Macbook Pro w/ Lion 10.7.2 & Windows 7 Shared Printer (Lexmark X5650)

Question

I just recently purchased a MacBook Pro with Lion OS 10.7.2 for my wife and have been trying to connect her Macbook to my Lexmark X5650 Printer that is connected to my Windows 7 Professional PC.  Tried everything with no success.  Any ideas?  I have always been a PC user and this is my first MAC and really know nothing about them.  Wife had to have it for Dental School and I am getting very frustrated
List of things I've tried thus far:
-Installing printer using CUPS
     smb://server/Lexmark
     smb://workgroup/server/Lexmark
     smb://username:password@server/Lexmark
     smb://username:password@workgroup/server/Lexmark
     where the server is I have tried using both the IP Address and Computer Name of the shared Printer
-Installing printer using "Advanced" options under "Print & Scan" to which I used the address settings as above
-Tried the LPD setting as well as just setting it straight up by selecting "Windows" under "Print & Scan", selected workgroup, computer name, and printer and everything appeared to install correctly until attempting to print test page
-Printer is shared on Windows PC
-Even tried creating an Administrative User and Password specifically for Printing
-Made sure I had the latest MAC Driver for the Printer
I have pretty much tried every setting and suggestion that can be found on google and always get the "Authentication Required" error or nothing at all printing just pauses.   When I click resume and enter in the username and password for my windows pc, it says that its sending the job, but then nothing happens and also whenever I try to print another test page after that, I have to constantly click resume and enter the username and password manually regardless of how I set it up.
Is this a printer compatibility issue, is this an issue with Mac OS 10.7.2 (Lion) w/ Windows 7 or what?  Every thread that I have read does not appear to have any responses from Apple with a workaround or any kind of explanation.  All that I have come across is that most people had no problems printing through shared Windows 7 printers until they upgrade to Mac Lion OS.

Answer 1

The "Authentication Required" error can be related to the print driver. Many vendors create their OS X drivers for direct communication from the Mac to the printer. As soon as you stick a Windows computer or 3rd party print server in between the Mac and the printer, then you can get this error.
The thing to note is that when you added the printer via the Add Printer > Windows pane, vs CUPS or the Advanced SMB, you would have been prompted for your Windows credentials to see the printer share after selecting the Win7 computer name. If entering these details then showed you the shared printer, this rules out the problem being related to authentication information.
Working on the premise that the error is being caused by the driver then there are other driver options for OS X, such as Gutenprint. However, looking through the supported driver list for Gutenprint v5.2.7, there is not that many Lexmark printers and certainly not the X5650. And looking at other driver packages available for OS X, I cannot see this model so you may need to look at other options.
One option is LPD which you have tried already. But I think this would have failed due to the service not running by default on Windows 7. While it is certainly present on Win7 for you to connect to a network printer using LPD, the service so that other computers can print via Win7 using LPD has to be enabled. This is done via Control Panel > Programs & Features > Turn Windows Features ON/OFF > Print & Document Services > LPD Print Service. With this enabled and running (you can check via Services) then the queue should be created in OS X using a syntax of lpd://ip_address/printer_share_name. Note that no authentication is required and if the driver will support this type of connection then it could be a quick win. But again the driver could be the issue, although I believe you will see a different error if it has an issue with this type of network connection.
So another workaround is detailed in this blog. This allows you to use the vendors driver on the Mac but I have to say that I have not tried this with Lion and Win7. My last test with this setup was with Win XP and Snow Leopard.
What may prove to be the easiest win is to purchase a Airport Express. With the printer connected to the USB port of this wireless device, the Mac can use the Lexmark driver and Win7 should have no problems printing to it either, although it would be handy to install the free Bonjour for Windows utility to help with locating the printer.
Hope this helps and please respond if you need any further information/assistance.