If you have not looked at the attached site review it.

http://support.brother.com/g/b/faqen...aq00002643_001

I had a problem with my old parallel port HP r80xi not being listed until I
went through "the printer that I want is not listed" steps. This allows it
to print but not scan.

I did see a suggestion to install the drivers for the HL720 (it appears that
this will at least allow you to print).
--
Bill

Brought to you from Anchorage, Alaska

"Micky" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 08 Jan 2016 18:09:49 -0600, Paul in Houston TX
wrote:

Micky wrote:

I'm runing Vista, which is a lot like Win7.

A friend gave me a laser color printer, a Brother MFC-6800 fwiw. The
Brother site has drivers for XP, but no drivers for Vista. I've
finally bumped into the big complaint I heard so much about, a
shortage of drivers for Vista.

Did you check here for a work-around?
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-hardwa...00-driver.html

Thanks. This is certainly right on topic and I didn't find it when I
looked.

They're all having trouble but one guy got the scanner to work!!! but
not the printer.

I'll try their suggestions, even if they didnt' work for them!

If I don't say it elsewhere, thank you all. It's not like I didnt'
know about the stories that Vista didnt' have enough drivers for it.
I'm only using because a friend gave me the computer. Of course this
printer will apparently give me trouble with win7 too!

Micky écrivait
:

I guess the next step is to
connect this thing via USB and try a) the XP drivers, b) to go through
the probably many Brother printers looking for one that's similar.
Well there aren't that many, 20 or so.

Try installing the driver before connecting the USB cable. Good luck.

On Sat, 9 Jan 2016 10:28:08 -0900, "Bill Bradshaw"
wrote:

If you have not looked at the attached site review it.

http://support.brother.com/g/b/faqen...aq00002643_001

I had a problem with my old parallel port HP r80xi not being listed until I
went through "the printer that I want is not listed" steps. This allows it
to print but not scan.

I print about 100 times as much as I scan, and scananing with an
inkject printer doesn't use any ink!

I did see a suggestion to install the drivers for the HL720 (it appears that

Wow, this is great. And the same technique might work for 7, 8, and
10.

this will at least allow you to print).

Thanks a lot.

On Sun, 10 Jan 2016 00:46:42 -0000 (UTC), Dominique
wrote:

Micky écrivait
:

I guess the next step is to
connect this thing via USB and try a) the XP drivers, b) to go through
the probably many Brother printers looking for one that's similar.
Well there aren't that many, 20 or so.

Try installing the driver before connecting the USB cable. Good luck.

Okay, thanks.

If I could step in this discussion...I installed an HP 500GN laser
printer on a Windows 7 64X box. I have the printer on a WIFI print
server I don't know if what I did in applicable but
First, I had to open the drives and printers, then add a device, then
setup a standard TCP/IP port with the printer name.
Second I D/Ld and installed the print drivers for 64x Vista in the
comparability mode for a 5200 Series printer (one model newer, same
basic printer). I restarted the computer, turned on the print server
and the printer and have been printing to this network printer since.
I know that's not all of the steps but what it does show is that if
you setup a port and use drivers for a slightly different model/os,
you should be able to get the printer installed.
R. Wink


On Sat, 9 Jan 2016 10:15:02 -0500, Wolf K
wrote:

On 2016-01-08 17:39, posterboy wrote:
[...]
But I will disagree with Mayayana - that it is Brothers fault for not
supporting a perfectly good machine; it shouldn't be that difficult to
write the software for these machines to keep all their functionality
when a new operating system comes out, even if it takes them a while to
do it.

John.

I agree with Mayayana. Why should a manufacturer supply free updates to
drivers for obsolete machines?

Even if it's "not that difficult", it takes time, and programmer time is
expensive. In addition, there's testing, which will likely take even
more time. There are lots of weird hardware-OS combos out there.

How much extra would you be willing to pay for extended driver support?
Most people don't even want to pay an extra 10-20% for an extended
warranty.

I've had a similar problem in the past, only worse: a perfectly good, 6
year old printer for which the maker stopped supplying the print-head
(it holds the ink cartridges).

This thread and installing this printer has been a real learning
experience for me, and its value goes far beyond this one model
printer and this one OS, Vista, (and maybe even beyond printers?). How
to not be stymied by the manufacturers lack of accomodations for
printers and a specific OS.

Thanks again for all the help I got.

comp.periphs.printers added

More below.

On Fri, 08 Jan 2016 18:09:49 -0600, in alt.windows7.general Paul in
Houston TX wrote:

Micky wrote:

I'm runing Vista, which is a lot like Win7.

A friend gave me a laser color printer, a Brother MFC-6800 fwiw. The
Brother site has drivers for XP, but no drivers for Vista. I've
finally bumped into the big complaint I heard so much about, a
shortage of drivers for Vista.

Did you check here for a work-around?
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-hardwa...00-driver.html

The first time I replied to you, I'd read the thread too quickly, and
I said it hadn't worked for people, but when I had fewer other posts
to read, I read again, and one poster had a solution, and 3 other
people said it worked for them!! Two with the same printer I've got
and one with another model.

The guy, Videoguymike, gave detailed instructions. The upshot of
his instructions were, instead of using the big package, with software
and drivers, which I had tried a little while earlier, to instead use
only the driver package, which Brother is good enough to list
separately

Going back a step, when I tried the large setup package, that Brother
urges you to use, none of the Setup.exe files would work, even in
compatibility mode. They got farther in compat mode than without it,
but not very far.

(BTW, what happens when you set Setup.exe to use compat mode, but it
calls or installs a bunch of .ex_ programs. Will everything be in
compatibilty mode during the install? Maybe so, but what about
later, during printing?? It seems unlikely. OTOH, there are a bunch
of ex_ files in what I did next (but because of a temporary hardware
problem, I may not yet have tried to execute them.)

So, instead of the big driver and software package, the "Full Driver &
Software Package" he used the "Add Printer Wizard Driver; This
download only includes the printer drivers and is for users who are
familiar with installation using the Add Printer Wizard in Windows®."

And I've certainly used the windows printer install "wizard" many
times.

Here are his instructions. I should add that when you download the
"Add Printer Wizard Driver", the next page displayed gives a shortened
version of his instructions. I don't know whether to praise Brother
for all this or to criticize them for not putting this file under the
Vista (and maybe the 7, 8, and 10) install instructions. I'm pretty
sure using these instructions will work better, be more tailored to
this particular printer, in 7, 8, and 10 than relying on what they
have built in.

Also, I'm not sure where "Printer Driver & Scanner Driver for Local
Connection" fits in. That's the third choice for downloading. I dl'd
it just now and I'll look at its contents: It's smaller and has only
1/4 of the number of files. I thought it would be bigger. Brother
also didnt' provide the kind of instructions they did for the "Add
Printer Wizard Driver"

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-hardwa...00-driver.html

This is what I did.
1:Shut off or disconnect the printer.
2:As above mentioned delete your Brother printer and remove all current drivers. REMEMBER to Reboot before continuing. Windows hates when you don't REBOOT a million times.

I didn't do these two steps, maybe not needed because I'd not
succeeded in installing anything earlier. (The printer wasn't
connected, as Dominique said it should not be.)

3ownload from Brother .......

He corrected this later, to make clear he meant
Add Printer Wizard Driver Version A 5.73MB 07/01/2005
See details from .inf file at the bottom****

4:Save the download in a new folder and run to decompress it inside this folder.
5:Go to add printers and Add a local printer

Brother says this too, but when you don't have instructions, you might
be discouraged because "Add a local printer" says "Use this option
only if you don't have a USB printer. (Windows automatically installs
usb printers when you plug them in.)" Despite this, this is the
choice to use.

He leaves out, Choose "Create a new Port"**. and then iirc choose
"Local Port". **But of the two choices, only that one allows his
step 6 below:

6: I am using a USB connection so I chose the USB001 (Virtual printer port for USB)

I would have never come up with USB001. But when I googled it, I
found "USB001 is the default printer port for USB printers and is the
first port Windows selects when connecting a printer via the operating
system's Devices and Printers ..." Who knew?

7: Choose Have disk

I hate to spoil the end of hte story, but what's REALLY interesting
here is that if you DON'T choose Have Disk, and you go through tthe
list of pre-provided printer drivers, starting with Brother, one of
the choices is DCP-1000. A few lines later in Videoguymike's
instructions, he points out that DCP1000's drivers are what is being
used for the MFC6800. So if I'd known that earlier, I probably could
have just chosen DCP1000 from the list!!!! I can't find who in
this thread suggested if they only specified groups of similar
printers, that would help.


8:Browse to the folder you saved the files in and open the US-ENG folder

These instructions are from 2008. Apparently they used both US and UK
english drivers. Wow. But now there is only one set.

9:You want to choose the file called "br64add.inf" then click Open

This wasn't there either. It may say Open but in this case it really
means Select for opening in the next step.

10:Ignore the windows This Driver is not digitally signed. Windows always seems to ignore us.

I don't think I got this message.

11:Hit Next
12: Type a printer name showed me a "Brother DCP-1000" As far as I can tell the printer driver is a generic for a number of models. I just changed the name to Brother MFC-6800

See what I mean. Now that it's installed, it still shows DCP-1000
some places.

13: Hit Next, Next and then cancel the Test page.
14:Reconnect your printer and power up

Now here I had fun figuring this out. Windows is going to find new hardware and install the Brother Printer. Let it do its thing.

My back was turned for whatever he's talking about. There was a
bubble above the systray.

Then in Control Panel / Printers just delete this new printer and set the one you installed manually. Send a test page and mine began working like it was supposed to.

I dont' think I have anything to delete. Plus there is no FAX entry
for this new all-in-one, but until I get the hardware problems solved,
that doesnt' matter.

I can print any of the built-in Reports, like the Help List and User
Settings, and the pages look pretty good. The first one had two spots
the size of the inside of an e, but the second page had only one
smaller spot. Plus a little horizontal streaking, that can probably
be cleaned up.

But after a bunch of messages to open up the cover, etc. I'm still
getting "machine error af" which seems to be about the scanner PCB not
being plugged in. Of course I want the scanner, but it's not needed
to print, so that's annoying. But I'll read what google has and work
on it.

Oh, it's not a color device after all. I finally noticed that there
was only one toner cartridge and no reference to color. I was so
happy to get a laser all-in-one that I built its quality up one notch,
to color.

And the woman I got it from didnt use it for business. I must have
thought that after I found a business form on the glass for copying.
And I called her a friend but she was really a stranger on Freecycle,
and I found her posting this morning in my old email and it say *she*
got it free from another recycler and didn't know if it worked or
needed toner, but she hadn't used it and wanted to get rid of it and
another one (which was too heavy.) She never said it was color
either.

I can't tell yet if the 16' USB cable is too long or not.

Still, this has all been a wonderful experience for me, and I hope
it's been worthwhile for you all.


****He lists details:
; Brother MFC Setup File
; Copyright (c) 2005 Brother Industries,LTD.
; FileName : br64add.inf

I don't have this file

; Function : Printer
; I/F : LPT/USB
; OS ; Windows XP for x64
; Model : DCP-1000
; MFC-9160
; MFC-6800
; MFC-6800J
; MFC-9180
; MFC-4800
; MFC-9030
; MFC-9070
; MFC-4800J
; FAX-2850
; FAX-2900
; FAX-3800

He got this list from the .inf file that I don't have. But the .inf
file I have shows 20 models, even more than the 12 above, some added
in the last 7 years (and some omitted). How about that!!!!
"Brother MFC4800
"Brother MFC6800
"Brother MFC8500
"Brother MFC9700
"Brother MFC9800
"Brother DCP1000
"Brother DCP1400
"Brother FAX2900
"Brother FAX3800
"Brother FAX4100
"Brother FAX4750e
"Brother FAX5750e
"Brother MFC9070
"Brother MFC9030
"Brother MFC9180
"Brother MFC9160
"Brother MFC9660
"Brother MFC9880
"Brother MFC9760
"Brother FAX2850

On Sat, 09 Jan 2016 10:51:09 -0500, Micky
wrote:


**I didn't realize the printer was so old, but maybe it's not. The
copyright on the manual is 2001 and on the quickstartguide is 2002.

Maybe being a year later is why the QSGuide went into connecting by
USB when the manual only brought that up for Macs.


It's a color laser scanner/printer/copier/fax in beautiful condition,
and she gave me a new/reman black toner cartridge.

On Sun, 10 Jan 2016 11:06:41 -0500, Micky
wrote:


I hate to spoil the end of hte story, but what's REALLY interesting
here is that if you DON'T choose Have Disk, and you go through tthe
list of pre-provided printer drivers, starting with Brother, one of
the choices is DCP-1000. A few lines later in Videoguymike's
instructions, he points out that DCP1000's drivers are what is being
used for the MFC6800. So if I'd known that earlier, I probably could
have just chosen DCP1000 from the list!!!! I can't find who in
this thread suggested if they only specified groups of similar
printers, that would help.

Vanguard suggested that.

Downloading drivers almost at random and lookng for a list in their
..inf files might work, especially for Brother, but seems like extra
work.

On Sun, 10 Jan 2016 11:06:41 -0500, Micky
wrote:


I dont' think I have anything to delete. Plus there is no FAX entry
for this new all-in-one, but until I get the hardware problems solved,
that doesnt' matter.

I don't remember seeing two entries before, but now there is Brother
MFC-6800 and Brother MFC-6800 USB. When things are working, I'll
figure out which is better.

I can print any of the built-in Reports, like the Help List and User
Settings, and the pages look pretty good. The first one had two spots
the size of the inside of an e, but the second page had only one
smaller spot. Plus a little horizontal streaking, that can probably
be cleaned up.

But after a bunch of messages to open up the cover, etc. I'm still
getting "machine error af" which seems to be about the scanner PCB not

Brother says, It's broken, send it in.
Anonymous says, It's the scanner, you can't fix it.
Another page says It's the scanner, reconnect it. Plus some
instructions
So I tried to find the scanner pcb and instead I found some
cracker crumbs I'd never noticed before, even though I'd had the paper
feeder open many times. They must have come from a hidden cache. I
brushed them away and the error message has disappeared!!
Then the paper feeder wouldn't feed, and I found a quarter square
inch of what seems like newsprint in the feeder.
Now the feeder feeds but I still haven't gotten Print from
Computer to do anything (cable too long?). I tried copy and the copy
is all black. Back to the manual!

"Wipe the electrical terminals referred to on page 20-18." I'll do
it but I don't think that could be it, because the internal reports
printed fine. It must be in the scanner, esp. since I used to get the
scanner error.


I should get a shorter cable and try printing from the computer again.

Still, this has all been a wonderful experience for me, and I hope
it's been worthwhile for you all.

On 08/01/2016 10:03, Micky wrote:
A friend gave me a laser color printer, a Brother MFC-6800 fwiw. The
Brother site has drivers for XP, but no drivers for Vista. I've
finally bumped into the big complaint I heard so much about, a
shortage of drivers for Vista.

Appears to have drivers for every OS here;
http://support.brother.com/g/b/downl...rod=mfc6800_us