Accessing Printer Properties/Dialogue very slow on Vista?

[bradavon78]

I have a XP Home PC with a printer connected via USB, this goes via Ethernet to a Hub and then Ethernet to another PC. The printer is shared.

It was fine on my old XP PC but on my new Vista laptop it takes 10-30 seconds for Printer Properties/Dialogue boxes to appear, anything which needs access to the printer driver (such as Page Setup).

HP doesn't make Vista drivers for the printer but instead recommend you use the built in Vista drivers. Oddly they look identical to the drivers on my XP PC which I didn't expect for built-in drivers, so to be sure I installed the same printer manually as a LTP1 Printer using the drivers from the printer list and they're the same. I did this just to confirm I was using the built in drivers and not the XP drivers sent across the network when I connected to it.

To clarify it goes USB connection from the printer into the XP PC, out of the XP PC to a Router via Ethernet, to Vista Laptop via Ethernet. File & Printer sharing is enabled on the laptop. I know it's not the XP end as it also works fine to another XP PC connecting to the Master XP PC the same way. I am unable to install Printer Sharing on the laptop as it has no printer attached so Vista says it's not needed, fair enough (I presume it only refers to printers physically plugged in).

It does all work but is very slow opening dialogue boxes.

Whenever I try to access my printer properties (even right click to get to the properties option) it causes ALL the lights on my router to go ballistic, until the window appears. Huh?

File sharing works perfectly.

Any ideas? It could be a case of generic so rubbish Vista drivers I guess.

Thanks