Printer taking ages to network print on VISTA... XP fine??

Hoping somone can help me I have a REALLY annoying problem, ever since I installed a new printer vista takes AGES to print.

It works fine in XP but any Vista machine takes ages like 5 minutes to print, when I click print it hangs for about 5 minutes and then says "preparing" and then prints as normal...

However on a Windows XP its fine and is instant?

The host printer is on an XP machine and only Vista clients are having problems, tried installing latest driver and full format on both XP and vista machine made no different...

MY SETUP is a normal network, 4 PCS going into a DIR-655 router all computers are wired, with the latest drivers on both vista computers.

The printer is a HP Photosmart C4340 connects via USB, strange thing is this has only happened when Ive installed the new printer since my old one has broken and doesnt print properly....

Any ideas please, since I really need to sort this out for college
Cheers!
Mr_DoughBoy

 

You can try disabling "Simple File Sharing" on the XP machine. Also make sure they are all on the same workgroup. Finally, in the printer properties on Vista, what "Port" is it using and with what settings?

 

Thanks for your reply, Ive tried disabling "simple file sharing" on the xp machine made no difference, checked that they are both in the same workgroup and they are..

The windows firewalls are also disabled and no other firewalls on the PC'S.

The port is shown as USB001

Even selecting properties under control panel for the printer takes ages as well for some reason....

 

Bump ...

 

Do you have problems with file sharing between the XP and Vista machines? Have you created identical users and passwords on all XP and Vista machines, and given those users rights on all machines? For example, create a user named "John" with the password "Password" on all of your computers.

 

Did you uninstall the old drivers/software before installing the new one?

 

Yep tried that hasnt made any different however files appear instantly just printer problem still exists...

 

Yes, formatted on BOTH computers... Made no difference

 

Does the printer work when connected directly to the Vista computers?

 

Good suggestion kegobeer, if the printer work fine while connected directly into the Vista machine, then is either the router or the printer host computer the issue. I would think is not the router but rather the XP vs Vista communication interface compatibility.

As you connect the printer to the Vista machine, try to print from the XP machine as well, so if works, then we can blame Vista

 

I had this same problem with my Epson Printer. It was my Epson driver. The situation I was having was it would print like normal when printing locally, but if I was printing to a network share, it would hang for a minute or so before it printed. The culprit was the Epson driver. Since I already had the latest driver, the solution was to fool the driver into thinking it was printing to a local printer.

I would install the printer driver and assign it to a local port like LPT1. Then go to the printers folder under Control panel and right click your printer. Click the port tab and then click the "add port button." double click the Local port and it will ask you for a port name. I then type in the name of the share. ie "\\host-pc\Epson Series Printer"

Your situtation sounded a lot like mine, so try that out. good luck.