printing question

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I have three machines with Win 7 32 bit installed. I want to change at least two of them to Win7 64 bit. I have an ancient laser printer (CanonLBP-810) which is working quite well but it only has 32 bit drivers available.

If I run the printer on a Win7 32 bit machine, can the 64 bit machines print to it if there are no 64 bit drivers available?

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I do not believe so as the printer drivers have to be installed on all PC’s you wish to print from. One way arouns this would be to move what ever you wish to print to the 32 Bit machine (either vis your network or removable media), then print it from there. Sorry.

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Its possible that Microsoft has an updated “native” driver for your printer, or a model very close to yours that will work for you. When you click on the Advanced tab of the printer and select New Driver, you should see an option for Microsoft Update. This does not download Windows patches, but instead downloads the latest set of “native” Windows printer drivers.

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Chuck, thanks for the reply.

I had some difficulty finding the way with your suggestion. I right clicked the printer in the Devices and Printers section but could not find an Advanced tab or any ability to change the driver there even though I tried Properties, Printer Properties and subsections of both. I went to Device Manager and could not find my printer in there even when it was switched on. It did show up after selecting Show Hidden Devices. That showed a Printers section and then my printer. Right clicking that showed a selection to Update Driver Software and I was told it was up to date. Could you provide more detail on your method please.

Also are you suggesting that if it finds a 32 bit “native” driver then it will also have a 64 bit “native” driver? I don’t currently have a 64 bit machine. The question is asked as part of planning to go that way.

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Sorry. MS made this slightly more confusing than it needs to be. Under Devices and Printers, right click on the printer, select Printer Properties, its in the middle of the list. Don’t use the Properties option on the bottom of the context menu. Once you get the driver properties open, then look for the Advanced tab. The rest you should find easily. Windows Update will only download what is compatible for your “bitness”. When you do load 64 bit, then you’ll have to try it again from there to the set of compatible drivers.

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Chuck, I missed the button first time. Got it now but no MS drivers for 32bit. Not much chance for 64bit. I think I may have to buy a new printer eventually. Sad, because it is still working well. Thanks for the assist.

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Or you could try upgrading to 7 Professional and using XP Mode, (A VM) and using the existing drivers in the legal full copy of XP that comes along with the Wnidows Virtual Machine. Good luck!!

Joel

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Or you could try upgrading to 7 Professional and using XP Mode, (A VM) and using the existing drivers in the legal full copy of XP that comes along with the Wnidows Virtual Machine. Good luck!!

A reasonable suggestion. I do have Win 7 Professional and I have been unable to get the printer running in the XP Mode VM. I cant see this as a solution even if the printer did run. I still want to print to this printer from other machines which will be running Win 7 64bit and I dont have a 64bit driver for them. The printer runns OK using Vista drivers in Win 7 32 bit. I was prepared to buy another low powered 32 bit machine to run the printer on but I believe (and so do others) that I could not print to it from a 64 bit Win 7 without 64 bit drivers on the 64 bit machines. I was hoping to be proved wrong on that point when I started this thread.

Probably what I will do eventually is get a Brother HL-2140 (very cheap in Australia) and run that on the low powered 32bit machine which will also act as a scanner server, music server and a platform to run a couple of very old but still useful programs. I could run XP pro 32 bit, Vista Home Premium 32 bit or Win 7 Professional 32 bit (all of them are retail versions) as I have unutilised licences for these. The Brother printer has drivers for Xp, Vista, 7 both 32 and 64 bit.

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