home network trouble with Vista laptop

mrpacs said:
Make sure you have "Printer Sharing" turned on. Is the Lexmark being "Shared" on the XP machine? It needs to be. It must have the little hand that indicates sharing beneath the printer icon. Right click on printer icon, select "sharing". Select "Share This Printer". Click "Apply" , click "OK". Then go to Vista PC and browse for the printer. You may need to reboot BOTH PC's after yuo enable sharing.

Vista Printer Sharing How to

File and Printer Sharing in Windows Vista
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Yes, this is done. I am now stuck trying to add the network printer to the Vista machine.

Somehow, I seem to have stripped the Lexmark drivers from the Vista machine. I downloaded them from Lexmark's web site but the installer program will not allow me to install them saying that older drivers need to be uninstalled first. I've gone through this procedure of uninstalling and rebooting several times but can't get the new drivers installed.
 
phillyphan said:
Yes, this is done. I am now stuck trying to add the network printer to the Vista machine.

Somehow, I seem to have stripped the Lexmark drivers from the Vista machine. I downloaded them from Lexmark's web site but the installer program will not allow me to install them saying that older drivers need to be uninstalled first. I've gone through this procedure of uninstalling and rebooting several times but can't get the new drivers installed.
Click to expand...

Can you "Restore" to an earlier date?
 
I am not much of a Windows Guy. But I found the following guide on Microsoft TechNet.

File and Printer Sharing in Windows Vista

If you feel like making a small investment into this project you could invest in a wireless print server. A quick search on newegg revealed a DLINK and NetGear solution for $80 or so.

As a bit of a MacFan Boy Apple has a solution you can use as well called the Airport Express.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MB321LL-A-Airport-Express/dp/B0015YJOK2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1244165019&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Apple Airport Express: Electronics[/ame]

Works with PC and MAC and you get the added bonus of streaming music from iTunes to it. If it's close to a Stereo of Sorts.
 
phillyphan said:
Tried that already but it didn't help. Thanks.
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So you cannot see the printer from the Vista PC? The printer is being shared from the XP system, correct? Turn off ALL your firewalls, Spyware and virus protection on both PC's to be safe....so to speak!. Can you see the XP computer from the Vista computer? If so, can you see a "Shared Folder" from the XP computer?
 
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mrpacs said:
So you cannot see the printer from the Vista PC? The printer is being shared from the XP system, correct? Turn off ALL your firewalls, Spyware and virus protection on both PC's to be safe....so to speak!. Can you see the XP computer from the Vista computer? If so, can you see a "Shared Folder" from the XP computer?
Click to expand...

Yes, I can see the XP computer from the Vista computer.
Yes, I can see the printer from the Vista PC.
Yes, the printer is being shared from the XP desktop machine.
Yes, I can see a shared folder from the XP computer.

The problem was when I try to add the network printer from the Vista machine (see attachment). It's looked like this for over an hour. Then per your suggestion, I disabled Windows Firewall and Symantec Endpoint Protection and the network printer installed like a charm. Just like that. Awesome, thanks mrpacs and MM too!

Thanks.
 

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New problem. I tried to install Vista SP2 from the standalone download but I get an error that it can't install. I have SP1 installed. The link on the error takes me to the following MS webpage.

I had SEP and Windows Firewall disabled.

Windows Update does not seem to work now either even though it successfully installed a bunch of updates on 6/10. There is a cumulative update for IE8 that failed to install with the same error message. I cleared the softwaredistribution folder then ran the system update readiness tool standalone, but neither step seemed to help.

Any ideas? This is frustrating and I don't have the time to troubleshoot like I used to.
 
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New problem with Vista and Windows Update

Or should I just consider reformatting the hard drive and doing a clean install of XP Pro? It may seem like a step backwards, but XP Pro would be fine. Thanks.
 
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See if you can find a download for "Windows Installer".

I've had the same problem in the past and reinstalling windows installer fixed it.
 
sgip2000 said:
See if you can find a download for "Windows Installer".

I've had the same problem in the past and reinstalling windows installer fixed it.
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This?

Simple enough if you think this will work on Vista? I'll try it over the weekend and report back. Anything else I should try?
 
phillyphan said:
I installed the new Windows Installer but the SP2 install still failed after that. Attached is a copy of the error message. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Never seen that exact error. Looks like you have something bigger going on.

Did you ever install an SP2 beta?
 
I reformatted and reinstalled Vista. Windows Updates (hours and hours worth) followed by a stand alone install of SP2. Everything seems to be normal so far. Still have a few software reinstalls and Outlook and home network to reconfigure before I am done.
 
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