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Mark Minasi's Reader Forum - Vista drivers on Windows 2003?
Is there any way to install Vista drivers to a Windows 2003 print server or do we need to setup Longhorn?
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Can't you just add them in the usual way?
I've not tried.
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I've tried and the wizard will get you to a point to specify the OS you are adding the drivers for.
Vista is not listed and I'm not sure I know how to add it as an OS here.
It doesn't appear that 2003 knows what to do with Vista drivers.
There would seem to be a new way to do this that I'm not getting.
Perhaps the Vista print-server experience has changed completely?
I mean, I can add a printer, via a local TCP connection to each of my Vista clients but I like the print server model
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No, Sandy, the print DRIVER model has changed but the server model hasn't.
I wonder, if you were to use Vista's Print Management Console to remotely control a 2003/XP-based print server whether or not the Vista PMC might be smart enough to add the drivers.
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Aha! That may just be the ticket!
I ran the PM on my Vista machine and the wizard showed me some new options!
There's new Type 3 - User Mode driver options.
I'll find myself some Vista drivers and see how it does!
Thanks!
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Hey, Sandy, it was just a scientific wildass guess.
Please drop back by and tell us if my SWAG worked.
Thanks!
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Hey, SWAG is good!
Well, it appeared I was able to add one of my 'local' Vista drivers to my Windows 2003 print server.
I tested things by trying to add a printer to my Vista s system, from the Window 2003 Print Server and it threw a
"Windows cannot connect to the printer.
Operation could not be completed (error 0x bcb)
error.
Off to research what's next!
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Im bumping this because its the ONLY google search return for 0x bcb vista
Anyone?
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I've run up against this a bit and found one sorta-kinda answer.
As my printers are HP printers, I searched and found that HP has a set of generic PCL5 adn PCL6 drivers for Vista, both 32-bit and 64-bit.
I installed them on the Vista box BEFORE connecting to the print server.
Vista had the drivers already, and all was well.
Not a complete answer, but there are so many HPs that it may be of value.
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I can't get x64 drivers to install natively on my Win 2003 Svr 32-bit (add Additional Drivers - get the 0x bcb error as mentioned above) so I installed them to my local machine & mapped it to a Standard TCP/IP port.
However, while I can print from Office 2007, I can't print from the Acrobat Reader v8.1.
I get an "Unable to start print job.
Is printer Available?" from the Reader.
I also tried the HP's Universal Printing for both PCL 5 & 6 - same thing.
Anyone else have a problem w/Acrobat or does anyone know of what works consistently on 2003 Server to support Vista x64?
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The INF files in the HP drivers are apparently poorly written -- they don't identify the drivers as being Vista compatible, and so the print server software doesn't accept them as Vista drivers.
Or so it now seems to me.
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Anyone have any further info on this, or did Vista effectively obsolete most of my printers?
It seems like unless the manufacturer supplied printer driver supports 2000/XP and Vista as one driver package , server-based printing will not work.
The built-in Vista drivers seem useless as they don't seem to be installable on a server.
And even with vendors who are providing Vista drivers seperate from 2000/XP, there doesn't seem to be a way to add the Vista driver to the server.
Vista already shows a mode 3 driver, yet attempting to connect to said printer fails because the driver is not Vista compatible.
Am I missing something?
Thanks.
James
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Allright - After spending roughly three full days on this, I seem to have Vista compatible drivers for all my printers, at least for one print server.
It's realy been hit or miss.
Some printers wouldn't work with Vista certified PS drivers, so I had to use PCL, etc.
One really strange thing I'm noticing is that with my print cluster, in some cases I have to install the driver on both nodes.
I've never needed to do that before;
Failing over the cluster seemed to take care of things.
I'm not entirely comfortable with the situation but I'm at the point where there's not much more I can test.
Fortunately I'm only deploying a couple of machines - yet.
Now, the one thing that I cannot get to work is connecting to printers via the built-in printer web page in server 2003.
With most printers (seemingly those without in-the-box drivers) I get an error that the driver is not available for this architecture.
Since the driver is there and can be loaded in other ways, I figure it's something particular to IPP.
All in all, this is a mess and I don't look forward to sorting out my x64 print server.
Sigh.
James
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James -- sounds interesting.
Any specifics would be very, very much appreciated.
Thanks!
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Mark, I'm happy to keep updating this thread as I make any further headway.
I'm taking a short break from printing though, as there are certainly enough other Vista oddities to sort through and I'm tired of feeling clueless.
That plus I keep interrupting report cards getting printed, which isn't ideal.
That said, I do think I solved the internet printing problem.
Apparently, you have to turn off IE Protected Mode at least in the Intranet zone;
That seems to allow driver and printer installation from the web page.
I know all these security improvements are important in the big picture.
But as someone with a well running XP enviornment with no issues, I'd really love a "revert everything to XP mode" GPO.
James
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More fun...Started working on the x64 print server cluster.
Of 18 printer models, 12 seemingly worked without any server changes.
Disconcertingly, two of the non-working printers are freshly installed, with the latest available drivers.
Not sure what to make of that just yet.
The current problem is an inability to update the x32 driver on the server.
The process I used to install the x32 drivers in the first place was to install the x64 drivers on the server, install the x32 drivers on an XP client, then add x32 as an additional architecture on the server from the XP client.
Unfortunately, since Vista already sees an "x86 - Type 3 Usermode" driver installed on the server, that option isn't available.
I've tried "New Driver..." from the advanced page, but more often than not, the install errors out.
Oddly, in some cases, Vista reports that it cannot install an x64 driver even though the driver is for x32.
So the work continues.
I'm pretty close to calling PSS, but I suspect they are going to blame the printer manufacturers.
James
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Hopefully this is my last update for some time.
:)
I think a big part of the problem is that when you have both an x86 and an x64 driver installed, the server wants both updated simulataneously via ONE driver package.
I had no issues when a particular model printer had a single package for both architectures and all platforms.
On the other hand, when there were two seperate packages, I could not get either updated.
I can't exactly explain that, but it's what I saw.
I ended up replacing some PS drivers with PCL, etc., since installing a new driver did not seem to be a problem.
Unfortunately, doing so broke the client connection to the printer even though the share name did not change, so I'm sorting through that now.
All in all, things are working but it's been a bit of a mess.
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Sigh...haven't touched anything, and now some of the printers that worked just fine a few months ago no longer work with Vista.
I'm at a loss and more than a bit frustrated.
James
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And yet another update.
I stumbled on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947236/en-us , which refers to the specific error I was seeing from the Vista machines.
We're using a clustered print server, so the registry path was rather different, but the fix actually worked.
I didn't see the registry changes replicate from node to node, although I wasn't exactly patient, so I made the changes on each node manually.
Right now things are working.
*crosses fingers*
James
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God, I hate printers.<g>
Thanks for the ongoing updates, James!
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Sigh...problem is back, exactly as described in the KB article mentioned in my last post.
I finally gave up and opened a PSS incident.
Three techs later, noone is really sure what's happening.
We now have Process Monitor running watching those specific registry keys to see if anything changes them.
I would bet that this is an x64 issue, as my x86 print cluster - also serving Vista clients, with effectively the same mix of printers - is not having any problems.
Going to keep updating this until the problem is resolved.
James
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Just finished with MS PSS.
Apparently, the local printer driver stores on each node were not identical, meaning the cluster didn't replicate them properly.
PSS didn't seem too concerned about the lack of replication;
Given the sheer volume of drivers I've tried on this cluster, I suppose anything is possible.
We made the registry changes indicated in the KB article earlier in this thread on one node, then exported/imported that section of the registry to the second node.
The local driver store was then copied from the "good" node to the "bad" node.
We failed over the cluster and things tested OK.
I've got my fingers crossed that this is now behind me.
If it is, then it's a lesson learned: I should have called PSS earlier.
James
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I've been able to add printers to Vista 64 bit workstations, through Win2003 32 bit server, as long as I point to an appropriate driver while installing the printer on each workstation.
(I get the 0x bcb if I add the additional driver to the shared printer on the server.)
My problem is, I can't adjust settings, so I can't change options.
My users are insisting on getting duplex printing on an HP LJ 5100dtn, like they had with XP, but all options in the driver are greyed out, and are rather generic - in this case, duplex is "not available", and not changeable.
This is true of the PCL6 and PS drivers, even though the server driver has the options correctly set.
Any ideas would be great...
- eric
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Though this thread is old it appears to be one the only results for search engines looking for 0x bcb.
After running into this issue several times this is what I have done about it, which has been successful everytime thus far:
Environment:
Print Server - Windows 2003 Standard w/ SP 2 32bit
Print Devices Used - Xerox 7345 Copiers, HP Laserjet 4050n, HP Laserjet 4250n / dn, HP Laserjet 4350n / dn, Xerox Phaser 7300dn, Xerox Phaser 7700dn
Clients - Windows XP w/ SP 2&3 (all 32bit);
Vista w/ SP 1&2 (32 & 64 bit)
On the print servers the 32 bit 2003 drivers are installed, the printer is shared and clients map to it.
As Vista machine were added the 32 bit drivers had to be updated, rarely a problem;
Once 64 bit machines started appearing on the network I ran into this issue.
I added "additional drivers" to the printer server on the sharing tab of the printer porperties page, checked the x64 box pointed to the location of the newly downloaded drivers.
With the Xerox printers I had no problems the printer could be added and used without any additional work.
With the HP printers I ran into issues, I would double click to add the printer and I would get a message saying I needed to install the driver, after clicking the Install button I would get error 0x bcb.
I installed the printer as a local printer (on LPT1) this allowed me to "force" Vista to load the drivers locally, I then deleted the printer.
Still double-clicking to add resulted in 0x bcb;
However if I used the "Add Printer" wizard and told it network printer, type in the UNC path, etc etc;
The printer installed fine and worked normally.
Recap of fix:
(Error 0x bcb on Vista 64bit w/ W2K3 32bit print server)
Install printer to local LPT port
Delete printer
Use Add Printer Wizard
Select Network Printer
Cancel Search
Click Printer I want isn't listed
Choose Select a shared printer
Type UNC path into box (\\printserver\printer)
Complete Wizard
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Thanks so much, Coppernicus!
(And props for figuring out what was in the center of the solar system as well.<g>)
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I'm finally integrating some Vista (64 bit actually).
My print server is Server 2003 and most machines are still XP.
I have integrated in the 64 bit drivers by using one of the Vista stations to upload the additional drivers.
That is not actually the issue (although I've bumped into the Universal HP driver woes you guys already talk about here).
My issue is user permissions to connect to the print queues and install the drivers for themselves.
On my machines going back to NT, I let users make their own printer connections.
They run a simple script, that they load from a web page, that uses con2prt to make a connection.
On the Vista 64 machines, when users run the same script, the new x64 drivers try to load up but because the users aren't local administrators, they cannot do it.
I logged in on one of the machines and made a quick connection to each printer.
Then I logged out and let a user log back in.
This time when he ran the script, he could make the connection because the drivers were already on the machine.
Is there a workaround to allow users to make printer connections?
I don't want to make them local admins or even power users.
Would this whole issue go away if I had my queues on Win2008 which would be Vista aware?
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Got my own answer.
Deploy a Group Policy:
User Configuration\System Templates\Control Panel\Printers
Point and Print Restrictions: Enabled
Security Prompts:
When Installing Drivers for a New Connection: Do not show warning or elevation prompt
When Updating Drivers for an Existing Connection: Do not show warning or elevation prompt
The net effect is to disable warnings and make driver installation similar to XP.
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I had a similar problem today.
I use a laptop with Windows Vista Enterprise SP2 x64.
My main printer is a HP LaserJet P2015dn using a x64 PCL6 driver.
The print server is Windows Server 2003 Standard SP2 x86.
I had been using the printer basically a full year when today, I got a strange message where it asked me to install the printer driver when I went to print to the printer.
I accepted this and the UAC prompt that followed.
Then I reprinted the job successfully.
Later I printed again and had the same thing come up;
It asked me to install the driver again.
I again did so, but this time when I went to print again it asked me again.
At this point, I could not print to the printer.
I deleted the printer and went to re-add it when I got the 0x bcb error trying to connect.
It was asking me to to reinstall the driver again.
I tried a lot of the things in this thread as well as creating a new printer on the server using brand new x86 and x64 PostScript drivers but I couldn't connect to that one either without getting the same error.
I could connect to a HP OfficeJet Pro K8600 that I had not added before without error after adding the x64 drivers to the server.
Exasperated, I used the Microsoft Partner support forums and got the solution on the first response.
On my Vista laptop, I had to delete all instances of the faulty printer under the following registry keys:
HKLM|\system\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers
HKLM|\system\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Drivers
HKLM|\system\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Drivers\Version-3
After a reboot, I was able to reconnect to the printers just fine.
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Thanks for the tip about the registry keys.
By the way, after deploying the point and print group policy for Vista, it turned out to have an unintended consequence.
It actually blocked XP users from installing printers!
I solved this by utilizing a WMI filter.
Now the Point/Print policy will only apply to versions of the O/S newer than XP.
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Thanks, Scott! I'll definitely keep that one around.
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