HP G85 - Won't Network With Win 98/XP 1

[johntx2001]

I have an HP G85 All-In-One printer and it is plugged into one of my computers via USB. Both of my computers are plugged into a Linksys Router for my cable modem and I have the computers networked to each other via the router. When both computers were using Win 98, everything worked fine, but since I put one of the computers on Windows XP Home, the Win XP computer won't recognize the printer (which is hooked into the computer using Win 98.) I've tried downloading the new drivers, etc. to no avail. Any suggestions anyone has would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

 

[JimInKS]

When you say latest drivers, I assume you installed them on both the Win98 and XP machines.

In this configuration, my recollection is that the Win98 machine will have full functionality, scan, fax, etc., the networked machine will just be able to use the G85 as a networked printer only.

Can you share a folder on the Win98 machine and see it on the XP machine? You may just not have networking configured correctly.

 

[johntx2001]

I installed the latest driver for XP on the XP machine only. I didn't change the driver on the Win 98 machine because all was working fine on that one. The networking all works fine on the XP machine. It recognizes the other computer and I can view all the folders, etc. The printer is the only thing I can't get to work anymore on the XP machine and it was working fine when both were 98. Thanks for any help that can be offered!

 

[smah]

Did you install the driver locally - as if the printer was attached directly to the computer?

You may want to uninstall what you've got. Then install the printer drivers as if it was connected. Then edit the printer properties. Change the port to //servername/sharename.

 

[JimInKS]

I am assuming that you are setting the printer up as a shared printer on the win98 machine. This means that the XP printer driver needs to be able to communicate with the Win98 driver. The older Win98 driver probably doesn't know what winXP is. I would update the driver on the Win98 machine also.

I have seen many cases with Windows NT and 2K , where a 2K machine cannot access a shared printer on a NT machine until the driver on the NT machine is updated. In this case, however, I get a message that the driver on the NT machine is not compatible.

 

[johntx2001]

JimInKS -- Thanks for the info. The Microsoft website had a driver that I downloaded and installed on the 98 machine for the purpose your describe. It would allow the 98 machine to recognize an XP machine. I'm going to try doing what Smah suggesed above -- installing as a local printer and changing the port name to that of the shared computer. Hopefully this will help. I'm just hoping to avoid having to buy another copy of XP for the 98 machine, but since the machines recognize each other for other networking purposes (sharing folders & email) then I think I'm just doing something wrong with the printer.

 

[johntx2001]

smah -- thanks for the tip! I tried it and it worked perfectly! Both printers are now printing just fine. Thanks again for your helpful hint!