Vista - Canon Printer Drivers

I have 2 new Toshiba laptops that came with Windows Home Premium 64 bit. They did not come with any disks as everything was preinstalled. My 2 Canon printers, MP390 & Pixma IP1500, came with drivers for Windows XP (32 bit) and there is nothing offered by Canon for the IP1500, while they have a small add on for the MP390. My problem is that I need to have both printers working and Vista rejects an installation of a 32 bit driver program.

How do I use the add on if I can't install the original driver disk?

Where are the drivers that Vista supposedly has as part of it's program?

Thanks for the help.

It's absolutely impossible to use 32-bit (kernel-mode) drivers on a 64-bit system, and vice versa.

If you haven't already done so, you should search Canon's website for the latest x64 Vista drivers for each of those printers. Don't worry too much about the "original driver disk" because they tend to be obsolete even before the printer is taken out of the shop! Seach the manufacturer's website instead - in this case Canon.com.

i think you'll find that Canon are very bad at providing 64 bit drivers for their printers. I had to replace my printer with am HP one for that very reason.

The reply from Canon support was, that it was ro much trouble to write drivers ..., well they lost a customer for good.

I did go to the Canon site and I did download the tiny driver for the MP390. I'll try it again and see what happens.

Is there a site that offers generic printer drivers for Vista 64?

Have a look in the Windows\System32\Driver Store\File Repository folder and see if the following folder is there,

prnca001.inf_c505b61f

This folder contains Vista's native support for a whole host of Canon printers, including both the models you listed (including my old i320). If it is there it should just be a matter of plugging the printer(s) in and letting Vista detect and install the driver.

If that folder isn't there then there is a good possibility that Toshiba used a modified install of Vista with the printer driver folder removed (on a normal install the printer drivers folders is somewhere around 800 MB).

Also if it isn't there let me know and I can upload a zipped copy of that folder from mine, and it should work with your printers.

Thanks, I'll give it a check and get back to you later today.

OK that worked for the MP390 and later I'll see if it works on the IP1500.

Thanks a lot!

All is well as both printers are running perfectly. Thanks guys.

Windows\System32\Driver Store\File Repository folder\prnca001.inf_c505b61f

Stormy13, this is some great info to know. Thanks! One question though, when you say the folder is usually around 800MB, do you mean the folder "prnca001.inf_c505b61f" or the entire "File Repository" folder?

My normal installation of Vista Ultimate x64 has my folders at...

prnca001.inf_c505b61f = 309MB
File Repository = 1.42gig

Just curious, Thanks.

The 800 MB I got/saw was when I was running the Vista install disk through vlite, and I have a feeling that that number is based on the compressed size on the disk. One thing I did do while there was to remove all printer support except for Canon (which is the ca bit in the file name prnca), as that is what I have for a printer and any new one I get should have drivers available.

One reason that Canon folder is so big is that it has all the necessary driver and color profile files in it for just about every Canon printer made in the last 5-10 years (or at least that's what it looks like) including any made up until the release of Vista.

P.S. tocaff glad to hear it worked for you. Also if you haven't checked it yet, when you go to Printers in Control Panel and check the properties for your printer(s) you should have a control panel that opens that is almost identical to the one that came with the XP drivers (right down to the Maintainence tab with all its options).