Vista - Problems printing from Vista to Lexmark z715 network printer on WinXP

I have a Lexmark z715 printer installed on my desktop Windows XP Professional machine. I also just recently purchased a new laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit, I shared the printer, and now I want to print to the printer installed on the Windows XP machine.

My first problem was that the two computers couldn't connect at all so I turned off the firewalls on both computers which fixed that problem.

I installed the Lexmark Z700-P700 Vista 64bit print drivers on my laptop, and then tried to add the printer using a local port \\computername\printersharename.

After calling the Lexmark support line they told me cross platform printing between different OS wasn't supported. I think that's just an easy way out, or something is wrong with their drivers. They said if the laptop was Windows XP or previous Windows version it would work.

I was getting the 0x0000000d error. So I looked on several forums and they suggested making the share name match the name of the printer, in my case that was "Lexmark Z700-P700". Now when I try to print I get a communication error.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for the any help you can offer.

Cross platform printing is absolutely support as long as the vendors print
driver supports it. MS has 1500 printers shared off several x64 print
servers servicing 40000 users running x86 and x64 client OS.

E:\>winerror 0x0000000d
13 ERROR_INVALID_DATA <--> No NTSTATUS matched


Invalid data is the error


Add a Fake printer that uses any driver on the XP machine. Select the same
USB port as the z715. Keep the printer name and the share name simple
(simple means one 8 character or less name) FAKE would be a good choice.

On the Vista x64 machine create another printer using a local port to
\\xpmachine\FAKE and use the Lexmark Z700 driver.

Print test page

If you get the communication error, open the printer properties on the Vista
machine (right click Run as administrator) and see if Bidirectional is
selected on the Ports tab. Uncheck and try again.


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

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"areeves" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:1c570b75a8e8c281a2c303c7b293b36c@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Thanks for the reply but, still not working here is what I did.
I tried to include as much detail as possible:

On the XP machine:
- firewall turned off
- printer on
- print test page OK

First a look at Printer properties on XP machine:
- Printer name: "Lexmark Z700-P700 Series"
- selected as default printer
- Share this printer selected with share name "Printer1"
- Port: USB001
Description: Virtual printer port for USB
Printer: Lexmark Z700-P700 Series
Enable bidirectional support is selected

Second:
1- Add Printer wizard
2- selected "Local printer attached to this computer" and unchecked "Automatically detect an install my Plug an Play printer"
3- selected "Use the following port: USB001 (virtual printer port for USB)"
4- selected driver "Lexmark Inkjet Drivers" "Lexmark Z700-P700 Series"
5- selected "keep existing driver"
6- printer name: FAKE
Do you want to use this as the default printer? NO
7- Share name: FAKE
8- Location and Comment left blank
9- Print test page OK

On the Vista Machine:
- firewall turned off

1- Add printer wizard
2- Add local printer
3- Create a new port: Local Port
4- port name: \\myxphostname\FAKE
5- selected driver "Lexmark Inkjet Drivers" "Lexmark Z700-P700 Series"
6- selected use currently installed driver
7- Printer name: FAKE
selected "set as default printer"
8- print test page results in "Communication Not Available" window:
Communication Not Available
The printer cannot communicate with the computer.
Check the following:
The host computer is on a directly connected to the printer.
The host computer can print to the printer.
The printer is shown as Shared in the Printers folder on the host computer.
Check you Firewall settings to ensure printer communication is not blocked.
For more help, click the Troubleshooting button.
If you have not solved the problem, restart your computer and the host computer.
9- finish wizard
10- left click printer - Run as administrator - properties
11- on ports tab uncheck enable bidirectional support
12- click apply
13- goto general tab and print test page results in different window than in step 8:
Communication Not Available
The printer cannot communicate with the computer.
Pease turn on "Enable Bidirectional Communication" setting in the printer properties dialog.

A few more notes on Vista, not sure if this will help but, I'll add it anyway...
1- click start menu
2- type "\\myxphostname"
3- right click on Lexmark printer - connect...
Windows cannot connect to the printer. Operation could not be completed (error 0x0000000d).
3- right click on FAKE printer - connect...
Windows cannot connect to the printer. Operation could not be completed (error 0x0000000d).
4-I can ping the XP machine from Vista and vice versa



Any other ideas?