Maybe one of you can help me. Ever since I got my new laptop, I can't get it to connect to our printer. It's on a network, so we can access it wirelessly anywhere in the house. My old laptop, our desktop, and my dad's laptop all access it just fine, we just tell it to look at it's IP address http:/***.**.*.** (not putting the numbers. lol). That doesn't work on this laptop. My laptop can even search for bluetooth or wireless network printers, but it'll search for 30 minutes and then say there are no printers.

The only thing I can think of is it's something Vista related.

The printer is an HP Laserjet 5/5m, if it matters.

Any suggestions?

Did you install the printer drivers on your laptop? I think even if it's wireless you may need the drivers...

you need drivers no matter what.

I work for HP printer support, but not that model. It's all the same though.

Go to

Control panel:
under Hardware and Sound click on Printers
then click on 'add a printer'
select 'local printer attached directly to this compute'
then it should ask you for a port.
click on the second option to create a new STANDARD TCP/IP port.
then next step will ask you for the IP address.
put that in then hit next.
next you probably have to select your printer from the list. (I am Mac support though so I forget if it detects your printer automatically or not).
Then finish the wizard.

If it doesn't detect that IP address and all the other computers do then your not on the network that they are and you'll have to join.

Is your computer wireless? how do you have it networked? do you connect to your internet wirelessly?

All of the HP drivers are pre-loaded either onto Vista or onto my laptop, I'm not sure which. Regardless, I've got every HP driver.

yeah but can you add the printer the way I just gave you?

No, didn't work. It says it's not found on the network.

Yes, my laptop connects to the internet wirelessly. As for how I have it networked, I'm not sure how to answer.

Does the printer go through a router? Because it would have to if you connect to your internet wirelessly.

You can only be on one network at a time.

What kind of router do you have?

Your printer IP should be something like 192.168.1.xxx

Try this:

Start
(right above the start button it says, what do you want to search for?) in their type in

CMD

and hit enter.
this should bring up a black command box. in their type in

ping xxx.xxx.x.xxx <--whatever your IP is

and then hit enter.

LMK if you receive 4 packets back or if their is no reply.

Yes, it says I sent and received four packets, taking between 6ms and 16ms.

We have a wireless router for our printer. On my old laptop and on my dad's laptop (as well as our desktop, for that matter) all we had to do was add a printer and tell it to look at http://172.**.*.** and then we could print. But it doesn't work on this laptop.

ok so your printer and computer can communicate.

When you went to the add a printer wizard, if you did it the way I said it wouldn't have said anything about the network.

You did select LOCAL PRINTER correct? even though it is a network printer you don't want to select that. try my method again.

at the part where it says to select a port to use, if you try and create another STANDARD TCP/IP PORT using the IP address of the printer it should say one already exists, that's if you did it correct the first time. If it does say that it already exists you have to go back to where it ask what port you want to use and select 'use the following port' and select from the drop down the tcp/ip port with your IP address.

At what step did it say 'no printer found on the network?'

I go to Add Printer, select Local Printer, select create a new port, and standard tcp/ip, then enter http://172.**.*.** (I put the real numbers) where it says Host name or IP address. It says contacting printer, then says

If I go to do it again, it doesn't tell me there is already one there, it just adds _1 to the name of the printer. (i.e. "unknown on http://172.**.*.**_1)

If I tell it to select an existing port, I select that one, and select which printer it is so it'll know which driver it is, and tell it to print a test page. It says ok, but the test page never reaches the printer.

when you're trying to create the port are you adding the http:// in front of it?

you want to put in just 172.xx.x.xx

Oh.

That fixed it.



It's working now. Thanks!

*shakes head while laughing*

*EDIT* OK, I take it back. It was spooling up like it was going to print, but now it's alternating between saying "Ready" and "Requested Language not available"

haha no problem.

requested language not available? it says that in your Printers folder? What product did you select when you added the printer?

Sorry, I forgot to say, it says that on the display on the printer itself. If I hit the cancel button, it says No Job to Cancel

Try downloading and installing this PCL6 Driver.

Universal PCL6 Driver

Then re-add the printer using this driver.

I downloaded it, but I'm not sure how to add the printer using that driver. It's not in the list, and if I browse to find it, I can't find any file in it that it'll accept. And yes, I unzipped it. lol

I just installed it by itself, and it didn't fix the problem.