# Windows 8.1 Shared Printer Problem



## rphilipz (Jan 15, 2011)

I share a Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 printer on my home network.

I upgraded a Dell 8200 WinXPSP3 machine to a new Dell XPS 8700 with 24 GB of ram - Win 8.1 64-bit.

Both computers act as printer host by sharing the USB connected Pro 905 printer.

The old Dell 8200 ran 24/7 since 2001 - and was still functioning when I replaced it with the Dell 8700. The Dell 8700 is running the recommended 64-bit Lexmark driver and software LEXMARK_Pro900_wcr_64_en v3.2.7.3 - 02/08/2013. 

All other computers on my network are Win 7 - 64-bit and are set to print to this Lexmark Pro 905 by installing the print driver by accessing the Pro 905 from the list of network printers. 

The 8700 prints fine to the directly connected printer and all other networked computers can print, but with significant delay. There were no delays with the 8200 Win XP machine acting as the network print server.

I purchased Microsoft Assure and had MS remote into my machines (Win 7 and Win 8.1), but they have found nothing yet. 

I am reaching out to see if a solution to this poor/slow shared network printing for Win 8.1 exists. One would expect 12 year newer hardware and software would be at least on par with the old system and Win XP.


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## 2xg (Aug 5, 2009)

Hi there,

I have moved this Thread to Networking forums to better assist you.

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You might want to fiddle with the ethernet adapters Speed & Duplex settings from Device Managers from the problem computers. Please see image attached.


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## rphilipz (Jan 15, 2011)

I am fine with cross posting this question to the Networking forum, but this problem is clearly a Windows 8.1 issue handling a shared printer.

All of the computers sharing my "home network" printer are doing so wirelessly, and the sharing computer (XPS 8700, Win 8.1) has the printer connected by a USB 2.0 port. There are no ethernet connections involved with printing.

The key question is why did the printer work fine with WinXPSP3 and the moment I replaced this computer with one that came with Win 8.1 and got my network set up, printing is very slow. All things else, the only change was the introduction of this Win 8.1 based computer.

I don't know how to write my questions more clearly - can you lend any suggestions, or is there some other detail needed to understand the issue I am having?


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Update to the latest driver for your printer http://support.lexmark.com/index?do...gmentOS&id=DR16114&locale=EN&userlocale=EN_US


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## rphilipz (Jan 15, 2011)

Unfortunately, the link provided by spunk.funk ties to the same version level driver as I have installed (and listed in my message above). Any other suggestions would be most welcome - thanks for even considering this question.


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