When installing additional printer 32-bit drivers fails on Windows 7 64-bit I get the error "Selected printer driver not found", what should I do?

I've successfully installed Windows 7 (x64) and drivers for my Canon MP510, and have no problem printing with this setup.

There is another PC in the network running XP SP3, and I want to share the printer so that users of that PC can also print.

On W7 I have the option of installing additional printer drivers for other system architectures (Itanium and x86). I've downloaded the most current 32-bit drivers for the printer, but every time I direct the install dialog to the folder containing the drivers, I get the following error message:

---

Selected printer driver not found

The specified location does not contain the driver Canon Inkjet MP510 Printer for the requested processor architecture.

Retry Cancel

I'm stumped. I'm absolutely certain that the specified location actually does contain the correct drivers; I've even installed them on the XP system.

I've tried everything I can think of. What am I overlooking?

Solution 1:

Finally cracked it! It's to do with the printer name in the driver's inf file.

When I installed Windows 7 it automatically installed the MP600 driver but it called it "Canon Inkjet MP600 Printer". NOTE Inkjet. When you unzip the Canon driver and look in its driver folder the printer inf file is called MP600PR.inf. Edit this file with Notepad and you will find:

[Manufacturer]
"Canon" = Canon,NTx86.5.1

;
; Model sections.
;
; Each section here corresponds with an entry listed in the
; [Manufacturer] section, above. The models will be displayed in the order
; that they appear in the INF file.
;


;Windows2000
[Canon]
"**Canon MP600 Printer**" = CNM_0295XP, USBPRINT\CanonMP600718E, CanonMP600718E, CanonMP600

;WindowsXP
[Canon.NTx86.5.1]
"**Canon MP600 Printer**" = CNM_0295XP, USBPRINT\CanonMP600718E, CanonMP600
"**Canon MP600 Printer**" = CNM_0295XP, BTHPRINT\CanonMP600718E, CanonMP600

Canon just calls the printer "Canon MP600 Printer". Since the names are not exactly the same windows does not think that the drivers are for the correct printer. Just edit the inf file to "correct" the name and it installs without a problem.

Solution 2:

I had precisely the same problem with an HP LaserJet 1200: it's connected via USB to a Windows 7 x64 machine, but I want to print across the network from XP SP3 x86 machine.

I finally figured out how to edit the INF so that I could install the x86 'Additional Driver':

The printer goes by the name 'HP LaserJet 1200 Series PCL 5' both in Windows 7 and on HP's driver support website. However, the driver that HP offers is for 'HP LaserJet 1200 Series 5e'. According to HP documentation, 5 and 5e have the same functionality.

1. Navigate to and download the 'HP Laserjet 1200/1220 PCL 5e Driver'. DO NOT use the HP Universal Print Driver for Windows PCL5. For some reason, the INFs completely skip the 1200 series, going from 1150 to 1300.

2. Unzip the driver package into a folder. For me it was C:\LJ1200.

3. Edit the INF text file (HPBF311i.inf).

4. Near the bottom of the file, under the '; Localizable Strings' header, change the names fof Printer1 and Printer2 from 'HP LaserJet 1200 Series PCL 5e' to 'HP LaserJet 1200 Series PCL 5'.

5. Your print driver will now install from the x86 Additional Drivers wizard in Windows 7! (You'll have to click through the 'Unsigned Driver' warning.)

Solution 3:

Editing driver inf files with the correct and exact name of the printer did not work for me. Instead I succeeded with a work-around by installing the printer directly to the client XP computer as a local computer. Then I created a new local (not network) port on the client that pointed to the Win 7 server computer. Both client XP 32 bit computers can now print to the printers installed on the Win 7 64 bit server computer.

Canon Support site has excellent instructions on printer sharing and setting up a local printer port. Ask: How do I share the printer between Windows XP and Windows Vista computers? The solution works for Windows XP and Windows 7 comptuers.

This is a lot easier than trying to "add additional drivers" for client computers under Win 7.