When trying to print in WORD or Excel 2007 no printer appears in box even though they are installed
We're having a very strange issue after upgrading to Office 2007. This happens randomly on 13 Windows XP SP3 with 1 GB mem networked machines, running Office 2007 SP2. Users with roaming profiles use these machines and it doesn't happen every time they login and is not specific to any one user. When you open a document in word or excel and click quick print or go the long way, no printer appears in the box. If you select the drop down you see the printers but when you click on one the program crashes and gives you an error that says there is a problem with the printer setup and restarts. It does this when you select any of the printers we have networked or local printers. I have updated to the latest and greatest windows patches, updated print drivers, reinstalled a couple of printers on the network, reset all the print permissions, created new roaming profiles, and uninstalled and reinstalled office on 2 machines. Occasionally rebooting the machine fixes the problem for a few days anyway. The problem does not happen to any of the users that do not have roaming profiles but were still upgraded to Office 2007. Anyone have any ideas?
This sometimes happens to users who have had their default printer deleted. Try reselecting the default printer, and then see if it still happens.
ASKER
Hi, Thanks but all of our networked printers have fixed IP addresses.
ASKER
ok I tried reselecting the default printer. no change. Thanks!
What AV software are you running on these computers?
ASKER
We are running Symantec Endpoint Protection V 11.0.4014.26
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Thank you Jorzech. I looked at the links you posted but we are not using Intel Netports and we have the latest version of endpoint. Also this problem did not happen until after we upgraded from Office XP to Office 2007 and Endpoint was installed when we were working with Office XP. Therefore I am pretty certain that it is Office causing the problem. Also if the problem happens and you go to the printers folder you can see all the printers installed. If you right click and go to properties you are able to print a test page. It's only from within an application that the print box is blank and if you pick a printer from the dropdown box whichever office application you are in will crash. This ONLY happens in Office applications all other programs can print just fine. for example Adobe.
I've actually seen this happen before and I appreciate your clarification of the conditions. That makes troubleshooting MUCH easier. Let me see what else I can find about it....
What's your OS? Vista? Did that change recently too?
ASKER
No the OS did not change. We are using XP SP3 on all the machines affected. Hopefully I will never have to use Vista. Thanks !
ASKER
Also I want to reiterate that this only happens on the machines (13) that have users using roaming profiles, the other machines running the same software in our office are assigned to only one person. These machines have not had this issue at all.
I found a similar problem but not sure if the circumstances are the same.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21427353/losing-printers-in-citrix.html?anchorAnswerId=14178218#a14178218
If that doesn't help, I will request other experts advice.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21427353/losing-printers-in-citrix.html?anchorAnswerId=14178218#a14178218
If that doesn't help, I will request other experts advice.
ASKER
Thanks again. I tested what you posted here but still no effect. We aren't using Citrix but I thought I would give it a shot anyway. My issue happened again yesterday on a machine I thought I had fixed once already but its back again now. I can't believe no one else is having this issue. Thanks for your suggestions thus far.
ummm... just a quick clarification: how about to print from other other applications, or from control panel for the test page...
What server OS?
Do you have printer/share pruning disabled?
Do you have printer/share pruning disabled?
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To bbao: The information you asked for is in my posts earlier but yes we can print from other applications, like Adobe for instance and test pages just not Office 2007 (Word. excel, outlook etc)
To Wyliecoyoteuk- Windows Server 2003, no printer/share pruning is not disabled. We did not have the problem today but I will run nbtstat next time. Yes the printers are shared from the server. Thanks for the suggestion....
To Wyliecoyoteuk- Windows Server 2003, no printer/share pruning is not disabled. We did not have the problem today but I will run nbtstat next time. Yes the printers are shared from the server. Thanks for the suggestion....
> Users with roaming profiles use these machines
only roaming profiles are effected??
> it doesn't happen every time they login and is not specific to any one user.
> We did not have the problem today
and it does happen randomly??
how about other printers or other roaming users such as Mandatory profiles? never happened?
only roaming profiles are effected??
> it doesn't happen every time they login and is not specific to any one user.
> We did not have the problem today
and it does happen randomly??
how about other printers or other roaming users such as Mandatory profiles? never happened?
ASKER
It seems this issue was caused when we upgraded from Adobe and Office. They were run at the same time. A fresh install seems to have solved the problem and I have tested it for 7 days now. Though I am not sure why. Thanks for all your help and good suggestions. I appreciate it.
Well I'm sure it's a relief that all is well FINALLY! :)
Thank you.
Joanne Orzech
MS Word MVP
EE Zone Advisor
Thank you.
Joanne Orzech
MS Word MVP
EE Zone Advisor
http://www.vistax64.com/vi