Brother MFC-8300 Printing Blank Pages

Darkvette · External Since: Sep 18, 2006 Posts: 5

Hello,

I have a Brother MFC-8300 hooked up to my PC. I'm running Vista Ultimate
64-bit, and XP Professional 32-bit. The printer works just fine in XP,
prints alright and everything, however when I go to print anything from
anywhere in Vista, all I get are blank pages, even printing test pages. I
contacted Brother and they told me I had to contact Microsoft to resolve the
issue. There are no other drivers, aside from the built-in Vista drivers.
Does anyone know how to possibly resolve this issue? Thank you

Alan Morris [MSFT] · External Since: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 360

Is this a multi boot machine or two separate computers?

LPT or USB?

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Darkvette" wrote in message

> Hello,
>
> I have a Brother MFC-8300 hooked up to my PC. I'm running Vista Ultimate
> 64-bit, and XP Professional 32-bit. The printer works just fine in XP,
> prints alright and everything, however when I go to print anything from
> anywhere in Vista, all I get are blank pages, even printing test pages. I
> contacted Brother and they told me I had to contact Microsoft to resolve
> the
> issue. There are no other drivers, aside from the built-in Vista drivers.
> Does anyone know how to possibly resolve this issue? Thank you

Darkvette · External Since: Sep 18, 2006 Posts: 5

It's a multi-boot PC, and the printer is USB. I checked Brother's website
again, and they posted a notice dated 7/2/07, which is well after I contacted
them. This pdf from their website states a known bug in the Vista 64-bit
Built-in drivers. There is a link to download the replacement drivers. The
link is pasted below. Either way, I downloaded the replacement driver,
reinstalled the printer and now it works just fine.

http://www.brother.com/E-ftp/windowsvista/us.html - Vista News Support Site
http://pub.brother.com/pub/com/pdf/vista/vista64-faq.pdf - Vista Driver
Issue PDF

"Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:

> Is this a multi boot machine or two separate computers?
>
> LPT or USB?
>
> --
> Alan Morris
> Windows Printing Team
> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>
> "Darkvette" wrote in message
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > I have a Brother MFC-8300 hooked up to my PC. I'm running Vista Ultimate
> > 64-bit, and XP Professional 32-bit. The printer works just fine in XP,
> > prints alright and everything, however when I go to print anything from
> > anywhere in Vista, all I get are blank pages, even printing test pages. I
> > contacted Brother and they told me I had to contact Microsoft to resolve
> > the
> > issue. There are no other drivers, aside from the built-in Vista drivers.
> > Does anyone know how to possibly resolve this issue? Thank you
>
>
>

PhantomEngineer · External Since: Apr 21, 2009 Posts: 3

I tried using the driver referenced in that PDF, and on that web page,
but it did not work for me. I still only get one blank page for every
print job (including the test page) sent from my Vista 64-bit computer.
The printer works fine from XP (32-bit). Any other fixes? Brother tells
me I have to go through Microsoft's web site, and Microsoft seems to
think nothing's wrong.

--
PhantomEngineer

PhantomEngineer · External Since: Apr 21, 2009 Posts: 3

Never mind- it does work- In my case i have a Windows Vista 64 laptop on
a wireless network, and a Windows XP desktop serving as a printer
server, wired to teh MFC-8300. Things that help to know-
-The only way to get the driver installed on the laptop is to use the
USB connection and choose the Brother replacement Vista driver linked in
the PDF cited earlier on this thread.
- The only way to get the Vista laptop working with the XP printer
server is to install the replacement XP driver on the desktop (at the
desktop).
-After you install the USB ported driver on the Vista laptop computer,
and the XP driver on the printer server desktop, you ahve to go back to
the Vista 64 and add the network printer. It should work at that point!

Vastly relieved that I don't have to buy a new printer just for my
Vista 64 laptop. Hope this helps some other people...

--
PhantomEngineer

PhantomEngineer · External Since: Apr 21, 2009 Posts: 3

I posted a folllow-up at a mirror site but it never appeared here. Here
it is for completeness:
Never mind- it does work- In my case I have a Windows Vista 64 laptop
on
a wireless network, and a Windows XP desktop serving as a printer
server, wired to the MFC-8300. Things that help to know-
-The only way to get the driver installed on the laptop is to use the
USB connection and choose the Brother replacement Vista driver linked
in
the PDF cited earlier on this thread.
- The only way to get the Vista laptop working with the XP printer
server is to install the replacement XP driver on the desktop (at the
desktop).
-After you install the USB ported driver on the Vista laptop computer,
and the XP driver on the printer server desktop, you ahve to go back to
the Vista 64 and add the network printer. It should work at that point!

Vastly relieved that I don't have to buy a new printer just for my
Vista 64 laptop. Hope this helps some other people...

-----Now, where can I find an MFC-8300 driver for Windows 7? Will the
Vista driver work? I don't want to upgrade Windows if it will make the
printer not work.

--
PhantomEngineer