2008 R2 vs. 32 bit Printer Drivers

[Gongalong]

Hi folks,

 

I am in the process of migrating our two printer servers from 2003 to 2008 R2 (64 bit).

 

All is fine for most of the printers, but we have 2 HP printers which do not have specific Win 7 32 bit drivers. Instead they offer a download of a universal PCL5 and PCL6 driver. I have added these into the available printer drivers, but when it comes to a client connecting to these printers it tends to either fall over or search via Windows Update.

 

Any ideas how I can link these universal drivers to the specific printers, or is there another approach?

 

TIA

[Killer_Bot]

So I'm assuming you've added the printer to the server via TCP/IP Port? Have you then added these 32bit PCL6 drivers using the 'additional drivers' option? Think it's on the 'shared' tab if I remember correctly.

[Michael]

Generally speaking printer deployment will fail because you need both 64Bit and 32Bit drivers. They must be the same version too.

 

By installing 64Bit first, then 32Bit, Windows Server will intelligently install the 32 or 64Bit driver on the workstation - just as it does your other printers.

[Gongalong]

The problem seems to lie in this particular make/model, an HP Laserjet 1320.

 

There's only a universal printer driver listed at HP's site (for Win 7 32 bit). If on the server I point the Additional Drivers to the relevant INF file within the driver files I get the error: The specified location does not contain the driver HP Laserjet 1320 PCL 6 for the requested processor architecture. This is with x86 ticked under the drivers section, so is a bit of a mystery.

 

An alternative suggestion was to install it via the client PC using Print Manager in Win 7. The instructions are to right-click on the printer in Print Manager, and select Manage Sharing. This then prompts that the driver is not installed, and do you want to install it. Curiously a driver for this is available via Windows Update, and it then installs. If you then go to Additional Drivers and again select the x86 section and point it to the INF file that Windows Update has downloaded you get a similar error to the above: The specified location does not contain the driver hp LaserJet 1320 PCL 6 for the requested processor architecture.

 

So the practical upshot is I'm still no further along getting a 32 bit driver on the server.

 

Any further ideas?

 

I also have an HP 2420 printer which seems to much the same i.e. only a universal printer driver supplied by HP.

[Dom_]

I usually stick a VM on to act as a print server - have all sorts of issues with photocopiers (especially when code tracking is enabled) when using 64 bit server 2008.

[Gongalong]

Solved it, albeit I almost lost my mind trying to figure it out.

 

Windows Update has an identically named and version-ed PCL5 driver for the 1320 that appears on both Win 7 and 2008 R2. Whoever set this server up used a 1320 PCL6 driver, which I think appears in the first list of printers on 2008 R2 (before the Windows Update option). I had to reinstall the printer on the server with this Windows Update PCL5 driver, and then when I updated via a Win 7 client I had to use that identical PCL 5 Windows Update driver as well.

 

It's taken me 3 days on and off to figure this out!

[andyrite]

Heres the way to fix the HP Driver. Drove me nuts.

 

Jonas Tech Blog: Installing additional HP universal printer drivers on Windows Server 2008 R2 x64