[marelsoft]

I purchesed Dell Dimention 5100 with Dell printer A940 All in One type and XP Winows Home premium. I would like to use my printer with my laptop running Vista OS.I tried to download new driver from Dell web and set up asked me to connect printer to my Vista PC to install driver. I decided not to proceed becoase I do not want to make any changes in my printer firmware so that it may work only with my laptop and may stop working with XP. If I download new driver do I change printer software or new deriver sits on my PC only ?

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Hi marelsoft

If I download new driver do I change printer software or new deriver sits on my PC only ?

The drivers are stored in a folder on each computers HDD and will not affect the performance of the printer in any way also be sure to install the drivers as described @ http://support.dell....5&isLegacy=true
I hope this answers your question and let us know how it goes.

[phillpower2]

Hi marelsoft

If I download new driver do I change printer software or new deriver sits on my PC only ?

The drivers are stored in a folder on each computers HDD and will not affect the performance of the printer in any way also be sure to install the drivers as described @ http://support.dell....5&isLegacy=true
I hope this answers your question and let us know how it goes.

[marelsoft]

Phillpower2, Thank you for your help. New driver installation was OK. Now I am going to start using it. So far well known problem I was having with XP PC. Faxing in A940 is not working as manual says. But this will need new investigation.

[phillpower2]

Hi marelsoft and thank you for the update
Can I be of any assistance with the non working Fax issue, if so please post the details of the issue and what you have tried so far, hopefully we can resolve the issue quickly here but if not I may need to ask a member of Staff if a new topic should be started, possibly on the Networking forum.

[marelsoft]

Hi Phillpower2,
This is my situation with new driver.

After succesfull installation of new A940 printer driver I was able to print test page. Next I attemted to send fax. With A940 AIO software you can do it in many different ways. According to manual using fax with BVRP I shoud press Fax button on the front of the printer and BVRT software should be lunched and next I should follow instruction on the screen. Nothing happened.
Next I tried from AIO software.Scan to Fax feature. Scanning was performed but I did not find any fax connection, instead it activated printer pending queue without printing. Next I tried Fax to File. System did not aske me which file and again went to printer pending queue. I tried to print file from WordPad againd the same, only pending queue activated without printing. That is my status after "succesfull " installation of my new driver.
Thank you again.

[phillpower2]

Hi marelsoft
Please see from page 42 onwards of the user manual http://support.dell....940/a940en1.pdf
The description of the A940 as an all in one is a slightly misleading as it does not have a built in modem to send faxes it uses the PCs, where you aware of this.

[marelsoft]

Hi,Phillpower2
I am complitely aware what all in one means for A940. Printer does not have modem but must ccoperate with PC with internal modem ( my case). I have been using this printer for 6 years in XP PC, faxing, printing etc. Now I would like to use with my laptop running Vista also with internal modem. Insallation process includes loading fax software called in Dell manual BVRP. All In One software should lunch fax program and allow me to proceed but it does not in my Vista configuration which I installed succesfully ( at least what final message was saying). The only task which works is scanning document and attach it to email. All other tasks including printing go to printer queue ( ssys printing pending) but actually nothing is happening.

[phillpower2]

Hi marelsoft, it seems it is a known issue;
http://www.vistax64....sta-32-bit.html
Try downloading and saving the driver somewhere safe that you will remember, uninstall the present driver, disconnect from the internet, temporarily disable your AV software, install the A940 software and see how it goes, if successful ensure that you reactivate your AV software a.s.a.p and certainly before connecting to the internet again.
Let us know how the above works out.

[marelsoft]

Hi Phillpower2,
Thank you again. I need some clarification, what should I disable. I have Norton Security Suit with antivitus protection. Current status is as follow: Under Antivirus real time protection I have options with current set up:
Auto-Protect ON
Early load OFF
Removable Media Scan ON
Caching ON
Sonar Advanced Protection ON
Which ones I should disable.
I could not find additional AV protections. I am not sure if Wndows has one accesible by users.
Should I disable firewalls as well.

Thank you again for your consideration

[phillpower2]

I am not familiar with Norton these days as I havn`t used it since the late 1990s.
I use Avast on my systems and if I were to want to temporarily disable it I need to right click on the Avast icon on the task bar which gives me the option to disable it for 10mins, 1hr, until the next restart or permanently, Norton may have something similar so can you check.
Yes disable the Firewall as well, I must stress again that you only disable these facilities after downloading the drivers and you are securely disconnected from the internet + again be sure that your system is 100% secure again before reconnecting to the internet.

[marelsoft]

Hi Phillpower2,
Your last advice helped a lot. Everything work except fax. For some strange reason fax software BVRP is not recognized and does not associate itself with printer. Even during installation of new printer driver installation set up did not list fax as a place to fax, instead listed my printers an XPS application. I selected printer and when I try to fax printer prints scanning document. I can fax scanning to file and then from file using Fax Tools. Disabling AV and firewalls helped very much. Thank you again.

[phillpower2]

Hi marelsoft
Thank you for the update, I apologise for the delay in a reply but I have had my own gremlins here, as in high winds blew down the telephone line so no internet, anyhow I am glad to hear that you at least found a workaround albeit that it is not perfect, can you please post back here if you find a permanent solution.