Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Connect to Printer Error Windows Vista and Windows 7

The following error was experianced when trying to add a printer from a 2003 print server to a windows 7.

Windows cannot connect to the printer. No printers were found.



To get around this, instead of adding the printer as a network printer (like you would normally do), add it as a local printer creating a printer port. Perform the following steps to do this:

Select Add a Local Printer.



Select Create a New port... in the port box select Local Port.



Under enter a port name, enter the UNC path of the printer on the print server.



Click Have disk to manually select the driver.



Download the driver from the manufactures website. Windows Vista and Windows 7 drivers are very similar, if the manufacture only has a x86 or x64 vista driver it will most likely work on windows 7. In my case I downloaded the driver from the Ricoh website as I have a Ricoh Aficio MP C4500 printer. Select the driver in the wizard.



Sometimes drivers have support for multiple printers. Select the right printer that matches your model.



Provide the printer with a name



Wait for the driver to install.



Print a test page to verify that the procedure worked. Click finish.



This error is pretty generic and can have multiple causes, but generally it's when the print server does not have the correct print driver for your version of windows. On the windows 2003 print server you cannot view if it has windows vista or windows 7 driver support.



To add in support for windows vista and windows 7 you need to use the print management console from a windows 2008, vista or windows 7 PC. Print management console comes as part of the RSAT (Remote Server Administration Tools).

To download RSAT for Windows Vista go to:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9FF6E897-23CE-4A36-B7FC-D52065DE9960&displaylang=en

To download RSAT for Windows 7 go to:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7D2F6AD7-656B-4313-A005-4E344E43997D&displaylang=en

Then simply add the driver to the print server for windows vista or windows 7.

15 comments:

  1. thanks a bunch! Worked for me (after trying so many different suggestions).

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  2. Thanks for this, saved a huge amount of work for me (x64 Win 7 & Windows Home Server x32)

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  3. Many many thanks for this solution - saved my bacon !

    Eric B

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  4. THANK YOU!!!!!!!! I spent hours messing with this crap, came across your blog on a forum and WOOHOO it works!!!

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  5. Hi, nice solution, but what about terminal service environment? I want to be able to have printers connected by preferences.

    This error is also happening in Windows 2008 R2.

    Arjan@itass.nl

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  6. I get as far as "installing printer", but it gets stuck there. Have to go to task manager to get out. Any suggestions?

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  7. Interestingly, we are able to specify drivers for win7 (x64) when accessing UNC path to printer on Win2k3 print server, and I instyall the appropriate drivers from the local machine

    BUT (and this is a big but) only some printers then work. Others simply crash explorer.exe when doing various things (test print, print from office app, etc.)

    I tried various things to try and get it to work but these instructions actually work.

    Now the issue is how are we going to install printers via script? We can't request users to go through these steps every time they want to connect to a printer.

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  8. This worked for me for two of my network printers (both Ricoh). But still unable to install an HP Designjet 800...

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  9. Thaaaanks, thats was a very helpful info.. I've got my HP LaserJet P2015 through the network, I used win7 64x

    Thank you v.v.v.much!

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  10. Thanks, thats was a very helpful info.. I've got my HP MFP through 2003 server.
    Thanks again

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  11. Nice post with great details. I need a Plastic card printing machine for home use. Where i can get the best one?

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  12. This is only a workaround and doesn't resolve the actual issue! How do you resolve the issue? the majority of my PC's on the network can install this printer with no problems. It is only one or two PC's that have this problem

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  13. Awesome solution!

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  14. What's more, there are currently such a large number of various sorts, models, and uses for printers the decision appears to be unending. This can make purchasing both printers and adornments for printers entirely befuddling, just on account of the boundless decision.https://800support.net/printer-support/

    ReplyDelete