Printing over network

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I have 3 computers at home: 1 runs Windows 7 Home Premium, 1 runs Windows 7 Starter Edition (a netbook, obviously), and 1 runs Windows XP. I have a printer (XEROX WorkCentre PE16) hooked up to the XP machine. It is an openly shared printer. I can see it from both of my Windows 7 machines, and I can add the printer on my Windows 7 machines.
However, when I try printing to it from one of the Windows 7 machines – nothing happens. 0 response. The only time I can get a response is by opening the printers Properties dialog and trying to print a test sheet. I get a message that says the test page failed to print. The troubleshooter is of no help.
Any ideas?
TIA

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Hi Yehuda,

Do both Windows 7 computers give you 0 response when you try to print? If so, do you have Windows 7 drivers for your Xerox printer installed on the Win7 computers?

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Hi Yehuda,

Do both Windows 7 computers give you 0 response when you try to print? If so, do you have Windows 7 drivers for your Xerox printer installed on the Win7 computers?

Hi Gerald –

Unfortunately, the answer to both questions is ‘Yes’.

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Hi Gerald –

Unfortunately, the answer to both questions is ‘Yes’.

Check to be sure all your computers are using the same workgroup name. Default for XP is MSHOME; default for Win7 is WORKGROUP. Also, check to confirm that your Windows 7 computers are set up as a Home network, not Work or Public.

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Will it print if you hook it directly to one of the 7 machines? This should let you know if it is the share that is giving the trouble or if it is a driver issue.

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HI!

The workgroup on all of the machines is WORKGROUP. My Windows 7 computers are both set up as Home networks. The thing is, I can ‘see’ the printer from both of the Windows 7 machines, and it will install the correct drivers automatically & allow me to ‘print’ to them. It just doesn’t actually print anything.

If I hook the printers directly to the Windows 7 machines they print just fine.

Any other ideas?

Thanks for your efforts so far!

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If I hook the printers directly to the Windows 7 machines they print just fine.

That pretty much eliminates drivers as the issue.

Can you access a drive share on the XP machine from the Win7 machines?

How are you “installing” them. You should be able to go to XP machine in network view from the Win7 machine and double click on the printer. After a few seconds it should set itself up and print.

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That’s how I do it. Like I said, the Windows 7 machines ‘see’ the printer & can install it. It is shared on the XP machine. It just won’t print!

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That’s how I do it. Like I said, the Windows 7 machines ‘see’ the printer & can install it. It is shared on the XP machine. It just won’t print!

I can’t remember what properties are available on a printer setup this way (I have gone totally to network attached printers). It seems like some of the properties applet’s tabs or fields are grayed out or not available.

If you can, right click on the the printer and got to “printer properties” (this has moved from the bottom of the right click menu to about the middle in 7). Go to the “Advanced” tab and change the driver to the one that was used when you plugged the printer directly into the machine. This may be a problem with how the driver is automatically loading when installing the share from the XP machine although I have never seen this exact problem before.

I would question if it is a firewall issue as you can browse the shares on the xp without a problem. I suppose it could be a specific port that is needed only for printing that is blocked on the firewall on the xp machine but it seems unlikely.

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Is the XP machine Home or Professional?

Are there any 3rd party anti-virus or firewall software on the PC’s?

Have you tried disabling all firewall software on the XP / Windows 7 machine while they are disconnected from the internet i.e. internal LAN only for safety reasons.

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Hey-

I am new here, so, with all due respect:

I just went through this. In my case the printer was installed on a Vista machine. I have two new Win7 64 bit machines I went through all of the same stuff as above trying to print on a Win & machine.. Nothing worked.

I finally went to the manufacturer and got the appropriate driver for the printer for Win 7 64 bit and installed it with the path for the printer. That worked.

>>RSM

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