Printer compatibility and Windows Vista

At first glance you might think that this post spans outside of the nudjit mission statement to tackle gadgets. But then, you’d be wrong if you assume that.

I recently had the esteemed pleasure of working on a lovely HP laptop, brand new, with Windows Vista as the operating system. I wont get in to the actual system here because I don’t think there is enough time or money in the world would allow me to do that.

This post is about printer compatibility with Vista. Basically, many old printers are not compatible with Vista. This is a problem when retailers wont sell laptops with any other operating system (OS).

So I sat down for some time (a couple of hours) and managed to solve the problem. But before I tell you what the solution to the problem is, let me tell you how things went down.

What I had to do to get the HP psc 1350 all-in-one to print was email the attachment (which is almost impossible with Vista’s outlook system) to my Macbook Pro. Connect the HP to my Macbook. Not install any drivers because I didn’t need any and print the attachment via Office for Mac.

That’s not a happy place to be in, ever. And I was not happy.

So I did what any self-respecting man would do, I Googled it. I stumbled through some of the rubbish answers from various forums, blogs and other dead-end opinions. Then I found the HP help.

I discovered that HP printer drivers can be installed on Vista but incur errors. These errors need driver updates to install and correct the problem.
You need to visit the HP website for the update. Install the HP Printing Diagnostic Utility and follow the instructions provided.

The software will then instal and run on Vista. You will then be taken to a screen that diagnoses your problem. You’ll see a bunch of green ticks and a red cross or two. Simply click “Fix” until there are no red crosses and you will be sorted.

My problem was simply an error with margins and paper something-or-other. Problem solved, page printed, too easy.

Hope this helps everyone out and you don’t waste any money on a new printer that is Vista compatible when you have a perfectly good printer at your disposal already.

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Filed Under Featured Reviews, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Peripherals