Windows 7 can't find driver for shared printer hp LaserJet 3380

Anonymous
2010-01-04T18:55:42+00:00

When I try to add a shared printer to my Windows 7 laptop, as a network printer, Windows 7 successfully locates it on the network, but I get the following error messages:

Windows can't find a driver for hp LaserJet 3380 PCL 6.

The file '*.INF' on (Unknown) is needed.

The printer is attached to an XP desktop pc on my home network.

I tried attaching the printer locally via USB to the Windows 7 laptop and successfully loaded the printer drivers and I printed to it. But when I reconnected the printer to the XP computer I got the error messages again.

This is shared, not a network, printer, so attempting to set it up with the TCP-IP option does not work.

Printing to this printer was successful under Vista. I did a clean install of Windows 7.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Jim

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2010-01-04T20:04:01+00:00

The 32bit driver name is different than the 64bit driver name.  You will need to create a Local Port which will basically copy the print formated data to the xpmachine share.

Here's the KB how to perform this task

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282842

on Windows 7

Add Printer

Local Printer

Add Local Port

\XPMACHINE\printersharename    (Make the share name one word or you have to "" quote the whole thing)

Select the driver installed when you connected the device to USB

complete the wizard

print test page.

Alan Morris Windows Printing Team; Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: http://support.microsoft.com/search/Default.aspx?adv=1

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-01-11T16:51:12+00:00

    I'm having the same problem and getting the same can't find the driver error message.

    • HP LaserJet 1300 on XP machine
    • Win 7 64 bit can see the printer on the network but cannot connect because it can't find the driver even though I go to the folder where the driver is installed and select the latest version of the 64 bit driver.

    Very frustrating. Would appreciate help.

    Frank

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-01-12T05:28:38+00:00

    Hi Alan,

    I was able to add the printer using the add local printer steps and was in fact able to print a test page. Now however, the printer is always offline eventhough the printer and the computer is on. I can see the shared files in the other computer too. Pls. help.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-01-14T07:16:08+00:00

    I assume you are using a user account that has been added with the same name and password on the XP machine when you connect.  If you where prompted for a user and password when you first connected, you will need to setup your machines differently for this to work after a reboot.

    If the password and user are the same on both machines, try disabling the AsyncRPC protocol but this can only be achieved by editing the registry

    from another post

    "We may have found a resolution to this issue. Starting in Windows Vista and in Windows 7 we introduced Asynchronous RPC which speeds up communication to a Windows 2008/2008 R2 Server. Windows Server 2003 doesn't support this new protocol and when Windows 7 tries to communicate using Async RPC, this is most likely causing the temporary loss of communication.

    The result is the blank driver tab and port tab.

    The work around is to disable Async RPC by adding the following registry key on the Windows 7/Vista clients:

    HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\EnabledProtocols

    Type: DWORD

    Data: 6

    " 

    Alan Morris Windows Printing Team;

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-01-23T15:11:47+00:00

    Hi Alan,

    I tried all of the above. I can see the windows xp shared printer and I tried adding it via: printui /s /t1

    but I get this a popup (on the win7 machine) telling me:

    Not enough server storage is available to process this command

    Any ideas?

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