Network Printer

vmweary1 · ‎04-14-2009

Can't connect to my network printer from my virtual XP Home machine. The host is an OS X 10.5.6.

It worked just fine for months since initial installation. But then...

I powered off the virtual machine and walked away, however it did not shut down due to a non responding application.

The battery ran out (it's a laptop). In the morning I plugged it in and restarted the laptop but it froze, no response from host or virtual machine.

I force quit everything and shut down.

Now my host prints as usual but the vrtual machine won't, even though it displays the printer under "Printers and Faxes"

Message was edited by: vmweary1

I updated to VMware Fusion 2.0.3 and still nothing. Already checked the settings in the Virtual Machine panel...but nope!

Tried deleting the printer from the Control Panel in XP, proceeded to 'add new printer' and now XP can not find it.

Running out of ideas!

Message was edited by: vmweary1

My network connection for the Virtual Machine is set to NAT and would like to keep it that way.

cdc1 · ‎04-15-2009

It's difficult to know what state your guest was in when the laptop battery was drained. If it were me, I'd look at restoring the guest to an earlier point in time using XP's System Restore. If that doesn't work, I'd next look at restoring the VM itself to an earlier point, assuming I had created snapshots for it (which I don't always do.)

vmweary1 · ‎04-16-2009

Thank you for your help. I figured out a way after all.

Here is what I did: - Changed the settings in the Virtual Machine Library from NAT to BRIDGED under Removable Devices

- Still in the Virtual Machine Library settings under Printers I checked off Enabled and then chose Allow a Different Default Printer

- Logged on the XP virtual machine proceeded to install drivers for the printer (had the installation disks)

- Finally in the XP virtual machine under Control Panel/Printers, I added the printer.

I can not make an assessment as to what the issue was. I am not that tech savvy.

Here is some additional comments, maybe they are of some use.

Previously, when I pinged the printer's ip address from the virtual machine I got a reply, but when I attempted to find the printer from the control panel/ printers it just did not show.

Cheers!