HP laptop unable to print using networked printer

[Uberragen21]

My laptop recently magically stopped printing. I had it set up to print using a networked printer (attached to a home server). It was printing fine for the first two months after initial setup. I've uninstalled the printer drivers, and reinstalled them. I deleted the printer then set it back up again using TCP/IP port. I've even gone so far as to suspect a corrupt windows vista 64 driver and wiped the hard drive and reinstalled vista. The printer works perfectly from the server computer, and my 2nd networked printer works fine from my other two computers. I downloaded a "fix" from HP that supposedly fixes this problem, but it obviously hasn't. Any suggestions?

 

[r_manic]

How is your laptop connected to the network? WiFi or ehternet? Also, is this in an office or home setting?

 

[Uberragen21]

The laptop is connected via a home WiFi. However, irregardless it still won't print even if connected via ethernet cable. The laptop is connected to the network and that aspect works perfectly fine (internet and access to NAS works fine). I suspect it's a problem with Vista 64. But what confuses me is why it was working perfectly for two months, then just stopped working.

 

[Uberragen21]

After many useless emails with HP tech support, I fixed the problem myself. I knew the problem resided with Vista, but my limited knowledge of Vista prevented me from pin-pointing the problem. Needless to say the issue revolved around Vista's networked printer software. I kept getting the 0x00000006 error when attempting to setup the printer via the printer detection method. And setting up the printer manually yielded unresponsive printing.

The first time I reformatted the HDD and reinstalled Vista, I suspected the reinstalled Vista was viewing files from the 1st Vista installation and therefore the same problem existed. To fix this issue, I went to www.freewarehome.com and downloaded a drive wiping program. I proceeded to remove the drive and connect it to my other computer and wiped the drive clean. After reinstalling the drive into the laptop, I did a fresh Vista installation. Low and behold, after installing all the appropriate programs, VIOLA, the networked printer is working beautifully! And HP tech said my printer or my home network was to blame. That's what you get for outsourcing to India.