Can't install drivers for unknown XP or Vista-era printer because the driver "package" tries to download the driver itself but can't connect

Communities OpenPleb: Hardware Fails
1

I don’t remember the exact model of printer, but this is at least another great example of the same situation as GN Steve’s Corsair AX1600 PSU.

Basically, when I went to try to install the drivers for my neighbor’s XP or Vista-era printer, the only thing I could find is their installer package that, rather than including the driver, it instead connects to the manufacturer’s servers to download and then subsequently the drivers.

Of course, the problem is that this installer package straight up failed to actually download the drivers. I don’t remember the exact error since this was over 5 years ago (maybe even 10 years ago by now?), but basically it was something typical with regards to either the server was not found or the specific address it was trying to download from didn’t exist or the like.

2

Y’know, I kinda wonder if you can resurrect such a device today by grabbing some small SBC and getting the printer working in Linux and setting that up as a “modern printer” using all the Internet Printing Protocol stuff. I don’t have any idea if that’s possible with the printer in question since you didn’t specify a model … but it might be a genuine solution, if a bit of effort to hack.

This was the era of the Apple Airport Express, which had a USB port built-in and the ability to function as a print server. I wouldn’t suggest trying to use ont today. If you could find one to use, the product has long ago been abandoned and printers are insecure enough without help from an abandoned Apple product.

Still, a similar idea might be possible…