Twist on Default Printer

[alovhaug]

I see that there are a lot of problems related to default printers in
Vista, but so far I haven't seen my particular issue described, so I
thought I'd give it a go and see if anyone else has a solution.

My issue is this: I have four printers defined. Two are PDF printers
(don't ask - one was automatically installed by some software), and
two are defined as local printers with a standard TCP/IP port. I am
using Vista 64 bit (and when I was using 32 bit, the problem did not
occur).

When I first boot up my system, I am able to print fine to either a
PDF printer or a TCP/IP printer. At some point, I stop being able to
print. The error reported is different depending on the software, but
the report with the most information is "An error (507) occurred
during the action Print. There is no default printer. Install and/or
select a printer from the Control Panel and try again."

Of course, a default printer is selected. I've tried changing to
different default printers without success. I've also tried deleting
and recreating the printers without success. Rebooting the computer
allows me to print again. I'm also able to switch users and log in as
the administrator, and that seems to work (but that is fairly
inconvenient).

Any suggestions?

 

[Alan Morris [MSFT]]

Are the applications experiencing the issue 32 and 64 bit applications or
only the 32bit applications? There is a 64 to 32 bit application
(splwow64.exe) that controls the printing transition from the 32bit layer to
the 64bit spooler.

verify this application is still running when you experience the failure


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941962/en-us
You experience problems when you try to print a document in a 32-bit program
on a computer that is running a 64-bit version of Windows Vista

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[alovhaug]

It is possible that the applications are 32 bit, but I'm not sure it
is limited to that. The applications include Quicken 2008 (pretty sure
this is 32 bit), Word, Excel and Visio 2007 (wouldn't they be 64
bit?), and Internet Explorer (wouldn't that be a 64 bit version?)

My suspicion is that it is something that happens in Quicken that
totally messes up printing for other applications, but that is just a
guess. If I felt more confident that Quicken was the culprit, I'd
consider moving it to a virtual machine, although that would make it
painful to use. Then again, with the printing give me fits it already
hurts (since most of my printing needs involve printing invoices).

I don't suppose the hot-fix is part of SP1? The described symptoms
don't exactly match my situation, but since you pointed it out perhaps
it would fix it anyway?

--Avonelle