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Dell AIO 942 network printing Vista>XP
Hi There,
I'm having a problem printing over a network from a Vista laptop to an XP desktop with a Dell 942 printer installed. The issue seems very similar to that discussed in this topic, but nothing mentioned in there has helped. http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19246797.aspx
I have a 942 connected up to a Fujitsu desktop running Windows XP, where it works fine in all respects. The XP machine is connected by ethernet to our Linksys router (and from there to the internet via a DSL connection). We recently purchased a Studio 1737 laptop running Vista, which connects to the same Linksys router via wireless.
Today I downloaded the Vista drivers for the 942 and installed them on the laptop then configured it to connect to the XP machine over the network. It saw the other machine, and the shared printer, no problem at all and installed and set itself up. Everything seems fine until it actually tries to do a print job, at which point it complains of a communication error. I've checked all the things suggested (firewalls, sharing setup correctly, etc) and no joy.
This was a clean install of the Vista drivers, as there was no previous Dell printer installed on this machine. However, I still downloaded and ran the cleanup uttility as mentioned in some posts I've seen and then installed a second time, no difference.
I've also upgraded the driver on the XP box to the latest version (A02) as it was out of date, but again it's made no difference.
If I go into the printers panel on the laptop I can see the printer listed and it shows as online and ready, although if I then switch off the printer on the other machine the status doesn't update on the laptop.
To eliminate the suggestion of a wifi issue, I connected the laptop direct to the linksys with an ethernet cable, so there was a 100% wired connection between the two machines, and it made no difference.
Lastly, I have a Precision M95 laptop with XP Professional home with me from work, so I hooked that up wirelessly, downloaded and installed the XP drivers and connected it to the 942 over the network. It worked fine straight away, so that would seem to indicate that the Vista driver is having some problem talking over the network.
Any advice would be apppreciated, as I'm stumped at what to do next
thanks in advance
Ian Dudley
PudgyOne
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April 9th, 2009 18:00
Ian Dudley,
Here is a Microsoft article to read.
You have the printer installed and can print. Now setup the printer fro sharing.
On the computr that is connecting wireless, follow these instructions.
Please try re-installing the printer this way and then tell us what happens. Please make sure your computer has all the Windows Updates, especially .net framework, which is needed to run many applications. Also make sure you have the latest Java.
Disconnect your printer.
Download and run this patch to completely remove the printer from your computer. Run the patch(a MUST on Vista machines) until it prompts you to restart your computer. (You may have to right click on the patch, left click run as administrator)
Restart your computer.
Download the proper drivers.
XP Drivers
Vista 32-bit drivers
Vista 64-bit Drivers
All other drivers
Install the proper drivers, choose network, choose the printer is connected to a host computer. If you do not see this option, then click add.
As for scanning, if you have the disk that came with the printer, then insert the Printer disk and stop it from running. Go to My Computer and double click on it. Look for the drive with the Dell disk in it. Right click on it, left click explore. Look for the OCR Folder. In the OCR Folder, there is an Abbyy Folder. right click on setup.exe, that's in the Abbyy Folder and left click run as administrator. This will install the OCR program.
Scanning
Scanning using USB connection, open the Dell All-In-One Center, click on scanning and copying and scan from there.
Scanning wirelessly, use the scan buttons on the printer.
Rick
IanDudley
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April 10th, 2009 01:00
Thanks for the reply, unfortunately I've worked through these and it doesn't seem to have helped.
I read the MS KB article and tried to install the hotfix on the XP machine, but the installer said there was aleady a more up to date version of the system installed and wouldn't continue.
Next I ran windows update on the Vista laptop. It already had .Net, but it did download and install a service pack for .Net. I also installed the indicated version of Java.
I ran the clean up uttility (both this and the linked driver are the same versions I had already downloaded), then re-installed the driver. It took a couple of reboots for the driver to install, the first couple of times the installation died with an error message that vanished too quickly for me to read. But after a couple of reboots it took and completed normally.
But when it came time to do the test print, the same communication error came up, although it seems to be coming up faster now. Previously there was usually a 10-30 second pause before it reported the communication problem, now it seems to be coming up straight away.
Ian
PudgyOne
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April 10th, 2009 02:00
Ian,
I usually recommend that people use these Recommended Wireless Router Settings in their wireless routers. You have to setup the host computer, first. Then set it up for printer sharing.
Sharing a printer through a wireless network
If you're sharing files and folders, the network setup wizard should be able to help you communicate. It can be as simple as having two identical accounts on each computer.(Example have an IanDudly account and identical password on each computer)
If these thing fail, then try the FREE features in Network Magic
Rick
IanDudley
3 Posts
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April 10th, 2009 04:00
Thanks, I can't quite see how the wireless settings can be affecting anything, as I tried using a fully wired connection as well and still had problem, I also used another laptop that is running XP pro on the same wireless network and it was able to print fine. It only seems to be the Vista machine that's having a problem.
The instructions for sharing the printer are exactly what I've already done, with the exception that on the client machine (i.e. the vista laptop) instead of going into printers and selecting 'add printer' I'm running the setup file from the driver folder.
The network otherwise all seems to be operating normally,both machines have a matching account to the one I'm using on the laptop, with the same password. I can browse to the desktop machine and see it's network resources, including shared folders, the files in there and the printer in question. I did try browsing to the printer in explorer and using the connect option, but it comes up with the error message "Windows cannot connect to the printer. Operation could not be completed (error 0x0000000d).", I'm guessing that's because it's trying to run using the XP drivers from the host, rather than the local Vista drivers?
I'm not quite sure what tools from the Cisco management set you think I should use. I'm an IT professional with about 15 years experience with windows networking (this is my Mother's system I'm working on), so I'm pretty comfortable with setting up simple IP networks like this and sharing network resources. Are there some specific diagnostic tools in there, or is it just a consumer friendly way of putting up normal windows networking? I don't really want to install additional network apps if I can help it, surely the printer should be compatible with normal windows networking without needing something from Cisco?. It looks more like a compatibillity issue between the Vista driver and the XP driver on the host rather than a general network problem.
Ian
Slerte
2 Posts
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August 3rd, 2009 12:00
I forgot to say... many thanks to PudgyOne - especially for posting the link to the Vista 64-bit drivers, because if you search the Dell driver download area for 942 drivers, 64-bit Vista is not an option!!
Slerte
2 Posts
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August 3rd, 2009 12:00
I have been struggling with the same problem this past weekend and I finally found the solution today.
Background:
We have a network of 4 machines:
1) SilentRunning (Eee box, XP Home SP3 server) => Dell 942 AIO Printer
2) Gazebo (HP Pavilion, 64bit Vista SP2 desktop)
3) Sam (Samsung, 32bit Vista SP1 laptop)
4) Supershiny (Dell Inspiron 530S, 32bit Vista SP1 slimline desktop)
We only stopped being able to print from the Vista machines a couple of weeks ago after I'd updated the drivers on SilentRunning to get the scanner working. After that we couldn't print from any of the Vista machines. I don't know how I had it working originally. Since it stopped working I have tried re-installing various combinations of the original drivers from CD and the latest drivers to no avail. Each time I followed PudgyOne's instructions to install the clean up patch (R166311) between installing new drivers.
Where PudgyOne says, "Download the proper drivers" listing the links to:
XP Drivers (Dell942EN_A02.exe)
Vista 32-bit Drivers (R151557)
Vista 64-bit Drivers (R151559)
...I assumed at first this meant I should install the XP Drivers on the XP machine, but the solution I found was to install the Vista 64-bit Drivers on the XP machine!!
This setup was the only one that automatically shared the printer. With any other driver setup I had to manual share the printer afterwards, so I suspect this is something to do with the problem.
Here is the sequence of steps that worked for me. Where there were options during the setups I've listed the important choices as bullet points. Note installing Vista SP2 doesn't seem to be a necessary step as I didn't do this on the last machine.
SilentRunning (Eee box, XP Home SP3 server):
Stop sharing printer
Disconnect printer
Run DellXPCleanUpUtility (R166311)
(reboot)
Run \install\x86\Instgui.exe
* Network installation - Install the printer for use on a network
(plug in printer)
* USB001
* Install printer driver
* Enter share name: dellphot
(locally printed test page works)
(sharing configured automatically)
Gazebo (HP Pavilion, 64bit Vista SP2 desktop):
Run DellXPCleanUpUtility (R166311)
(reboot)
Run (As Administator) Add Printer (from Control Panel|Printers)...
* Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer
* Searching for available printers finds: \\Silentrunning\dellphot
"The server for the 'Dell Photo AIO Printer 942' printer does not have the correct printer driver installed."
"If you want to search for the proper driver, click OK."
* OK => Browse to \drivers\Win_XP2K
(long pause : Connecting to dellphot on Silentrunning)
(network printed test page works)
Sam (Samsung, 32bit Vista SP1 laptop):
Run DellXPCleanUpUtility (R166311)
(reboot)
(hasn't fully removed driver - can't be manually removed - allegedly in use!)
Install Vista SP2
Run (as Administrator) \install\x86\Instgui.exe
* Network installation - Install the printer for use on a network
* Manual Add : The printer is connected to another computer
* Remote computer's name: SilentRunning
* Printer name: dellphot
* Install printer driver
(network printed test page works)
Supershiny (Dell Inspiron 530S, 32bit Vista SP1 slimline desktop):
Run (as Administrator) DellXPCleanUpUtility (R166311)
(reboot)
Run (as Administrator) \install\x86\Instgui.exe
* Network installation - Install the printer for use on a network
* Manual Add : The printer is connected to another computer
* Remote computer's name: SilentRunning
* Printer name: dellphot
* Install printer driver
(network printed test page works)
So, although the server is XP the key to success seems to be to not use the XP Driver setup (Dell942EN_A02.exe).
I hope this is of some help in preventing others from the suffering :)
PudgyOne
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August 3rd, 2009 14:00
Slerte,
GREAT JOB! :emotion-21: I'm glad you got it working. The patch, which is a cleanup utility, needed to be run as administrator and cleans out all the printer drivers and after you restart your computer, it gives you a fresh start for the installation.
You're Welcome for the Vista 64-bit drivers as Dell does not have them listed for every printer, even though they do have them.
Just happy you have everything working.
Rick