Canon i860 printer USB driver

Hardware issue, interesting. Glad it worked out.

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No, it might have been a hardware issue for one person, but in general problems connecting from a Windows7 computer to an older networked printer connected to an XP computer is a windows 7 issue that is a 3 step process to workaround. Here's the workaround: How to network attach a WinXP printer (which printer is connected to an XP machine) to a Win 7 computer:

STEP 1: Install and Connect "Directly" with your Win7 computer (not over the network).
1a) download and install the driver to the Win7 machine as if it's a local printer to the machine instead of using it over the network.
1b) connect the printer directly to the Win7 machine, and test the printer to make sure it works.

STEP 2: Reconnect to the old PC as before ... make note of the Shared Address
2a) now you can disconnect and reconnect the printer to the networked winXP PC which was previously connected to the printer.
2b) Start the "Add network printer" process on your Win7 computer, but do *not* complete it. All you are doing is getting the full address of the printer that you want to add. Make note of the address as you will need that address in STEP 3d, below. It will be of the format: //[computerName]/[printerName]
2c) click "Cancel" to abort the "add printer" wizard since we will add the printer manually instead.

STEP 3: Edit the printer setup on the Win7 computer
3a) In the win7's printer's panel (shows all the local and networked printers), there should now be an icon for the disconnected local printer you installed in STEP 1. Right-click that printer icon and select 'Printer Properties' (halfway down the menu ... do not click "Properties" at the bottom).
3b) Click the 'Ports' tab, then click 'Add Port'
3c) Select 'Local Port' then click the 'New port' button. Yes, we are tricking it into thinking it is a Local Port. Like I said "windows 7 issue". Blame Microsoft.
3d) Enter the port name which is the network address of the printer you found in STEP 2b, above. It's case sensitive so type it exactly as it appeared in that step.
3e) Click 'Close' on the Printer Ports window .
3f) The new port will now show as being selected with a checkmark. Click 'Close'.
3g) While still in the "ports" tab in the properties for that printer, make sure bidirectional support for the printer is enabled. Then close the "printer properties".
3h) Make sure that pause printing is *not* enabled (in the right-click-menu for the printer).

The icon should now show that it's online. You are now ready to print.

Note that once I somehow lost the ability to connect to the printer ... but simply reconnecting the printer directly to the Win7 machine caused it to remember, after-which the network connection worked fine again.

Tonite I was able to connect the Canon i860 printer to my new laptop running Windows 7 64-bit by
1) clicking on Start > Devices and Printers
2) then plugging in the printer cable to my USB port
3) then turning on the printer and clicking through the following screens (I do not remember the exact sequence, however)

a. one screen asked me to update my settings to allow for automatic updates, so I clicked on the update settings icon and next selected the radio button to allow for automatic updates
b. another screen had me select between local printer or network printer - I selected local printer
c. another screen said I was missing a printer driver so I clicked on the "fix" icon and the next screen came up with a list of printer manufacturers so I selected Canon but in the printer models there was not Canon Inkjet i860 - so I selected a "search for more" icon and another screen popped up. Though it took a few minutes it eventually returned another list with more manufacturers and models and I was able to select Canon Inkjet i860.
d. then the printer driver downloaded and another screen popped up showing that my missing printer driver issue was "fixed"

In Start > Devices and Printers, when I highlighted the Canon i860 printer icon and clicked on 'Print Server Properties' - on the Properties screen on the 'Ports' tab I saw that the Canon i860 printer was set to port "USB001" with port description "Virtual printer port for USB". Also the "enable bidirectional support" checkbox was already checked.

And, the driver path was set to "C:\windows\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3".

Like the last steps reported above, on Start > Devices and Printers the Canon i860 icon showed that the printer was now online and ready to print.