[PCWorks] Can no longer print ANYTHING using ANY printer, but I CAN print to PDF!
- From: "Clint Hamilton-PCWorks Admin" <PCWorks@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "PCWorks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <pcworks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 01:30:38 -0600
Guys, this has got me totally freaked-out. I have never seen
anything even remotely like this! I have ALWAYS been able to
fix anything PC-related, but not this!
This is XP SP3. I have never had any problems printing before.
I printed something not long ago with no problem. Yesterday I
tried to print something from a PDF file and I got a (useless)
error, it wouldn't print. I stopped and restarted the Spooler
Service (spoolsv.exe), nothing. Ok, something's wrong with the
PDF file.....but then I tried something from NotePad, same
crap! Ok, the USB cable is bad; wrong! Ok, the USB port is
bad; wrong! Ok, so the printer is bad.....
I then tried the parallel port printer, but it too will print
nothing! In its case, when I look at the Print Queue, the
document shows up in the list, under "Status", as "Printing",
but then seconds later changes to "Deleting", then the queue
goes blank! During this, its LED will flash green as it's
supposed to do, but goes back to solid after the queue goes
blank.
With the USB printer, the status monitor pops up and it says
(get this): "Operator error. Press printer's RESUME button. If
this doesn't clear the error, cancel printing and turn the
printer off and then back on." ("Operator error"???) The
Print Queue on it, when I open it up, just says "ERROR".
Oddly, even with the PC off, if I turn on the USB printer its
LED will flash green and yellow! This indicates "something
isn't right" (duhh), but there's no way of knowing what! It's
supposed to be solid green, then flash when it's printing.
I don't think I can print at a cmd prompt. The info I found on
that is a bit confusing, but I tried all of these:
For the parallel port* printer:
ECHO HELLO ^L dir > lpt1
ECHO HELLO CTRL+L dir > lpt1
ECHO HELLO ^L > lpt1
ECHO HELLO ^L dir > DOT4_001
ECHO HELLO ^L > DOT4_001
ECHO HELLO CTRL+L dir > DOT4_001
*For some reason, the Device Manager shows it connected to
LPT1, yet in the printer's settings it says it's connected to
DOT4_001, that's why I tried both. Yes, I tried changing ports.
USB printer:
ECHO HELLO ^L dir > USB001
ECHO HELLO ^L > USB001
ECHO HELLO CTRL+L dir > USB001
Nothing at all happens.
With Postscript driver (respectively, parallel port then USB) :
copy con lpt1
copy con USB001
Then I did the 'showpage' for each of those. No paper ever
ejected as it was supposed to do from what I gathered, but
oddly when trying the USB printer it did "print" out a PDF file
with "showpage" in it!
Both printers go through all the motions of starting to print!
They will flash lights, make noise as they do when they are
about to print, but they just stop right before they are about
to feed the paper in! (With as I said above, the USB's LED
flashing but the PP printer's LED goes back to solid). I
cannot send any kind of command to either printer. This is
using the status monitor for the USB and changing soft-settings
like time on/off, etc., I get that same error I mentioned
above. For the PP printer, it doesn't have that kind of
monitor, but when I tried messing around with Sharing (it's
always been off for both printers and they are not network,
just local to this one PC), it said it was not able to enable
Sharing.
I have:
Reinstalled both printers
Deleted the printer/spooler prefetch files
Deleted the contents of C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool
Did extensive malware scans
Even replaced 'spoolsv.exe'
And I even did a restore back to the last time I printed!
I AM ABLE TO PRINT TO PDF, but that doesn't do me any
good, the physical printers will no longer print! Now how
could I print to PDF to create a PDF file, but not to real
printers??
BTW, the PP printer is also a scanner and that part works fine!
I am at a loss now, I can't possibly think of anything else I
could check. I can't imagine what could cause this. It's like
the PC is possessed with some kind of "anti-print demon".
Thanks,
-Clint
God Bless,
Clint Hamilton, Owner
www.OrpheusComputing.com
www.ComputersCustomBuilt.com
www.OrpheusComputing.com/most_reliable_cheapest_webhosting.html
www.OrpheusComputing.com/office/computer_accessories.html
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- » [PCWorks] Can no longer print ANYTHING using ANY printer, but I CAN print to PDF! - Clint Hamilton-PCWorks Admin
