I am at my wits end. I build and work on computers as a sideline, so am reasonably competent with them. However, this one has me completely stumped. I am trying to get a brand new Kodak Printer hooked up to a friend's Dell laptop and the two machines absolutely will not talk to each other. We even took the first printer back and got another one.

Dell Studio laptop
Vista Home Premium 32 bit
Kodak ESP5 All-in-One

A copy and paste from one of numerous e-mails sent to Kodak support.....



The printer will make copies just fine. It appears as the default printer in my printer settings. When I try to print, it is listed as an available printer. Under the listed printers, it is selected to use on-line. I have tried setting the on-line option from the administrator option in the right click options. The only devices I have connected to the computer are this printer and a USB wireless mouse.

I have tried 3 different USB cables and each of the available USB ports on the laptop.


I have uninstalled the software from the CD and downloaded the drivers from the website with the same result. There is a printer icon in the startup items in the taskbar. When the USB cable is plugged in, a red X flashes and the error message is, "Printer Communication Error" and asks me to be sure the USB cable is OK and to turn the AIO on and off. However, when I unplug the USB cable, the error changes to, "Printer not responding" and asks me to be sure printer is on, USB cable is connected and the print queue is on-line.

The reason I suspect this is related to Vista is her daughter bought the same printer and installed it on her XP system with no problems at all.

Sorry if this is too long-winded. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated!

Please understand the the Vista driver model and the XP driver model are different. So the fact that said item worked under XP, means nothing when it comes to Vista.

Vista has a compatibility tool that looks at your system and informs you of pontential problems "before" upgrading. Likewise you can also go here and look up your software or hardware to see if there is a potential compatiblilty issue. - Windows Vista Compatibility Center

As for your problem, you will need to go the the manufactures website to find driver(s) for Vista, and if you have Vista x64, you'll need to find 64-bit drivers.

Draclvr,

I've read your psot a few times and am not sure what the problem is? Could you explain whats going on, and what is is you're trying to do?

All I got is you're trying to hook the printer up to Vista and it doen't work. What errors are you getting? Also could you point me to the download link for the drivers?

Thanks.

fiscokid,

My question was directed at Draclvr. I've not looked at your problem. Unless you have the exact problem with the same printer, It might be better for you to start your own thread as this can easily get confusing between yours and Draclvr's issues.

Also this is considered a form of thread hijacking - where one person takes over another's thread.

You could watch this thread and chime in, but remember this is Draclvr's thread since his posted it.

Just trying to be helpful to everyone.

And the only errors "she" gets are after installing either from the Kodak CD driver installation or after the Vista download from their website. When the USB cable is plugged in, the error message is, "Printer Communication Error" and asks me to be sure the USB cable is OK and to turn the AIO on and off. However, when I unplug the USB cable, the error changes to, "Printer not responding" and asks me to be sure printer is on, USB cable is connected and the print queue is on-line. I apologize for not having the exact wording, but I sent the laptop home with my friend who lives about 50 miles away.

I have made sure the Kodak printer is selected as the default printer and that it is on-line. There is no network involved. This is a direct USB connection from the printer to the laptop. I have tried all available USB ports and 3 different USB cables.

I have uninstalled all instances of the drivers and simply plugged the Kodak printer in and rebooted to let Vista find the drivers that make it happy. It recognizes the correct printer and the Device Manager shows no issues with the device. Same result. So obviously there is SOME communication going on between the printer and the laptop.

Before downloading the drivers from the Kodak website, I uninstalled the CD drivers down to the driver package.

EDIT: Oops, sorry. Forgot the link to the drivers. I didn't download the firmware update since I cannot get the laptop to communicate with the printer. Of course, they only offer it as a behemoth of a file at 250 MB.

Kodak Drivers

As a moderator at a gaming website, I understand thread protocols etc. But since I posted my issue 2 weeks ago and it wasn't until fiscokid posted that I got a response, I'm inclined to forgive him this time! I do thank you, sygnus21, because I've never had to cry "uncle" before is resolving a computer issue and this one has completely stumped me.