Printing problem

[Iain]

MY Dell 1320c network printer has been printing OK for the last year
from my Windows 7 Home Premium desktop and from other comps on the
network. All of a sudden it has stopped printing from the Win7 machine
but continues to print from other machines.
I've deleted and reinstalled the printer and it printed a test page at
the end of the installation process, but still refuses to print from
programs.
Any help appreciated.
Regards
Iain

 

[Nil]

MY Dell 1320c network printer has been printing OK for the last
year from my Windows 7 Home Premium desktop and from other comps
on the network. All of a sudden it has stopped printing from the
Win7 machine but continues to print from other machines.
I've deleted and reinstalled the printer and it printed a test
page at the end of the installation process, but still refuses to
print from programs.
Any help appreciated.

"Refuses to print" isn't very descriptive. More info is needed.

Error messages?

Have you watched the jobs in the print queue?

Entries in the Event Viewer?

 

[Iain]

"Refuses to print" isn't very descriptive. More info is needed.

Error messages?

Have you watched the jobs in the print queue?

Entries in the Event Viewer?

When trying to print the print dialogue box appears, when I click OK a
wakeup signal is sent to the printer but then nothing else. Nothing in
the print queue.
Regards,
Iain

 

[SC Tom]

When trying to print the print dialogue box appears, when I click OK a
wakeup signal is sent to the printer but then nothing else. Nothing in
the print queue.
Regards,
Iain

If you wake it up manually before attempting to print, does it then print?

Did you check the event logs for errors/warnings (as asked earlier)?

 

[Iain]

If you wake it up manually before attempting to print, does it then print?

Did you check the event logs for errors/warnings (as asked earlier)?

No different if I wake it up manually.
I can't see ant relevant entries in the Event Viewer.
I've also checked that I'm running the latest drivers.
Regards,
Iain

 

[SC Tom]

No different if I wake it up manually.
I can't see ant relevant entries in the Event Viewer.
I've also checked that I'm running the latest drivers.
Regards,
Iain

If you connect the printer via the USB cable to your Win7 PC, are you able to print OK?

Are you able to ping the printer from your Win7 PC while it's on the network?

 

[Iain]

If you connect the printer via the USB cable to your Win7 PC, are you
able to print OK?

Are you able to ping the printer from your Win7 PC while it's on the
network?

I can access the printer via browser, so communication is not the
problem. I've also tried another printer which also refuses to print.
Jobs sent to print briefly appear in the print queue then disappear as
if they have been printed.
I'm suspecting that the recent Microsoft updates have screwed things up,
although I have rolled back the updates to 13th December without
altering things.
Regards,
Iain

 

[Nil]

I can access the printer via browser, so communication is not the
problem. I've also tried another printer which also refuses to
print. Jobs sent to print briefly appear in the print queue then
disappear as if they have been printed.
I'm suspecting that the recent Microsoft updates have screwed
things up, although I have rolled back the updates to 13th
December without altering things.

Maybe the Windows' (or 3rd-party, if you use one) firewall is partially
blocking communication. Try turning it off for a test.

 

[Iain]

Maybe the Windows' (or 3rd-party, if you use one) firewall is partially
blocking communication. Try turning it off for a test.

Firewall turned off, problem remains.
Regards,
Iain

 

[Char Jackson]

I can access the printer via browser, so communication is not the
problem. I've also tried another printer which also refuses to print.
Jobs sent to print briefly appear in the print queue then disappear as
if they have been printed.
I'm suspecting that the recent Microsoft updates have screwed things up,
although I have rolled back the updates to 13th December without
altering things.

I've solved dozens of similar printing problems in recent years by
uninstalling the problem printer, then browsing to the printer in
Windows Explorer. Locate the printer on the network, right click to
display the context menu, then select the Install menu item.

There's no messing around with ports; it just works. Or at least it
has worked in 100% of the cases I've had to deal with. Might be worth
a try.

 

[Joe Morris]

Maybe the Windows' (or 3rd-party, if you use one) firewall is partially
blocking communication. Try turning it off for a test.

I've encountered occasional systems (one just yesterday) where a print job
has been queued up, but there's something in the queued data that causes the
drivers to go bonkers and sometimes causes the print spool service to fail.
Look in the print queue folder (C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Printers) and
either delete or move to a folder somewhere else any files you find there,
then restart the system. No guarantee that it will solve the problem but
it's a quick try.

Joe Morria

 

[meagain]

I've encountered occasional systems (one just yesterday) where a print job
has been queued up, but there's something in the queued data that causes the
drivers to go bonkers and sometimes causes the print spool service to fail.
Look in the print queue folder (C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Printers) and
either delete or move to a folder somewhere else any files you find there,
then restart the system. No guarantee that it will solve the problem but
it's a quick try.

Joe Morria

Make sure that BOTH the printer AND the print software have the latest releases of
their respective software/controlware.

 

[Joe Morris]

Joe Morris wrote:

Make sure that BOTH the printer AND the print software have the latest
releases of their respective software/controlware.

In a situation like this, trying the latest build is something so obvious
that it shouldn't be necessary to mention...although there's the caveat that
"new, improved" releases can validate the old saw that "for every bug fixed,
a programmer must introduce a new one." And no, the latest driver for the
printer did not fix the problem, but at least it didn't seem to do any
additional harm.

Joe

 

[charlie]

In a situation like this, trying the latest build is something so obvious
that it shouldn't be necessary to mention...although there's the caveat that
"new, improved" releases can validate the old saw that "for every bug fixed,
a programmer must introduce a new one." And no, the latest driver for the
printer did not fix the problem, but at least it didn't seem to do any
additional harm.

Joe

Hmmm --- the "cure" for Win XP was usually to point the system to the
network address of the printer. This should work with Win 7 as well.

Other more complex cures --
Uninstall the printer driver software, disconnect the printer.
Reboot, reinstall the driver software, and connect the printer to a
different USB controller port.

When all else failed, use regedit to remove any left over registry
entries that the uninstall process did not.
When that still didn't solve the problem, a possible cure that used to
work was to uninstall the usb controller and port, then reboot and
reinstall it. (This "broke" defective links in the Win driver schema,
and hopefully forced windows to recreate them.

Since this problem seems to occur occasionally when legacy drivers, or
drivers that were minimally updated to work with Win 7 are used, I'd be
looking for updated drivers as part of the effort.

Win Vista and 7, as well as some XP versions, introduced another
variant, in that a printer might have both OEM drivers, and drivers via
a windows scheme. This is quite noticeable with multifunction printers,
scanners, and cameras. When this is desired, it may be necessary to
change one of the queue names to allow both schemes to co-exist.

I discovered this some time ago, as a result of using Viewscan and the
printer OEM's software with several different networked multifunction
printers. Viewscan often had to be "coaxed" into working with a
networked multifunction printer.

 

[Joe Morris]

Hmmm --- the "cure" for Win XP was usually to point the system to the
network address of the printer. This should work with Win 7 as well.

Not appropriate in this case: the printer (HP LaserJet 1020, using a USB
connection) worked flawlessly - UNTIL the (apparently corrupt) print file
was presented to the driver, which (on both 32-bit XP and 64-bit Win7)
caused the print spooler service to fail. (The system in question is a SOHO
office of a friend who runs a tax prep service from his house.)

Computers...a sure cure for any spare time (or patience) one might have...

Joe

 

[charlie]

Not appropriate in this case: the printer (HP LaserJet 1020, using a USB
connection) worked flawlessly - UNTIL the (apparently corrupt) print file
was presented to the driver, which (on both 32-bit XP and 64-bit Win7)
caused the print spooler service to fail. (The system in question is a SOHO
office of a friend who runs a tax prep service from his house.)

Computers...a sure cure for any spare time (or patience) one might have...

Joe

It would seem that there are both legacy printing and up to date
printing schemes. For the most part, legacy support is very good for
commonly used calls, and a bit shaky for some of the uncommon ones.
Some subsets of calls are usually the ones that have problems, instead
of the basic call.

Even within Microsoft Office, depending, I suppose on the version, Word,
Excel, Publisher, and the others don't always use the same exact methods
to print. This can involve "legacy" calls to the various printing
related dlls. I've seen printing failures with HP printers in
particular, that would fail in one app, usually Excel, and work properly
in Word.

 

[meagain]

Not appropriate in this case: the printer (HP LaserJet 1020, using a USB
connection) worked flawlessly - UNTIL the (apparently corrupt)

yOU OFFER no proof of this assertion. Have you tried it on another printer?

print file
was presented to the driver, which (on both 32-bit XP and 64-bit Win7)
caused the print spooler service to fail.

Are you remembering that the printer can talk back to the computer?
Does it give any error message? What model printer and what model computer do you
actually have?

 

[meagain]

HP LaserJet 1020

Here's a diagnostic tool that might help:

http://tinyurl.com/26jm696

 

[Joe Morris]

Joe Morris wrote:

yOU OFFER no proof of this assertion. Have you tried it on another
printer?

If you'll bother to read what was written upthread, the specific problem
that I've encountered can be fixed by forcibly deleting the spooled print
file from the printer queue and restarting the spooler service. Print the
file again and the spooler service dies.

Are you remembering that the printer can talk back to the computer?
Does it give any error message? What model printer and what model
computer do you actually have?

Again, please read what was said about the symptoms. If the spooler service
fails, it doesn't matter diddlysquat whether the printer can talk to the
computer.

 

[charlie]

If you'll bother to read what was written upthread, the specific problem
that I've encountered can be fixed by forcibly deleting the spooled print
file from the printer queue and restarting the spooler service. Print the
file again and the spooler service dies.




Again, please read what was said about the symptoms. If the spooler service
fails, it doesn't matter diddlysquat whether the printer can talk to the
computer.

If you think that the spooler is the problem, turn it off! (Print
Directly to the printer)