Just bought Toshiba Satellite

J

johnjrval424

New Member
I love Toshiba! Has most of the bells and whistles for a pretty reasonable price. 4.0 G RAM - 320 G hard drive, blah, blah, blah.

HOWEVER, I'm now a Vista user and I can't get anything to work! None of my printers seem to be compatible and I can't access my home network like I used to with my XP.

Anybody have a similar problem? I have downloaded driver after driver and can't get anything to work. I have the following printers:

HP Color LaserJet 2600n
HP 1200n

Is this what I have to look forward to now? A non-operational network?
 
AndyMarquisLIVE

AndyMarquisLIVE

New Member
johnjrval424 said:
I love Toshiba! Has most of the bells and whistles for a pretty reasonable price. 4.0 G RAM - 320 G hard drive, blah, blah, blah.

HOWEVER, I'm now a Vista user and I can't get anything to work! None of my printers seem to be compatible and I can't access my home network like I used to with my XP.

Anybody have a similar problem? I have downloaded driver after driver and can't get anything to work. I have the following printers:

HP Color LaserJet 2600n
HP 1200n

Is this what I have to look forward to now? A non-operational network?
Click to expand...
Welcome to the wonderful world of Windows Vista. :buddies:

:killingme
 
clevalley

clevalley

...
Didn't know Toshiba made satellite's... Hughes makes a crap load of them but they do not run Vista. :lol:

Seriously, you are running into Vista driver issues. Have you gone to HP and looked for VISTA printer drivers?
 
B

bresamil

wandering aimlessly
I'm running a Toshiba Satellite Pro right now and it has XP, not Vista. I've only had it for a couple of months. Didn't know it came with Vista, but I prefer XP anyhow as all work and home computers have it.

Any chance you can deinstall Vista and install XP??
 
AK-74me

AK-74me

"Typical White Person"
I bought a Toshiba Sateilite back in '03 and I was hard on that thing, it is a real good computer. I had to replace the cooling fan once and the screen once. But that is because my little boy pulled the cord until it came crashing down on the hardwood floor.

Took a crap recently though and I haven't had the urgency to get it fixed.
 
J

johnjrval424

New Member
Well, Vista apparently has these really cryptic "safety" measures on it that won't give me full access to my other computers (I have a PC and now an extra laptop).

I downloaded the drivers from the HP website at least 3 times and "installed" but then when they are copying the files, I get an error message. The 2600n color printer isn't even on the list of printers in the "add printer" dialogue box. I plugged the printer directly into the laptop thinking that it would trigger the plug-n-play and it did but then said the drivers aren't compatible with Vista. So, back to the HP website, download the drivers again and they still won't install.

This is so ridiculous. Then, to just put icing on the cake, it comes with Office 2007 which was better left on the developers shelf - I HATE 2007 - and you can't buy anything else now.

I've shared all my drives and done everything I could think of to get the computers to talk to one another and it still won't fully cooperate.
 
B

bresamil

wandering aimlessly
johnjrval424 said:
Well, Vista apparently has these really cryptic "safety" measures on it that won't give me full access to my other computers (I have a PC and now an extra laptop).

I downloaded the drivers from the HP website at least 3 times and "installed" but then when they are copying the files, I get an error message. The 2600n color printer isn't even on the list of printers in the "add printer" dialogue box. I plugged the printer directly into the laptop thinking that it would trigger the plug-n-play and it did but then said the drivers aren't compatible with Vista. So, back to the HP website, download the drivers again and they still won't install.

This is so ridiculous. Then, to just put icing on the cake, it comes with Office 2007 which was better left on the developers shelf - I HATE 2007 - and you can't buy anything else now.

I've shared all my drives and done everything I could think of to get the computers to talk to one another and it still won't fully cooperate.
Click to expand...
All of your Office documents can be backsaved to the 97-2003 versions.
 
J

johnjrval424

New Member
bresamil said:
All of your Office documents can be backsaved to the 97-2003 versions.
Click to expand...

It's not the saving I'm worried about - I know I can do that - but now I don't have the older version of Office to work with and I have worked with 2007 at a previous office and it was a frickin' nightmare. You no longer have toolbars (unless you make custom ones), you have what they call ribbons. Completely and totally different than anything I've ever worked with before and I don't like it!

What can't Microsoft just leave well enough alone!
 
clevalley

clevalley

...
johnjrval424 said:
It's not the saving I'm worried about - I know I can do that - but now I don't have the older version of Office to work with and I have worked with 2007 at a previous office and it was a frickin' nightmare. You no longer have toolbars (unless you make custom ones), you have what they call ribbons. Completely and totally different than anything I've ever worked with before and I don't like it!

What can't Microsoft just leave well enough alone!
Click to expand...

Remember when toolbars first came out? Everyone screamed about them, then we got use to it. :lol:

Yeah, the ribbons are tough to get use to, but after a while our users who have been using it get accustomed to it.
 
meddauna

meddauna

Member
can you post what the error message is? if you have an anti virus running, stop that first then try to install. a lot of times anti virus likes to bugger up installs. otherwise when you're installing keep all the default settings, I've come across a few drivers where the extraction address is hard coded into the installer so when you change the extraction path it errors out. otherwise, just make sure you're using the correct bit drivers. a 64bit driver WONT work on the 32bit os and vice versa.

and as far as file sharing, the vista default is that the only person that can see it is the owner, you have to add the "everyone group" then give them co-owner. then look in the "network and sharing center" and make sure all the settings are allowing sharing. i remember one of the issues i had setting up sharing was that i had trouble just sharing an entire drive so my wife could see everything from her laptop. my quick go around was to share the immediate sub folders and that worked fine with the everyone as co-owners permissions.
 
J

johnjrval424

New Member
meddauna said:
can you post what the error message is? if you have an anti virus running, stop that first then try to install. a lot of times anti virus likes to bugger up installs. otherwise when you're installing keep all the default settings, I've come across a few drivers where the extraction address is hard coded into the installer so when you change the extraction path it errors out. otherwise, just make sure you're using the correct bit drivers. a 64bit driver WONT work on the 32bit os and vice versa.

and as far as file sharing, the vista default is that the only person that can see it is the owner, you have to add the "everyone group" then give them co-owner. then look in the "network and sharing center" and make sure all the settings are allowing sharing. i remember one of the issues i had setting up sharing was that i had trouble just sharing an entire drive so my wife could see everything from her laptop. my quick go around was to share the immediate sub folders and that worked fine with the everyone as co-owners permissions.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll try your suggestions - I'm getting very burned out by having to set all this crap up and I'm about ready to throw in the towel.

I've been reading online about the HP drivers and some people recommended downloading XP (which I've just done) and they are supposed to work with Vista. Otherwise, all of the other information I've read is that HP doesn't support Vista and that people are actually going out and buying new printers that are compatible. That had better not happen to me or HP will never have to worry about me being a customer again. I just bought this 2600 Color LaserJet about 4 months ago and I'm not prepared to spend more.
 
GWguy

GWguy

*
johnjrval424 said:
Well, Vista apparently has these really cryptic "safety" measures on it that won't give me full access to my other computers (I have a PC and now an extra laptop).

I downloaded the drivers from the HP website at least 3 times and "installed" but then when they are copying the files, I get an error message. The 2600n color printer isn't even on the list of printers in the "add printer" dialogue box. I plugged the printer directly into the laptop thinking that it would trigger the plug-n-play and it did but then said the drivers aren't compatible with Vista. So, back to the HP website, download the drivers again and they still won't install.

This is so ridiculous. Then, to just put icing on the cake, it comes with Office 2007 which was better left on the developers shelf - I HATE 2007 - and you can't buy anything else now.

I've shared all my drives and done everything I could think of to get the computers to talk to one another and it still won't fully cooperate.
Click to expand...

It's possible that the "installer" isn't actually installing the drivers, but just expanding them into a folder. Sometimes in a folder on the desktop, sometimes on the c: drive in an HP folder or something. When you bring up the dialog box where the printer is not in the list, you would click on "Have Disk" and navigate to the folder where the drivers are. Not typical of HP printer drivers, but stranger things have happened.
 
J

johnjrval424

New Member
GWguy said:
It's possible that the "installer" isn't actually installing the drivers, but just expanding them into a folder. Sometimes in a folder on the desktop, sometimes on the c: drive in an HP folder or something. When you bring up the dialog box where the printer is not in the list, you would click on "Have Disk" and navigate to the folder where the drivers are. Not typical of HP printer drivers, but stranger things have happened.
Click to expand...

You're right - when you download them, they are zip files. I'm unzipping them into a download folder that I created and then going back and double clicking on the install file. It is at that point that I get the error message that they can't be installed (some error message with a long number attached to it). I'm going to try it again - I just downloaded them one more time and we'll see what happens. According to a website I found, you have to add the drivers under the printer properties option.
 
GWguy

GWguy

*
johnjrval424 said:
You're right - when you download them, they are zip files. I'm unzipping them into a download folder that I created and then going back and double clicking on the install file. It is at that point that I get the error message that they can't be installed (some error message with a long number attached to it). I'm going to try it again - I just downloaded them one more time and we'll see what happens. According to a website I found, you have to add the drivers under the printer properties option.
Click to expand...

Ok, bypass trying to run the installer. Go to Add New Printer, and when it asks for what kind of printer, click "Have Disk", navigate to that decompressed folder. It should find a .INF file and allow you to continue from there.
 
J

johnjrval424

New Member
GWguy said:
Ok, bypass trying to run the installer. Go to Add New Printer, and when it asks for what kind of printer, click "Have Disk", navigate to that decompressed folder. It should find a .INF file and allow you to continue from there.
Click to expand...

I tried your suggestion several times before and this is what happens. If you send me your personal email address, I will send you the .doc I created with screenshots of what I did. The forum won't let me upload it here because it is too big.

I don't like to think it but it looks like HP just doesn't support Vista, period, even though they provide this "universal printer driver" thingy that I can't seem to get installed on my computer.
 
Penn

Penn

Dancing Up A Storm
Sounds as though you're screwed, that is, until HP or Microsoft comes up with the appropriate "fixes".

Welcome to the club! :lmao:
 
M

Mousebaby

Guest
johnjrval424 said:
I love Toshiba! Has most of the bells and whistles for a pretty reasonable price. 4.0 G RAM - 320 G hard drive, blah, blah, blah.

HOWEVER, I'm now a Vista user and I can't get anything to work! None of my printers seem to be compatible and I can't access my home network like I used to with my XP.

Anybody have a similar problem? I have downloaded driver after driver and can't get anything to work. I have the following printers:

HP Color LaserJet 2600n
HP 1200n

Is this what I have to look forward to now? A non-operational network?
Click to expand...

My first question is WHY a Toshiba? My girlfriend has one and it is the biggest slug I have ever worked on and it's only 3 yrs. old.

What other computers did you consider before buying?

I did a lot of shopping around before I bought this one, and HP has been doing pretty well lately. I will never buy another high priced DELL again. Lesson learned the hard way.

Have fun with Pista (yes I know I spelled it wrong) I absolutely HATE IT! But alas I am stuck with it too. :ohwell:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top