Windows 7 V Brother laserprinter

[Ali-bear]

Hi,

just got a new PC running windaz 7 64-bit. And I can't get the damn thing to talk to my trusty old laser printer.

The printer is a Brother HL-P2000 which only has an old-fashioned parallel printer port to connect to. A few years ago I realised this was going to become obsolete so I bought a network printer port off eBay (an Intel NetportExpress Print Server). This setup has worked percectly with my XP laptop etc up until now.

Trying to use Windows 7, it finds the network print server and knows there is a printer connected, but it doesnt have the right driver for it.

When I got my previous XP laptop, the driver was built-in.

The printer doesn't appear on the Brother support site.

Where can I get a driver!?!

 

[mudmatt]

Have you tried google for the printer drivers?
Had a similar problem with mine but just downloaded the drivers and all good

 

[SPL]

If you still have the old PC, have you thought about copying the XP driver across and seeing if it works?

 

[Ali-bear]

Been all over google.

Windaz update doesn't seem to find it.

I'll try copying, thanks

 

[Ali-bear]

Update, I got the printer to work with ubuntu 10.10 ! I had to try several of the available drivers and eventually found the one listed under "MFC-P2500" worked.

Still no windows joy.

 

[Rasher]

If you still have the old PC, have you thought about copying the XP driver across and seeing if it works?

As the XP machine was almost certainly 32 bit this wil be no good, also dodgy drivers are a favourite cause of random crashes and Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)

I doubt there is a (Win7) driver for the printer if it is more than 3-4 years old, a 64 bit Vista driver may work OK as this is the closest earlier OS, but again there may well not be one available.

Welcome to the 64-Bit Windows 7 revolution

 

[shugie]

That Brother thing is a multi-function widget, scanner and whatsit, if you just want to print, you might find setting it as a generic printer, or other, similar, Brother might work.

Scanning with a parallel port device needs the correct driver though, so unless you can find a Brother driver for a different printer/scanner that will work with Win 7, you are stuffed.

 

[DollyRocket]

I would try a standard laser driver - usually printers will emulate a standard laserjet or epson so you can at least do basic printing.

 

[admiral]

Hi,
I had a similar problem, new (Windows 7) laptop, but no drivers for old HP printer (Deskjet 970 CXi). I searched around and found these instructions. Worked for me.

1) in Windows 7, click the start menu
2) in the search field type "run"
3) click on "Run"
4) type "hdwwiz" and go to "ok"
5) click "next," then click "install the hardware that I manually select from a list." click "next."
6) click "printers" and "next"
7) select "use an existing port" and go to "USB001." click "next"
8) click "windows update". This causes Windows Update to look for ALL printers that exist for Windows 7, and lo and behold, The driver for the 970cxi now shows up!!!
9) select this driver and continue on.

Hope this helps.

Admiral

 

[Ali-bear]

Thing is, this isn't a USB printer. It has a parallel port LPT1 style. I have it connected to this clever little box that basically acts as a network print server.

I only need it for basic printing, a letter every now and then or maybe a map out of google. Note that since I use OpenOffice anyway I can do everything I want from within ubuntu anyway. In fact, why do I need windaz at all???

During my tussles with ubuntu I have noticed that it shares the same driver as another Brother printer (HL1250). Looking up that one on the Brother support site, it does give some information for installing that one under W7 so I will have a go at that.

 

[Ali-bear]

Update for anyone else in a similar boat, I did find

http://welcome.solutions.brother.co...l?reg=eu&c=gb&lang=en&prod=hl1250_all&Cat=102

Following this it did go to Windaz update and let me load drivers for the same printers that ubuntu had drivers for, that worked with it under ubuntu (but the specific one for my model). But it still doesn't print correctly, in fact I seem to get double-line-spaced text. So sod it, I will do my office stuff in ubuntu from now on.

On the plus side, the new machine absolutely flies when it comes to processing photos under W7, which is the main reason I bought it.