Thanks everyone for this superb fix - it works! Saved me buying a new £70 printer also...Just for Vista.

I was able to manually load the 7200 series drivers for the printer, but when I tried to do a test print, it didn't print. Any thoughts on how to make this work?

Man, thanks for all of the advice!! Works likea charm and saved me from shelling out $70-100 to buy a new printer or having to change back to XP.

Rock on!

Hi! Funny thing, I had the same problem with a free printer I acquired with the purchase of an HP notebook. A Lexmark X2580. A voice called to me from the printer and it said it's not connecting, but made one print. That printer seemed to grab my machine almost demonically. I talked to Lexmark and they said to download some software. Something was funny with that download because the machine couldn't seem to find it. Several hours later, after disconnecting the printer, it found it. Matter of fact the notebook made a special effort to notify me. The printers just been sitting here because I wanted to buy an HP printer.

Hi! Funny thing, I had the same problem with a free printer I acquired with the purchase of an HP notebook. A Lexmark X2580. A voice called to me from the printer and it said it's not connecting, but made one print. That printer seemed to grab my machine almost demonically. I talked to Lexmark and they said to download some software. Something was funny with that download because the machine couldn't seem to find it. Several hours later, after disconnecting the printer, it found it. Matter of fact the notebook made a special effort to notify me. The printers just been sitting here because I wanted to buy an HP printer.

Thanks for all these posts - I have a variation on this theme:

Win XP Home as server with HP1215 attached via USB
new laptop - Vista - wireless network

Vista finds the printer, sends data to the printer, but nothing prints.

Pretty much an amature here, I have the HP 7200 driver, but how do I link it to the printer shown as HP1215? I cannot seem to add additional driver on the Vista laptop, though I added a whole new printer calling it the 7200 with no luck. Should this driver be on the XP machine?

Thanks-

slm
I have the same problem, Notebook running Vista and a desktop running XP with the 1215 attached to it. I can find the printer on the network but I am unable to modify the driver on the vista machine. All the options are greyed out. Any help would be appreciated.

Similar problems.

Brand new Gateway with this wonderful Vista. HP Photosmart 2710.
First downloaded the Vista drivers from HP. Then HP said they were having some problems with downloading drivers, so $30 later (overnight shipping) the drivers came on a CD. Reinstalled, but still no luck.

The computer beeps when I plug the printer into the USB port. The USB cable worked on the computer it just replaced. I even tried another known good cable from a different laptop but nothing. I think it knows it's there, but I'm not sure. When I send a test page I get a printer error and no action whatever from the printer; no beeps, no sounds.

Someone posted earlier in this string to use USB001 Printer Port. That port option did not even come up in my list to choose from. I tried to make one, but probably did it wrong. I just typed in USB001 for a new port type. Then I quit getting a printer error shown, but still no response from the printer.

Also, please bear in mind. This is my wife's computer; I have no experience with Vista. It may be something as simple (or stupid) as I haven't turned something on.

Any thoughts? And any help is most sincerely appreciated



THANK YOU. John Dare

PS. My expertise is in MS Excel. Someone who can help me get this printer working will have a big favor owed to them. Thanks again.

PPS I was going to add an icon, but I couldn't find one for begging and pleading!

So what you got to do is:
1. Install the normal drivers for XP
2. Copy your printer (HP PSC 1215)
3. Delete the original printer
4. Change the copy's name to the original one
5. Print a test page
And that's all. Don't forget to plug in!
BTW Vista's as good as XP and every dumbass can learn it, so please don't say that Vista sux.

This is a great Tip! I too have a Photosmart 1215 attached to an XP desktop that I wanted to print to from a Vista desktop using print sharing. After installing the 7200 print driver as part of the printer setup on Vista it worked perfectly. Thanks for the post!

OK, I've tried just about everything to get my 1215 to work, unsuccessfully. Here's my problem.

The computer's new; it's not an XP upgrade. So, the original HP 1215 XP drivers aren't on it, and I can't get the printer to show up in the printer window. So, I can't upgrade the driver. If I just add a 7200 driver printer to USB001 or to the DOT4 port, the printer doesn't work.

Someone suggested right click on the open printer window and click on Run as administrator>install manually.

I can't seem to find any place where "Run as Administrator" shows up when I do this. The only manual installation that I can find is the button at the top that starts the wizard that ends up saying I can't do it. Just plugging in the printer starts the wizard that asks me to tell it the address where the driver is located. I can't seem to find on the hard drive which file is the 7200 driver. It unfortunately doesn't go to the printer driver page automatically, like when you try to update the driver.

So, I think I have three choices. Buy a new printer like HP wants me to, figure out a way I can get the computer to recognize the HP 1215 as a printer so I can upgrade the driver to the 7200, or find the file that contains the 7200 driver on the hard drive, and use it to install the printer.

Anybody got any ideas on how to proceed? I'm ready to choose option 1.

Thanks.