Soft, strong and very, very long
I get the following error message from my Epson Stylus Color 600 under Windows 98 while printing something:
'Error while spooling to "". Unable to create a new spool job'. That's followed by this from Serif PagePlus Paper Publishing: 'Print failure (code 0 -ffffffffff). Check to ensure your printer is connected and properly set up, or restart Windows to reset the printer.There are a number of things that can cause printer problems, and you need to try to isolate the cause. Here are some suggestions of things you can try, after having confirmed that the printer is indeed connected properly.
I'd kick off by simply trying to print the printer's test page, because if that doesn't work, there's no point looking at the program trying to print as the cause of the problem. Similarly, I'd try printing from Windows Notepad, because if that works then you're perhaps looking at a problem with Serif PagePlus, rather than with the printer itself.
I'd also want to know that I had the absolutely latest Windows 98 printer drivers for that printer. I also recommend you check how much free hard disk space you have, because you'll be amazed at how quickly it can vanish -if you don't have enough for the printer to spool to, you won't get your print job.
If none of that helps, check out the support areas of the Serif and Epson Web sites, and if nothing there helps, sending an email to their support departments might provide a solution.
On trying to upgrade Window s 2000 with SP-I, I get an error message saying that the service pack can't be installed because the print spooler service isn't started. This probably explains why the printer isn't working, which was why I was trying to install the service pack in the first place. Is this a vicious circle situation, or do you know a way out of it?
Fortunately, this isn't a vicious circle, and all you need to do to solve both your problems is to start the Print Spooler service, so:
1 Click Start - Programs - Administrative Tools.
2 Click on the Component Services item.
3 When the Component Services MMC console opens, click on the Services (local) icon and look down the list that appears in the right-hand window for Print Spooler.
4 If the Startup Type entry is set to Disabled, you'll need to change that to Manual or Automatic (I recommend Automatic), otherwise you won't be able to start the service. If it's already set to Automatic or Manual, move to the next step.
5 Right-click on the entry and choose Start from the pop-up menu, or select the item by clicking on it and then hit the Start arrow in the toolbar above. You can also click on the Action menu and select Start from there.
When I boot my Panrix 350MHz Pentium II running Windows 98 SE, it causes an error message on the display of the HP LJ 4 + attached to it, as follows: '22 Par IO Error. I can also reproduce this error message by choosing System/Device manager, from with Control Panel and clicking Refresh.
I've also noticed this with other printers as well, which generally print out hearts. This only started happening when Windows 98 was installed; it didn't happen with Windows 95, though I don't know whether it would have done with later versions of that operating system. I've asked HP if they know of a solution, but they seem to be reluctant to assist.
I've no idea why Hewlett-Packard couldn't help you, because I found the solution on its Web site quite quickly. It appears that a file named DRVWPPQT. VXD causes the problem, and the cure is to find all instances of the file and rename it to DRVWPPQT.OLD, thus disabling it. This apparently solves the problem, unless you have a tape backup device that connects to the parallel port on your system, as this file is the one that holds the code used to detect backup devices attached to parallel ports. If you do use such a device, there are a couple of workarounds on offer. One is to slow down the rate that data gets sent to the printer, as well as turning off bi-directional capabilities; the other is to change the AutoContinue setting on the printer. A trip to this URL will walk you through the steps need to carry out either of those workarounds: http://support.hp.com/showpage/id/bpl03587.html
Why is it that my print jobs sometimes show the number of pages being printed, and on other occasions show how many bytes of data are being processed?
This has to do with how the data is sent to the printer, specifically what the Spool Data Format is set to: if its set to RAW or you're printing to a PostScript printer, the print job will be displayed in terms of size as opposed to number of pages. This also applies if you're printing across a network, as Windows 95 (and, I presume, also Windows 98) sends the print data in RAW format.
If the Print Spool Data format is set to EMF (Enhanced Meta File) and you're sending the job to a local printer, then Windows 9x appears not to know what the size is, so it displays the number of pages printed instead. Windows 2000, as you can see from the screen shot, is happy to show both the number of pages and the size of the job; in this instance, a Word document to a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet.
I seem to be unable to print from Outlook 2000 or IE5 under Windows 98. The error message is the same in both cases:
general protection fault in GDI.EXE at DD05:DDDD0136
As GDI.EXE seems to have something to do with displays, is it a display driver problem? I currently have a Creative GeForce MX but the error was present with my previous Voodoo 3000 card though not (as I remember) with the Diamond Viper I had before that.
Well that's unusual most people seem to get that kind of error when printing from Word 2000. It is a documented bug, which occurs when Office 2000 is used in combination with the original version of Windows 98. According to Microsoft it occurs only when you try to print a large document (more than 50,000 characters) using a font such as Tahoma, which contains more than 1,024 'glyphs', to a HP LaserJet III printer. I suspect that there are other situations that can cause it.
While the module name in the error message isn't always the module that contains the error, it is in this instance. GDI.EXE is one of the core components of Windows and contains the Graphics Devices Interface, which handles printers as well as displays.
I strongly suggest that you update your Windows 98 with the service pack to bring it up to Windows 98 SE versions. Also, if you haven't already done so, obtain and apply the Office 2000 service pack 1 (there is a service pack 2 but this is only needed if you have the problems listed in its documentation).
Meanwhile, there's a version of GDI.EXE (version 4.10.2000) with a specific fix for this problem, which can be downloaded from Microsoft at www.download.microsoftcom/download/win98/Update/220460/W98/ENUS/220460_98up.exe
If you have installed Windows 98 SE, you already have version 4.10.2222 and should not install this update.
I'm using Visual Basic 4 Professional (32bit) to create a text editor. It has an MDl interface. I have two problems. I use this code to print a document
Printer.Print Text1.Text
Printer.EndDoc
The document prints out but I can't figure out how to control the margins of the page. The second problem is that if a second instance of the program is run I can't get files specified on the command line to open in the current instance.
Both these problems have cropped up in the Visual Programming column before. The Printer object is fairly low-Ievel and there is no easy way to set margins. What you can do is to specify where output should begin using the CurrentX and CurrentY properties. Co-ordinates are in twips (twentieth of a point) by default, or can be specified. You will need to print line-by-line to get this working.
To get documents opening in a running instance of the application, you need to have your application check for a previous instance when it starts up, and if found send a message to it that includes the required file name. WM_COPYDATA is suitable, since it can carry data across process boundaries.
I can't print any HTML files from Windows Explorer, and I know I used to be able to right-click on the file, select Printer and away it went. Any ideas?
This is a known problem that can occur after you install Microsoft Office 2000.
What's happened is that the print command for HTM and HTML files has been changed to:
"E:\Program Files\MicrosoftOffice\Office\msohtmed.exe" /p %1 when it used to read:
rundl132.exe
C:\windows\system32\mshtml.dll,PrintHTML "%1"
To sort this out, follow these steps:
Go to My Computer - Tools - Folder Options.
Click on the File Types tab, and then scroll down the Registered File Types box looking for the HTM file extension. Select it by clicking on it and then click on the Advanced button. Scroll through the Actions box until you find Print; select it and then click on Edit. Replace the line created by Office with that 'rundll32...' line above instead (obviously changed to reflect the name of your own Windows folder).
After that you've got a few OK buttons to click on, and you're done.
I have Office 2000 installed, but this problem hasn't affected me and I can happily print from Windows Explorer, so unless you're suffering from the same problem as this there's no need to make this change.
I've just bought a new digital camera, a Fuji FinePix 4900, and as my printer is quite old (an Epson Stylus 600) I would like to upgrade but I am unsure what I should get.
I have looked at the Hewlett-Packard 990Cxi and the Epson 880 and 980. The printer will be used mostly to print photos so I am more concerned with picture quality. Can you tell me which printer will give the best picture quality? Are there any benefits from a printer such as the Hewlett-Packard 1218, which enables the smart card to be inserted into the printer as opposed to connecting the camera to my computer?
The HP Photosmart 1200 series (1215 and 1218) is the best option for photo-quality printing. Printing directly from a smart media card can be a great advantage, as you don't have to transfer pictures to your PC first. Both the other printers you mention are good quality all-rounders (the HP 990Cxi slightly better), but neither is as good for photo reproduction.
I'm finding that my inkjet is now no longer useful for my business. What would be the best upgrade option?
Many businesses have found that the inkjet they purchased with the first round of computers no longer provides the required quality or the speed. The obvious answer is to invest in a laser printer of some description. These will prove to be much quicker and cheaper to run than an inkjet and produce far better quality, but have a higher initial outlay. With a price range from £200 to £10,000, it is obviously important that you buy the one that suits your needs best. For a small business, a black and white printer with a medium ppm rating will suffice. There are many to choose from and not much between them, but judging from our laser Labs in Shopper 136, the Kyocera EcoSys FS 1750+ at £610 is well suited to the small office, very cheap to run and hugely expandable, should your business grow. If this seems a little on the steep side, you may want to consider the H-P Laserjet 2100, which at £490 is considerably cheaper initially, but has much higher running costs than the Kyocera.
Soft, strong and very, very long
I have two printers: an excellent Lexmark 5700 inkjet, which does 1,200x1,200dpi colour photos quite well, and an HP5MP 600x600 mono laser. Why does the Lexmark driver print paper no longer than 432mm and the HP 14"?
Some Epsons are fitted with roll feed, so I can't see the need for this limit. Is there a way round this? In text it might be possible to skip perforations but it's unlikely with graphics. Also, the Windows 5MP driver says 81/2x54.61" is the maximum, but the printer jams at 14 inches. I usually use the 5P-5MP driver or 5MPPS, both of which have a maximum size of 81/2X14".
The answer is simply that inkjet printers were designed to emulate laser printers and laser printers build up a page image in memory before printing it. Although an inkjet print driver sends details to the printer one line of dots at a time, the PC sends information to the print driver one page at a time. There has to be enough memory reserved to hold a complete page, which implies a fixed maximum page size. The size of the page will be determined by the driver writer: 14x81/2" is the US legal paper size.
I recently bought a Hewlett Packard DeskJet 930c colour printer. It gives what I consider to be very good results, but there is a problem: my DeskJet 520 no longer works since installing the 930 software. It just prints pages full of junk. I should make it clear that I am not trying to use both printers on the same port at the same time. I swap the printers as needed and, of course, select the appropriate printer in whichever application I am using. I wonder if you can suggest a troubleshooting approach that I could take to fix the problem.
Trying to operate two different printers on the same port won't work very well. The problem is that most recent HP printers use the port in bi-directional mode to check on printer status, so they can warn you when the printer runs out of paper or has other problems. That software gets loaded automatically (usually from the 'Run=' line in the Win.ini file). Your old DeskJet 520 doesn't use this software but it will still get in the way. Your best solution is to operate the two printers on separate ports - either by adding a second parallel port to the computer or by using the USB port on your new HP 930c. According to Hewlett-Packard, using the USB port may require upgrading to Windows 98 or later as the USB port support in Windows 95 OSR2 is somewhat buggy. Some users have found that they can get a USB printer working in Windows 95 by adding the Microsoft USB Supplement. If that's not possible, you will have to disable bi-directional printing. The printer will still print fine but you won't get status messages nagging you to align cartridges or whatever. The method of doing this depends on the particular printer and driver version (see details in www.hp.com/cposupport/ printers/support_doc/bpd06455.html) but on most HP printers you will need to find and run the configuration utility, which will have a name of pattern: HP?CNFIG.EXE (where the missing character is a letter) or HPFCFG??.EXE (where the missing characters are numbers). The newer DeskJet 640c, 840c, 930c, 950c and 970c series use a different approach. On these you need to open the HP DeskJet Toolbox, click the printer icon located in the top-left corner of the Toolbar and then click About. Next comes the tricky part: you have to hold down the Ctrl key while double-clicking the printer icon. Release the Ctrl key and make sure that the correct printer is selected. Then press the Enter key, click Continue and you should see the configuration box. If you see a button marked 'Disable HP10', click it. If it's not there (or is greyed out), select the choice under HP10 for 'Ultra-Safe' mode. Once you close the window, bi-directional mode should be disabled.
I'd like to print the contents of Device Manager in Windows 98 into a text file, but when I try this I just get unintelligible garbage.
Device Manager isn't designed to print its data in a text format to a file, but you can get around this by doing the following:
1 Start I Settings I Printers
2 Double-click on the Add Printer icon and then click Next.
3 When you're asked how the printer is attached to your computer, select Local Printer and then hit Next again.
4 Select Generic from the Manufacturers list and Generic/Text Only from the Printers list, then Next.
5 Look at the Available Ports list and click on FILE, then Next.
6 Tell Windows you don't want to use this printer as your default printer, and turn down the option to see a test page.
Now that you have your printer set up, you can turn your attention to printing the contents of Device Manager. Right-click on the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties from the pop-up menu. Select the Device Manager tab and then click on the Print button. Decide which report type you want, select it by clicking on the appropriate option button - not forgetting that to print the report type you've chosen you must click on that device first on the Device Manager tab. When you've done all that, click on the Setup button and then select Generic/ Text Only on FILE and OK. Give your intended output file a name when prompted to do so, then OK. To print the output file after it appears, double-click on it and then select Notepad from the Open With dialog, which will load the contents of the PRN file you just created into Notepad. Once its there, you can print it out as you'd print any other text document from Notepad.