mtredheads
asked on
Power Point Printer Idle
My printer is an HP PSC 2410 and prints fine in all programs except Power Point.
I am trying to print my slides and I get and error ...the printer is not responding...
it shows the printer as idle...why won't it print?
I am trying to print my slides and I get and error ...the printer is not responding...
it shows the printer as idle...why won't it print?
What version of PowerPoint is installed? ie. From MS Office 97, 200, or higher, or installed as a separate application?
It's definitely not the PowerPoint Viewer, is it?
It's definitely not the PowerPoint Viewer, is it?
ASKER
It is from MS Office 97.
How would I know if it is the Power Point Viewer?
Thank you
Kim
How would I know if it is the Power Point Viewer?
Thank you
Kim
I actually forgot to follow up on this one and missed Kim's last response to my question about what version it was, and whether it was the PowerPoint VIEWER.
My reasoning was that if it was part of the MS Works Suite, then it would have been the Viewer and may have had different "Print Setup" options. As it transpires, it would appear to be PowerPoint 97.
Kim, if you are still there, you would be aware if the presentation was opening in the VIEWER because it would either display a splash screen or you would see this indicated if you clicked the Help Menu > "About...".
In addition to that, the Viewer is just what it says, ie. a Viewer only and you cannot use it to actually create presentations. Office suites like Microsoft Works Suite 200x tend to assume that home users who purchase computers with that pre-installed are too dumb to create presentations, or have no need to do so. Those versions of Works only install the PowerPoint Viewer to allow you to see other peoples' presentations if you were emailed one or encountered a ppt or pps file.
From what you have said about the printer being reported as "Not Responding" usually tends to indicate a problem with one or more aspects not necessarily directly related to PowerPoint eg. background monitoring process for the printer not installed/running, corrupt system files relating to how Windows spools print jobs, etc.
You have largely eliminated these aspects by stating that all the other MS Office Applications print documents OK. In general, when you configure the members of the Office Suite, the print options and configuration are shared with the others once you set up eg. MS Word, whereby you don't have to do this when you go to configure the next application.
I assume that you will most likely have verified this yourself, but just double-check the settings. Take note of the settings in File > Page Setup and File > Print, and then compare these with the settings in Tools > Options > "Print" tab.
Is it set to "use the most recent print settings"?
If so, then click "use the following printer settings" and change a few of them.
My reasoning is that, if you are used to just clicking the "Print" button on the toolbar, then some previous print settings may have been retained and it's just trying the same thing. This might refresh the settings in the registry again.
When you print, do you use the File > Print menu and then double-check the options rather than using the toolbar button? If NOT, then do so and make sure that it actually IS the proper printer selected in the drop-down field. Those are the types of settings that the "Use most recent printer settings" would retain and would try and use over and over again. If you have the "Generic Text-Only" virtual printer, a pdf generating virtula printer, or the "Print to File" options set, and the files to perform these actions were missing or corrupt, then a retained setting to use that "printer" would probably result in such an error message.
To quote an example, I recently installed the most recent version of "Ability Office Suite" on this computer to check it out. It was OK, and I've installed it for a friend, but uninstallation did not remove the "Ability PDF Converter" virtual printer from my "Printers" folder despite the fact that I monitored the uninstallation and then did a registry cleanup. Had I used that "printer" in PowerPoint just before uninstalling Ability Office, then it would try to use the PDF printer again if it was set to retain the last-used print settings. In this case, the pdf printer was partially uninstalled and issued the "Not Available" error message.
That reminds me. Must do another cleanup and remove that printer. Tip, if installing Ability Office, use one of those installation monitoring utilities that can track what it added so you can locate and banish the residual junk left behind when you uninstall it.
Looking at your actual Printer settings (Start > Settings > Printers > Right-Click Printer > "Properties"), the only thing I can see that MAY make any difference is the "Spool" settings. Try altering from RAW to EMF or vice-versa and see what happens. If it is set to start printing only after the LAST page is spooled, then change this to print after the FIRST page is spooled.
Are these particularly large or image-laden slides, and are they sized OK for printing?
Large ones might be choking up the printer's memory if the spool settings are wrong, but I would have expected a completely different error if the pages weren't sized properly to fit the output medium.
Was it printing OK with PowerPoint and then just stopped, or has this been the case since you installed MS Office or that printer?
Have you tried uninstalling MS Office, or even just PowerPoint, and then reinstalling it?
From MS Office onwards, it is possible to launch the Control Panel > Add/Remove programs, and go through the initial motions of uninstalling MS Office 97, but to stop short of a complete uninstall of Office by choosing the "Repair" or "Add/Remove MS Office Components" options.
Try repairing it first and see what happens. If that doesn't correct the issue, then go for the "Add or remove office components" option (may be shown as "Modify"), and use the drop-down arrows for ALL PowerPoint-related components and set them to "Not Installed" (a red cross).
Include all the templates and PowerPoint add-ons, and then continue the process. It will carry on with the removal of the components and you should reboot, if not prompted, once it completes. This process normally doesn't require the installation CD.
If you have created your own custom templates in the default templates folder, then it would be a good idea to copy them out temporarily just in case they are removed, but it is unlikely. You will lose the file associations with ppt, pps, and pot file types, so you won't be able to view them until you reinstall PowerPoint, which is your next step.
Insert your Office 97 installation CD. If it runs to the installation screen, it should detect the presence of MS Office and give you the "Modify" (add/remove components) option. If not, then close the screen and go the reverse route in Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs and this time set the "Not Installed" PowerPoint components to "Installed to hard drive" (or similar). Once again, reboot when done.
That's about all I can think of without knowing what you have tried and what you haven't tried out.
My reasoning was that if it was part of the MS Works Suite, then it would have been the Viewer and may have had different "Print Setup" options. As it transpires, it would appear to be PowerPoint 97.
Kim, if you are still there, you would be aware if the presentation was opening in the VIEWER because it would either display a splash screen or you would see this indicated if you clicked the Help Menu > "About...".
In addition to that, the Viewer is just what it says, ie. a Viewer only and you cannot use it to actually create presentations. Office suites like Microsoft Works Suite 200x tend to assume that home users who purchase computers with that pre-installed are too dumb to create presentations, or have no need to do so. Those versions of Works only install the PowerPoint Viewer to allow you to see other peoples' presentations if you were emailed one or encountered a ppt or pps file.
From what you have said about the printer being reported as "Not Responding" usually tends to indicate a problem with one or more aspects not necessarily directly related to PowerPoint eg. background monitoring process for the printer not installed/running, corrupt system files relating to how Windows spools print jobs, etc.
You have largely eliminated these aspects by stating that all the other MS Office Applications print documents OK. In general, when you configure the members of the Office Suite, the print options and configuration are shared with the others once you set up eg. MS Word, whereby you don't have to do this when you go to configure the next application.
I assume that you will most likely have verified this yourself, but just double-check the settings. Take note of the settings in File > Page Setup and File > Print, and then compare these with the settings in Tools > Options > "Print" tab.
Is it set to "use the most recent print settings"?
If so, then click "use the following printer settings" and change a few of them.
My reasoning is that, if you are used to just clicking the "Print" button on the toolbar, then some previous print settings may have been retained and it's just trying the same thing. This might refresh the settings in the registry again.
When you print, do you use the File > Print menu and then double-check the options rather than using the toolbar button? If NOT, then do so and make sure that it actually IS the proper printer selected in the drop-down field. Those are the types of settings that the "Use most recent printer settings" would retain and would try and use over and over again. If you have the "Generic Text-Only" virtual printer, a pdf generating virtula printer, or the "Print to File" options set, and the files to perform these actions were missing or corrupt, then a retained setting to use that "printer" would probably result in such an error message.
To quote an example, I recently installed the most recent version of "Ability Office Suite" on this computer to check it out. It was OK, and I've installed it for a friend, but uninstallation did not remove the "Ability PDF Converter" virtual printer from my "Printers" folder despite the fact that I monitored the uninstallation and then did a registry cleanup. Had I used that "printer" in PowerPoint just before uninstalling Ability Office, then it would try to use the PDF printer again if it was set to retain the last-used print settings. In this case, the pdf printer was partially uninstalled and issued the "Not Available" error message.
That reminds me. Must do another cleanup and remove that printer. Tip, if installing Ability Office, use one of those installation monitoring utilities that can track what it added so you can locate and banish the residual junk left behind when you uninstall it.
Looking at your actual Printer settings (Start > Settings > Printers > Right-Click Printer > "Properties"), the only thing I can see that MAY make any difference is the "Spool" settings. Try altering from RAW to EMF or vice-versa and see what happens. If it is set to start printing only after the LAST page is spooled, then change this to print after the FIRST page is spooled.
Are these particularly large or image-laden slides, and are they sized OK for printing?
Large ones might be choking up the printer's memory if the spool settings are wrong, but I would have expected a completely different error if the pages weren't sized properly to fit the output medium.
Was it printing OK with PowerPoint and then just stopped, or has this been the case since you installed MS Office or that printer?
Have you tried uninstalling MS Office, or even just PowerPoint, and then reinstalling it?
From MS Office onwards, it is possible to launch the Control Panel > Add/Remove programs, and go through the initial motions of uninstalling MS Office 97, but to stop short of a complete uninstall of Office by choosing the "Repair" or "Add/Remove MS Office Components" options.
Try repairing it first and see what happens. If that doesn't correct the issue, then go for the "Add or remove office components" option (may be shown as "Modify"), and use the drop-down arrows for ALL PowerPoint-related components and set them to "Not Installed" (a red cross).
Include all the templates and PowerPoint add-ons, and then continue the process. It will carry on with the removal of the components and you should reboot, if not prompted, once it completes. This process normally doesn't require the installation CD.
If you have created your own custom templates in the default templates folder, then it would be a good idea to copy them out temporarily just in case they are removed, but it is unlikely. You will lose the file associations with ppt, pps, and pot file types, so you won't be able to view them until you reinstall PowerPoint, which is your next step.
Insert your Office 97 installation CD. If it runs to the installation screen, it should detect the presence of MS Office and give you the "Modify" (add/remove components) option. If not, then close the screen and go the reverse route in Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs and this time set the "Not Installed" PowerPoint components to "Installed to hard drive" (or similar). Once again, reboot when done.
That's about all I can think of without knowing what you have tried and what you haven't tried out.
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Thank you, mtredheads
The first thing to try, IMO, is uninstall, reboot and then reinstall Power Point.
Zee