of locations. Following the path I get to drivers and in addition to X64, I have W32x86 which I assume is for 32 bit. Under the x64 I find the folder 3 as well as folders for hp_officejet_pro_8500_a909a_series_fax.

I am hampered a bit because all of my currently active printers are connected to the network, not an individual computer. I have however, connected several printers to a PC, even one running XP and had the printer show up in the network box in both Vista and Windows 7 when installing as a network printer, Windows 7 then goes out to find the driver.

I simply do not understand why, if the printer has once been installed, but not deleted, and then connected to another PC and shared, and during the install as a network printer it finds the printer, it will not find the drivers.

Is your windows 7 machine a desktop or laptop?

One other question. From the Windows 7 machine can you "see" the XP machine across the network? You should have a shared folder on the XP. Place a test file (does not matter what it is) and make sure you can copy that file to the Windows 7 machine across the network.

Another question - does the XP machine require a log in and password?

[rgreen4]

That was a concern in that if the Win7 machine could not transfer files to and from the XP machine, then that would explain the printer situation. But now I'm scratching my head.

[peraltoj001]

rgreen4, on 30 July 2010 - 03:27 PM, said:

That was a concern in that if the Win7 machine could not transfer files to and from the XP machine, then that would explain the printer situation. But now I'm scratching my head.

I tried a direct connection again via USB and again, the printer installed without a hitch; this time I did NOT delete the printer, but disconnected it from the win 7 machine and reconnected to the old windows XP machine; the next step was to try to install the printer again as a network (shared) printer; it could NOT be done. I've given up on this; I called a technician friend who will try to make time to come over and see if he can do it. thanks for the assistance. I'm at wits end; I knew there would be a "learning curve" with Windows 7 but this wasn't one of those things I figured I'd have to deal with. Thanks again. jp

[rgreen4]

I can't figure it out either. Normally when you install a printer and then disconnect the printer, even if you delete it, the drivers stay. Then if you re-install the printer when you get to the driver installation point, it will ask if you want to use the existing drivers.

I wonder if it could be a conflict between Windows 7 64 bit drivers and the printer actually installed on a 32 bit XP. I have installed a shared printer connected to XP (and also Windows 2000) on a Vista 32bit machine, but I am not sure I have done so on Windows 7 64bit.

[isaiah5511]

I addressed a similar if not the same problem in the network forum. Also posted this in the Toshiba laptop forum for network. Was pinted to this link which gave information that helped to allow me to load the default W7 drivers since HP does have W7 drivers for my printer.
Info loading printer drivers

[WinfieldZenith]

The information I found here is really useful for me. I can fix my problem after reading your post. Thanks for sharing!