printing to file - not wanting to....

[saressa]

Vista Home Premium
HP Laserjet 1160 and One Note
Skill level: Probably a little better than the average bear, but by no means an expert.

I am trying to print a hard copy document.
When I select the printer, the system brings up a print to file dialog box that prompts for a file name. If I use that box, I get a file that has no extension and does not open properly with any software I have tried including text, pdf and word. (It may be prn, I have not checked that - but would not help me in any case.)

this is happening from everywhere that has print functionality including Word 2007, Adobe reader 8.x, firefox and One note as examples.

When I attempt to use "send to One Note" I get the same dialog box. These are the only "printers" (virtual or physical) I have on this computer at this time. There have been others, but it has been a while since they were removed.

The options to print to file are NOT selected on both property dialogs.
I have checked the ports and they appear to be correct. Would appreciate validation that what I think is correct, actually is.

I have had this to happen before and I removed all printers and had the computer reacquire the 1160 and it worked again for a while (except that it would not print more than 1 copy of anything).

I have uninstalled the printer and deleted it and had the system reacquire the 1160 again and this time it is still not working.

The computer does appear to be recognizing that the printer is attached since it does the two tone "thumps" when I plug in the usb cable.

Running out of ideas. I have some docs that I need to print, sign and fax and don't want to have to go to staples with a thumb drive.

Help would be appreciated...
Thanks
Saressa

 

[Lorien]

Try upgrading to the newest HP UPD driver for PCL6 for your printer HP LaserJet 1160 Printer Series and then try adding the printer again (don't revise the current listing, create a whole new entry) and see if that works. Make sure you select it as the default printer. It should not only show up but it should get you to the printing screen instead of the print to file screen when you try to print (which may be happening because it can't detect the printer and is going to the next option which is a print to file option since there are no other printers). Post back if you need assistance updating or installing the drivers.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

 

[saressa]

Drivers updated. Definately an improvement but not fixed yet.

A little more detail around what was happening initially. When I selected print, the printer dialog box would come up. The 1160 was set as default, the error occurred when the file started spooling. Even though the printer dialog showed the 1160, the print to file dialog would display.

After updating the drivers as suggested by Lorien - thank you btw - the ability to send material to One Note is restored. And the error condition on my printer is now just showing an error on the printer. The printer will manually print a test page so I am thinking my problem is in the cabling or connection on the printer itself. I have already moved the usb to different ports on the computer with no change in results.

I have a couple of other things to try now.

Many thanks Lorien for your help,
Regards,
Saressa

PS, I am a typical user, older desktop and simple laptop with an extended monitor and kvm, but my son would really appreciate some of the rigs you guys have. Some cool looking stuff.

 

[niemiro]

Hello,

This will not fix the issue, mealy grab the printer settings straight out of the registry for me to analyse. I have included a batch file with this post, at the bottom. All you need to do is click on it, and click Run. If you get any warning boxes, click OK. This batch file is safe. I have included the contents of the batch file at the bottom of this post also. If you want, you can analyse this, check that the real batch file is the same, so that you know I am not running anything malicious on your computer. If you are still worried, just come back here and ask. There is nothing wrong with that. It will flash on the screen for less than a second. This is correct. It will create a file (printers.txt) on your Desktop. Please upload that to your next post. If you cannot work out how to upload it, just open it, and copy and paste the entire contents into your next reply. Do not worry about understanding it! It is in hexadecimal, and cannot be read without translation!

Unfortunately, this will probably get us no where, but we may as well check.

Richard

P.S. I expect you have already seen it, but John's computer is pretty beasty! He now has six bigger monitors, rather than the five smaller ones seen in the picture. Have a look at the system specs tab: http://www.vistax64.com/member.php?u=1

Also, we have another member. This time, we think that he has not updated his specs, rather than using that machine. http://www.vistax64.com/member.php?u=48198

regedit /e %userprofile%\Desktop\printers.txt "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Printers"

 

[JimJoe]

I have had this happen at work on some computers.

A default printer isn't selected, so it tries to pull up the default microsoft xps document, then wants to save to file.

Once I selected, in the user's account, a physical default prniter, it stopped doing that.

 

[niemiro]

I have had this happen at work on some computers.

A default printer isn't selected, so it tries to pull up the default microsoft xps document, then wants to save to file.

Once I selected, in the user's account, a physical default prniter, it stopped doing that.

That makes perfect sense. We should be able to check with the registry export, though I don't think we really need to.

@saressa: Please make sure that your Printer is made the Default Printer. It might well fit with a re-install of printer fixing it someone. Credit (obviously) JimJoe.

 

[Lorien]

Saressa, you mentioned that this occurred when the file started spooling. I wonder what would happen if we turned spooling off for the printer or, if necessary, deactivated Printer Spooling?

Go to Start / Control Panel / Printers and right click on the printer and click on properties. I'm not sure where it will be located (on my printer it's in the Advanced Tab but I imagine that varies by printer). Find where it offers the option to use printer spooling and turn it off and reboot. Then see if that makes any difference. If you can find no such option, then just move on to the next step here.

If the problem persists or you couldn't disable spooling in printer properties, let's disable Printer Spooling entirely (to make sure it still isn't operating despite the settings in the printer properties even if you were able to do that and it didn't work).


How to start or stop the print spooler? (Compliments of Marcos at: How to Enable / Disable the Print Spooler service - Tips & Tweaks).

1. Click Start, Right click on Computer and select Manage
2. In the console that opens, pull down the Services menu and applications
3. Click on Services
4. Double-click on the Print Spooler key
5. In the "General" tab, go to Startup Type
6. Set the value to Disabled (set it to Automatic if/when you start it back up again)
7. To enable or disable the print spooler service immediately, click Stop or Start
8. Finally click Apply and reboot.
   

Try the printer again to see if that made any difference? If it's now working, then we need to examine why the print spooler is causing this problem - but at least you can now print (and perhaps you don't really need the spooler anyway given your situation - but that's up to you - we'll keep working on it even if you can print without it to try to find a way to print with it working as well if you request that). If the problem persists, re-enable the Print Spooler and recheck the option to use it in the printer as that isn't the cause and so we should put things back the way they were.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

 

[saressa]

Hi Niemiro,

Attached is the text file that the was generated from the registry. I am familiar with hexadecimal since I used to code Assembler on a mainframe for an airline. But I don't know how the page is mapped, so do not know which byte(s) are the default indicators.

I will tell you that the printer is defined as the default.

Regarding spooling, I have already found and tried the available spooling settings, which are shown on the properties dialog in the word doc.

Lorien, changing the spooler settings also had no effect.

My son is bringing his computer over Sunday to see if the printer and cables will work there. This will let me know if the problem is on my system or part of the peripheral and cabling.

Thanks for all the help.
Saressa

 

[niemiro]

Hello,

Very sorry about the late reply. I lost a few items off my to-do list, and was trying to re-find them! I notice that you have two copies of the Printer. From the settings, it looks as though you have fiddled more with the first one, and then created a new one. Which one are you using, and are the settings definitely correct?

Thanks!