Expert: Bobbert - 12/24/2006

Question
I have a compaq with windows xp. I had not yet purchased a printer so bought one used off of a neighbor. a printer in very clean shape with all the materials that came with it when it was new. when looking through the booklet on how to install the CD to set up the printer, i read in the book that this was a CD for windows 95, 98 and Windows NT 4.0. I thought, "uh oh" I wonder if this is going to work with windows xp. sure enough, after doing everything right in terms of installation, I saw a message come up after trying to install it, that it is not compatible with windows xp. It is a HP DeskJet 697C Printer. My question is this: Does one have to buy a printer that is compatible with the program that you have? I would never have thought of that. Why can't I use this printer on my PC? It hooked up just fine on the back of the CPU. Thanks.

Answer
The driver just has to be compatable, some older hardware will loose support for newer software as time moves on, however HP should have a driver available for WindowsXP at their website. www.hp.com, just go into help/support and look for the DeskJet 697C and see what they have as far as drivers.

-bob