Trying to install a prehistoric printer, Win7 - printer not shown in Hardware

[Luulune]

Hello, long time visitor but first time poster. 😀 Not a native speaker, my Windows is in Dutch, theirs in Finnish. Sorry for awkward translations..


Short:

- I want to print to 2 old printers from PC #2 (Win7). I have Added New Printer... for both. One printer is confirmed working on another Win7 pc, PC #1. Neither printers show up in the PC #2 Hardware (Device Manager?) screen, while they do show on the PC #1 where one of them work. Is this related to it not printing on PC#2?
- The other printer I can Add New printer... On PC#2. It is listed there. But it is not listed on PC#1. Is this due to Windows update (being heavily out of date) or is there a way to fix this? It has no internet.

Long:

My family in law is using two older computers with Windows 7, and two prehistoric (USB) printers. There is PC1 and PC2, both Windows 7. The printers are a label printer (Printer 1) and a HP 2300...something, A3 printer, dating from Windows2k days. PC2 is not printing anything. PC1 is printing only to Printer 1. I would like to have PC2 print, too.

PC1 is running Printer 1 just fine.
PC1 is NOT printing to Printer 2, probably because when I Add New Printer... the Printer is not listed there and I cannot install it. PC 1 has no connection to the internet and I suspect the last time Windows update was ran, was about 40 years ago. I say this because....

...on fully updated PC2, I can Add New Printer....., to add Printer 2. It IS listed there.
However, on PC2, neither Printer 1 nor Printer 2 actually print.

When I check on PC1, for both printers, the printers immediately show up in the Hardware screen of Windows the moment I connect them, even with their correct names. Despite that, I cannot Add Printer.... and find its name in the printer list there the way I can on PC2.

On PC2, neither of the printers show up in the Hardware when I connect them to the PC. I confirmed that the USB ports are working. Is this maybe why the printers are not printing?

I checked the Services to see if Print Spooler is running (someone suggested this). On neither machine is a Print Spooler service, however, there is a Spooler service on both.

There are no drivers available for Printer2 for Windows 7.

It is not possible to use Network features for PC1. PC2 has internet only by the grace of wifi from their phones.

Thank you ever so much for any insights.

 

[hang-the-9]

First, how are the printer connected to the systems? Are you connecting them to USB ports on both of them? Have you followed the setup instructions for the printers? Most want the drivers installed first, then the printers connected. If you connect the printer first at times the USB ports do not configure, and then never do until you look at the system and delete any funny looking USB ports which may be the ones Windows tried to use.

Second, run Windows update on the computer that has not been updated, MS puts in drivers and bug fixes in the patches, you want those.

 

[Luulune]

Hello thanks for your answer.

There are no drivers available for the problematic printer because they are too old, on the pc where the one printer at least works, it's using the Add New Printer function and that's all I had to do. The same should be true for the other printer, the drivers I downloaded won't even run on either pc as they are for Windows 2000 and it's basically telling me to go screw myself when I run it. I connected these printers first and then ran the Add New Printer option, but I can try it the other way around.

I checked if there are any funny looking USB ports but there are none. The printers show up fine on the one pc, but not on the other.