question about changing printer on home network

[albionmoonlight]

old laptop (Windows Vista) dying. Got new laptop (Windows 7) yesterday.

Have printer connected to wireless router.

I can get the new laptop to recognize the printer, but only through the old laptop. And, if the old laptop is off or disconnected, the new laptop cannot find the printer.

So, how do I get my new laptop to find/use the printer without having to go through the old laptop?

Thanks for any and all advice.

[PilotMan]

It almost sounds like you need to uninstall and reinstall the printer, and make sure that the printer drivers are installed correctly on the new laptop.

I can't seem to find the exact problem on a quick google search, but it does seem to be a common problem, and not too hard to fix.

[Autumn]

Personally I had a lot of trouble with connecting the printer to the router. Our laptop could never seem to find it, I ended up just going back to keeping it connected to a computer. So I'm not surprised if you have some trouble. I would defintely make sure the printer drivers are installed on the new laptop before you install the printer.

[cartman]

First off, what is the make and model of your printer?

From the sound of things, it appears that when you configured the printer on your old laptop, the laptop took over the sharing of the printer, so that even though the printer is on the network, it could only be seen via the laptop.

[albionmoonlight]

Canon PIXIMA MX700.

I did have to find the drivers online and install them on the new laptop before it would recognize the printer. The problem is, as y'all have noted, the old laptop has taken over that printer and is, frankly, acting like a selfish little bitch about it.

What I'd love to do it find a way to (for lack of a better word) dis-associate the printer from the old laptop and then let the new laptop recognize the printer on the network without regard to the old laptop.

[Autumn]

Can you turn off printer sharing on the old laptop?

[cartman]

If you know the IP address of the printer, try setting it up as a Local Printer on the new laptop (counter-intuitive, I know), and when it asks you for the port type, select "create a new port", select TCP/IP, and put the address there.

[cartman]

Were you able to get this working?

[albionmoonlight]

I have not tried your IP solution, yet.

I tried deleting the printer on both computers. Then I turned off the printer and the router. Then I turned everything back on and looked for the printer on the network and it could not find it.

Strangely, neither computer could find the printer after that. So, I used Windows Restore on the old computer to get back to square one. Then I re-installed the printer on the new computer through the old one.

I will try the IP solution soon.

[albionmoonlight]

Thanks again for all help and advice.

Turns out that there was a special networking driver I had to install from the Canon webpage. Then I had to run that driver while hooking the printer up to the new computer with a USB cable (after finding a friend with the right type of cable). And now it works like a charm.

So the old laptop is no longer needed for this, or any other, essential tasks. It is enjoying its retirement serving as the machine on which my 3 year old plays sesamestreet.org online games and Mrs. A streams old episodes of Scarecrow and Mrs. King* while doing chores. It's a nice quiet life for a machine that served us very well.




*I don't pretend to understand it. But she LOVES that show. It is all of comfort TV wrapped into one for her.

[Autumn]

Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Wow, that's something from deep in the brain vaults.