[TribeLeader]

I posted this earlier on the peripherals board, but it might fit better here, I'm not sure (no responses, there anyway).

My wife and I have 2 PB G4s connected to Airport Extreme Base Station (for printing and Internet). The printer is HP5100.

Everything works fine, except for printing from one of the two laptops. And everything works fine (i.e. printing) on that particular laptop except for printing Word docs (that we know of; it prints from Text Edit, Safari, and Preview, at least).

When we print from Word on that one laptop, the printer is slow, pulls/releases the paper (sounds like it's working hard), then prints ONLY the last page (in a multi page document).

We have run repair permissions and quit/re-started Word, FWIW.

Any ideas/suggestions? Let me know if I need to supply more info. Thanks!

[ibook_steve]

Weird. Try reinstalling the printer drivers provided by HP instead of the built-in drivers (though I don't know which drivers you are using). Also, you can try Printer Setup Repair (search on Versiontracker) which fixes most weird printer problems I've come across. Just run all the checks that are available. Finally, how much spare hard drive space do you have? If you don't have much, that can cause problems for printing as well.

Steve

[TribeLeader]

Thanks, Steve.

We're using the built-in printer drivers, I believe (but not sure). And we have plenty of hard drive space available.

[TribeLeader]

Still having problems, even after installing the latest drivers.

I'm wondering if the problem is with Word. One additional observation: As I said, the printing problem is in Word only (haven't tried other Offices products, actually), but even when we click on "preview," it does the same thing, even though printing something in Preview works otherwise.

I just tried saving the Word doc as a PDF, then printing it. It worked fine that way. But it's a pain.

Any further ideas?

[TribeLeader]

Still having problems, and wanted to see if anyone else has any ideas. Recently, we've run updates for Office v.X at MS's website.

This appears to be a Word (or Office) problem. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[amazing]

Just one suggestion, and that suggestion is a pretty standard trouble-shooting tip: On the affected laptop, create a second admin user. See if the printing problem with Word persists when you're logged in as that second admin user. I've seen some very bizarre problems isolated with this tip.

In other words, there's nothing wrong in general with Word or with that particular HP printer. The fact that one laptop works fine is proof. There's probably something added in the affected user account that impacts printing from Word. Heavens knows what? Was something installed on that laptop that was supposed to add functionality to Word? If so, that may be what's conflicting with printing in Word on that particular laptop.

An archive and install is usually a sure bet, in the hope that whatever is conflicting will remain in the previous system folder, which you'll then trash...this won't work if whatever was added to Word is installed in a non-standard location. And if that doesn't work, a clean install.

[TribeLeader]

Originally Posted by amazing

[...] On the affected laptop, create a second admin user. See if the printing problem with Word persists when you're logged in as that second admin user. [...]

It's hard to believe it's been almost 3 months since I posted this, but I was overwhelmed with a class this summer, so I'm just getting back to it. On the affected PB, when printing Word docs, we simply saved as PDF, then printed until we could get to fix it.

Anyway, I just created a second user and it worked, so that at least narrows down the focus.

To answer amazing's question, we didn't add anything to Word, or much of anything (that we recall) to the PB.

Any thoughts on what to look for now?

[amazing]

Time flies, while we're usually pretty well stuck in commuter traffic, so: if your pdf solution worked for you, no worries.

If you're using Office X, then with the 10.1.6 update for Office, this is what you might get when you "Get Info" on Word: Version 10.1.6 (040913)....at least, that's what I'm getting with mine.

If you don't get that version, try reinstalling the Office 10.1.6 update off the MS site. Maybe something was deleted from Word in that one user account, and hopefully will be replaced. If that doesn't work, drag the whole Office folder to the trash and reinstall everything.

Anyway, the fact that printing works in the second (pristine) user account that you created, well, it seems to indicate that something in the original user account is either missing or something else (like a 3rd party hack) is conflicting with printing.

[TribeLeader]

Thanks, again. I ran the update a few weeks ago, but that didn't fix it, either.

There must be something missing or corrupt (no 3rd party hacks).

[KenDallas]

This may seem very trivial, but it has fixed my problems.. I was unable to print wirelessly to my printer and couldn't get the thing to work to save my life.

When you go to install the drivers and set up the printer, there is a field there to enter the name of the Queue... try putting in L1 or LPT1. I think if this field is left blank everything blows up.

For what its worth... it may help, it may not.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by TribeLeader

Thanks, again. I ran the update a few weeks ago, but that didn't fix it, either.

There must be something missing or corrupt (no 3rd party hacks).

[amazing]

Well, another good thing to try: Uninstall the printer in the user that's affected, then reinstall (see if there's a more recent driver.) Could well be that things are corrupted in that user's printer settings.

After that, I'd drag the entire Office suite to the trash and reinstall it, along with the updates.

Although, instead of spending all your time doing the above, you could throw up your hands and just do an archive-&-install, which might in all likelihood fix everything.

[TribeLeader]

Okay, I'm back, and back to work on this never-eneding problem.

I'll put the archive and install on the last resort list (mainly because I've never done it before).

Any other ideas?

[TribeLeader]

Let me ask it another way ...

Since it may be a problem with the preferences, what are my options? I've tried deleting Word and MS preferences, without success. Are there any other preferences I could try deleting? Is there anything I should *not* delete?

[amazing]

The main troubleshooting tip related to corrupt prefs is to drag the entire user/library/preferences folder to the desktop, restart, and see if you can get the printer to print. If it still won't print, an archive and install is in your future.

[TribeLeader]

Originally Posted by amazing

The main troubleshooting tip related to corrupt prefs is to drag the entire user/library/preferences folder to the desktop, restart, and see if you can get the printer to print. [...]

Okay, that worked!

What's the best way to restore my preferences? I assume I can restore an item(s) at a time, but what's the quickest way to do it? Are there certain things I can restorer without verifying (i.e. trying to print after after pref restored)?

Many thanks!

[amazing]

glad to hear it worked!

For the most part, the prefs will be re-created when you next start up the particular software. You could just let things ride for a few days and see if you really need the new prefs.

[TribeLeader]

Okay, that makes sense.

Regarding things like dock placement, desktop image, icon size, etc. etc., just re-do all of that, rather than trying to restore the old prefs?

Thanks again!

[amazing]

The trial and error method of replacing the prefs involves taking the first alphabetical half of the prefs and returning them to the correct folder. If the problem pops back up, then you divide those prefs in half and take half out. So on and so forth until you narrow the problem down.

Frankly, re-specifying from scratch things like dock placement, desktop image, etc, seems a lot simpler.