printer problems

[Jim7]

I have a Win 7 (64bit) Desktop pc, a Win7 (64bit) laptop and a Vista (32 bit) laptop. The Win7 desktop is new. The win7 laptop can share files and print to my printers connected to the desktop.

The Vista laptop can share files and can see the printers when "add printer" is clicked in control panel, printers. But when I try to go the "Next" step I get a message that "Windows cannot connect to the printer ...error 0x000000c1".

I have tried following the advice that turns up when you google the problem (and find 2 million+ hits!) but all the efforts I have made with getting new drivers and "forcing" ports bring me back to the same point.

The most confusing aspect is that when my old XP (32 bit) desktop pc (now dead) was working, both the laptops i.e. Win7 64 bit and Vista 32 bit could connect to and print on the printers. Can anyone offer any useful advice?

[Cthulhuite]

Try this. On your Vista laptop, open up a Command Prompt as the Administrator and type the following;

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ga /n\\desktopwithprintername\printersharename

Obviously replace those bits at the end with the name of the computer that the printer is plugged into, and then name of the printer share.

Give your machine a restart after this, then check and you should see the printer connection on your laptop.

[Jim7]

Thanks for this, I am away from the vista pc at the moment and I will try your script when I get home. Are the spaces in the script significant? Should I just type it as it is (with the names changed).

Regards

[Master3203]

Could just be one of those many problems with win7 64-bit technology and vista technology that you come across. If you downgrade to 64 to 32-bit and upgrade vista 32 to Win 7 32. Problem will most likely be solved.