OT: Printing from Windows 7 via SMC Barricade router?

PEBKAC

Nope, the problem exists in Redmond. As evidenced by numerous Internet posts where peopel had very similar problems.

LaserJet 5L, still going strong and very reliable. It has the driver, blessed by MS (came from there). Of course I've tried numerous other more generic drivers as well.

Printer only has par port, no USB.

No, it is about not subscribing to a throw-away society. The printer works perfectly and the issue is symnptomatic. It is supposed to work.

Sure it does. The print function does not even work from _within_ the test page routine supplied _by_ Microsoft, employing the driver supplied _by_ Microsoft, when used with Windows 7. With XP everything works fine.

Of course there are no error messages, that seems to be asking too much.

If the printer driver doesn't install, then the applications have thin air to print to. It's not a 'layer' thing.

I have a printer that hooks to the network or USB, but no printer port (See Legacy-Free PC specs). It will not print anything from any client unless t he client has the proper drivers installed (32-bit on XP, 64-bit on Win 7 h ere) then shazam, your printer not only shows up on the network, but it is accessible by applications to print. Win 7 has nothing to do with it, if yo u equipment does not have Win 7 drivers, then it is the manufacturer's faul t, even for in-box drivers, which generally come from the manufacturer for in-box approval. Still no mention of which printer here. All it says is so mething won't install on Win 7. Oh Well, bitch at the printer manufacturer , not Microsoft.

You wanna talk about bloat? Try and include ALL Legacy drivers in a Win7 i nstaller. yeesh, no wonder Apple has a closed system.

It is fixed and the same as the router itself. Can be pinged. I am writing via this router right now.

That's how I had it st up from the start except that the Port number is grayed out in Windows 7 unless you select RAW. i've also tried just about any other combination, including the popular port 9100.

Tried both, makes no difference.

The I'd have to get a USB-LPT pod. Not very trivial here. Buying horse saddles, tractor glow plugs and cattle feed would be easier :-)

I've quadruple-checked everything :-)

The web is full of complaints about that.

It's somewhat readable but tiring and looks "cheap". Like an 80's arcade game screen. XP renders way better.

It did install.

I've mentioned it a few times, it is the HP LaserJet 5L. The printer driver for Windows 7 was properly and automatically downloaded from Microsoft. Doesn't that allow the assumption that it works? Or is that asking too much nowadays?

Simple solution but Microsoft doesn't seem to see things like that: When the OS didn't have the driver it requested permission to go look in Redmond. I allowed. The smart thing would be to show the driver, ask if that's the one or let me select one, and download only that one. But no, they downloaded a boatload of drivers I will never ever use. Everything and the kitchen sink. Why? Can anyone explain that?

SMC software won't work on Win7 and it is Microsoft's fault.

You're on your own from here out, pal. :)

Not quite.

a. If Windows 7 was truly as backwards compatible as XP and its predecessors were the SMC software would work.

b. The SMC software is purely for convenience, you do not need it. It is for people not familiar with setting up a network printer. One could always directly set up a TCP/IP printer by hand. That has nothing to do with the SMC software becquse the CD can remain in its pouch. It always worked and also on non-MS systems where this software would not even run. Until Windows 7, that is.

Where does the setup and test process break on your Win7 box?

aka ->

This has the whole thing laid-out step-by-step.

What? 600dpi?

It is NOT about throwing it away, it is about having something an order of magnitude better for a small price, and the same ink costs. and better connectivity. and ARCHIVE the old one. It is just like hard drives. They run out of space or are in emminent failure mode. Replace it.

You save time money, hair...

I still have a watch on my wrist, but it is digital. My last digi-mech died 5 years ago. But I have a collection of antiques.

Same with my scientific calculator AND my antique slide rule collection. When was the last time you used a slide rule, IF you even still have one... handy. Hell, most folks use 'software' calculators now.

See how that works?

I also have a very old printer, but it has little antique value as there were so many of them made.

See how that works?

I also have Laser Disc, DVD, HD DVD, and now BluRay DVD formats and form factors. I have albums and even come cassettes. I even have a few VHS tapes.

Everything evolves. Well... almost everything, Joerg.

So, I guess you don't see how that worked.

Bwuahahaha... BRL!!

guess where "microsoft" got that driver they supplied you with. From the driver authors. They were not MS engineers.

You ain't real bright, windows dialog box boy.

WINDOWS CARRIES libraries of drivers. They "supplied" NONE. Wake up.

That only means that their setup demo ignores the config settings to ensure it all looks as slick as possible for instore sales demos no matter what insane parameters have been set for the graphics card!

BTW the monitor will likely also come with default burn through the back of your head brightness settings to look good in a shop window.

I have never heard of it before but reading that thread it appears to be a specific fault with the default *gaming* settings in the NVidia graphics card drivers. This isn't a Mickeysoft problem at all!

See the posting by M3TALHEAD - hope this helps. It would drive me crazy to have a display that wasn't absolutely tack sharp.

The keyword in the thread is "Digital Vibrance" find the rogue setting and that at least should be fixed. Or throw away the entire graphics card and save yourself a fair amount of waste heat and electricity.

The inbuilt graphics from the 4000 GPU are excellent for 2D but a bit sluggish fro 3D gaming. OK for 3D rendering though provided it isn't a violent action sequence. Did a lot better than I expected on tests.

Regards, Martin Brown

This driver comes from Hewlett-Packard. Not some rinkadink place in Outsourcia. Do you honestly believe HP would ship a driver as Win-7 compatible if it wasn't?

If Microsoft included it without HP stating that it is compatible the fault would squarely be with them.

It's that simple.

But my online conferencing software doesn't. See below.

It is. See below.

Since today I am more sure than ever that the problem is Windows 7. Had my first online conference with the new Windows 7 computer. Part of this included the discussion of hi-res SEM images which one of the participants presented. Aside from them being absolutely crisp just like the picture in "Dancing with the Stars" there was also legend in the SEM shots. The font was about the size of the ones on my Windows screen. The readability of the legend in the SEM data was better than the Windows screen. Way better.

This was not some video game, it was presented data that came from a non-Windows source (a surface electron microscope).

With all this grief that comes with Windows 7 a nice surprise was the hardware. On the old PC such an online session has the CPU run at least at 50%. On the new machine it was 6%. Woohoo!

What ink? We are in the era of laser printers here :-)

Last week.

No. Seems you haven't done any RF designs lately where a slide rule can easily outperform any electronics in pointing out a good comprmise using catalog part values. In fact, my old Scientific American #250 is now worn down to the point where it can't be fixed anymore.

No, I don't. To me the environment is important and I find little sense in tossing something that still does its job. That is not good stewardship of the means that have been given to us.

Yeah, some people succumb to industry's demands to become members of a throw-away society. I don't.

I've done all this already and all sorts of combinations of it (for example, L1 is IMHO wrong, must be LPT1). But just to be 110% sure I followed the above instructions again step by step -> nada, zilch, zip, it will not print, Windows 7 will not even generate an error message about it which it should if a printer doesn't answer.

You are jumping to conclusions. How a font is rendered is entirely different to how a bitmap image gets blatted onto the screen.

You have got some crazy anti-alias or vibrancy setting producing artefacts around your fonts. Sort of thing gaming cards tend to do.

The crucial point here is that it was a bitmap font on a bitmap so that the antialiassing engine doesn't get to mangle it. A screen capture of the fault you are trying to describe would be unambiguous - any chance?

I reckon replacing PCs when the next generation will be 3x faster is about the optimum strategy for performance vs setup hassles.

I still think most of your Win7 problems are down to antique hardware and old software with suspect drivers rather than faults in the OS.

Regards, Martin Brown