[sue.words]

My office network of a desktop PC, a laptop and a printer connected to the desktop, has worked well for about six years (during which the printer has been changed once or twice). A few months ago we took the laptop (an HP Pavilion running Windows XP and up-to-date with the Windows and Office Service Packs) with us when we went away to visit family. While we were away we were able to print from the laptop to their Canon printer (to which the laptop was connected).

I'm not absolutely certain of this, but I think the problem we have had in printing from the laptop dates from this time. We just cannot get the laptop to print using the printer (HP PSC 1500) it had previously used via the network. We have been living with the problem by saving documents we want to print to the desktop and then printing from there, but now and again I have had another go at tacking the problem

I have gone through the whole HP printing troubleshooting procedure, including PINGing both ways between the two computers to ensure the network is working (which I was sure it was anyhow because I can see the content of My Network Places, I can save to them and SyncBack is working).

This afternoon I found that the Canon printer appeared to be set as the default printer on the laptop. (I find it hard to believe that this has been the case the whole time we've had the problem as I'm sure I would have noticed, but anyhow I have changed that now and when I click the 'print' logo on the bar at the top (is that the menu bar?) the name of the HP printer pops up rather than that of the Canon, but after a long inert time a balloon message comes up from the printer icon at the bottom saying 'This document failed to print' and giving the correct HP printer name, and referring me to the aforesaid troubleshooter!

What am I doing wrong, please?

Edited by sue.words, 12 January 2012 - 11:07 AM.

[Advertisements]

This is me again (the original poster) just adding one more thing that could conceivably be relevant.

Not long after we got home from where we had been using the Canon printer I had a mishap with the desktop when I was printing. I was trying to delete something from the printing queue and by accident clicked 'delete printer' instead of 'delete job'. I then had a mighty problem getting the computer and the printer to speak to one another again. Eventually a friend suggested “Have you tried physically disconnecting the printer from the computer and reconnecting? It should then recognise it as a new device.” To my great relief this worked.

Obviously I cannot apply this remedy to a laptop that is not physically connected to the printer, but as this event also happened at round about the same time as the laptop ceased printing we wondered if there was any possibility of there being something I needed to do to the laptop to correspond to what I did to get the desktop printing again.

Edited by sue.words, 12 January 2012 - 11:06 AM.

[sue.words]

This is me again (the original poster) just adding one more thing that could conceivably be relevant.

Not long after we got home from where we had been using the Canon printer I had a mishap with the desktop when I was printing. I was trying to delete something from the printing queue and by accident clicked 'delete printer' instead of 'delete job'. I then had a mighty problem getting the computer and the printer to speak to one another again. Eventually a friend suggested “Have you tried physically disconnecting the printer from the computer and reconnecting? It should then recognise it as a new device.” To my great relief this worked.

Obviously I cannot apply this remedy to a laptop that is not physically connected to the printer, but as this event also happened at round about the same time as the laptop ceased printing we wondered if there was any possibility of there being something I needed to do to the laptop to correspond to what I did to get the desktop printing again.

Edited by sue.words, 12 January 2012 - 11:06 AM.

[Kemasa]

Actually, you can do the same thing and try to add a new printer. It might be that the printer with the HP name is not pointing to the network printer.

You need to make sure that the settings of the printer are correct for the network printer. Sometimes it is easier to just add a new printer and see if that works.

[sue.words]

Thanks for getting involved, Kemasa. I think I have done what you suggested but nothing seems to have changed.

[Kemasa]

Did you make sure that the new copy of the printer was set as the default? You might try removing the old copies and then adding the new copy.

You might also need to check on the desktop that the printer is still marked as shared so that the laptop can use it.

Do you know the IP address of the desktop computer? If so, from a command shell, type the command "ping IP_ADDR", where IP_ADDR is the IP address of the desktop computer. This is to make sure that the laptop can communicate with the desktop computer.

You can find the IP address of the desktop by going into the network settings and then right click and one of the options is to see information about the network settings. I think it might be marked as support or something like that.

[sue.words]

Kemasa, you are wonderful! You've done it!

>You might also need to check on the desktop that the printer is still marked as shared so that the laptop can use it.

This was the arrow that went to the heart of the problem. I looked at Properties in the desktop's Printers and Faxes first and there was nothing illuminating when I R-clicked on the printer's name in the list.

But then I went to the laptop's Printers and Faxes and there the various printers appeared in icon rather than list form and when I R-clicked on these one item in the menu was 'Sharing'. So I then changed the View on the desktop to icons, R-clicked the printer and that way was able to bring up a window with the dreaded words 'Do not share this printer' (or something like it). I changed that and was then home and dry.

Thank you so SO much!

Sue

[Kemasa]

Great, thanks for letting me know that everything is working now!!