G
Guest
I'd appreciate help and ideas! Have been using a 3+ year old Pentium III
Dell Desktop (running Windows XP Home Edition with all latest patches) with
two printers, and HP Deskjet 870Cxi (for text) and a Epson RX600 All-in-one
(for photos). The Epson uses USB connection and the HP uses parallel LPT.
This has been working fine for the last year or more.
Recently we noticed a problem when trying to print from any of the 4
non-default (all have administrative rights) usersto the HP. Whnever they
try to print anything from WORD, Outlook/Email, WordPad, Notepad, or the DOS
print command, the printer goes through its normal paces and "sounds" like it
is printing all of the lines just fine. Unfortunately, the page(s) thjat get
ejected are completely blank, just as if the printer had printed everything
on the page in white ink on the white background instead of using black ink.
What is really strange here is that non-text files from Powerpoint seem to
print fine. In addition, the default user account (mine, which also is an
administrator) prints everything perfectly from all these applications. As
another data point in this mystery, the Epson USB printer seems to work fine
from all user accounts.
What I have tried to do to fix the problem (unsuccessfully):
1. While logged in under my account, I deleted the HP printer from the
control panel and the LPT port from the device manager. I then restarted the
PC and let Windows discover the hardware port and printer and then
automatically reinstall the HP Deskjet 870C drivers. After this action, my
default user account also exhibited the same inability to print problem.
2. I then used the system checkpoint capability to restore the backup from
August 3 (as far back as it would go). After restarting the PC, the default
user account once again could print, but none of the other accounts changed
their behavior so were still not able to print to the HP.
3. I then performed Windows Updates to bring the restored copy back to the
latest available patches. I also updated Macafee Antivirus since this too
had been corrupted by the previous system restore. I then ran Lavasoft
Adaware on all user accounts and Registry Mechanic to assure everything was
perfectly clean.
This brought the system back to pretty much the same point as when I started.
4. I then tried to uninstall the printer from the control panel, but this
time did it from my wife's (non-default user) account. After restarting the
system and re-discovering the printer, the default user avccount still could
print fine, but the other user accounts showed no change in behavior.
I have scheduled a check disk utility to look for corrupt files on the next
system start up, but otherwise, I am stumped on what is different between the
user accounts that could result in the printing problem I am seeing. Ideas
are very much appreciated so thanks much in advance for your thoughts.
Bob
Dell Desktop (running Windows XP Home Edition with all latest patches) with
two printers, and HP Deskjet 870Cxi (for text) and a Epson RX600 All-in-one
(for photos). The Epson uses USB connection and the HP uses parallel LPT.
This has been working fine for the last year or more.
Recently we noticed a problem when trying to print from any of the 4
non-default (all have administrative rights) usersto the HP. Whnever they
try to print anything from WORD, Outlook/Email, WordPad, Notepad, or the DOS
print command, the printer goes through its normal paces and "sounds" like it
is printing all of the lines just fine. Unfortunately, the page(s) thjat get
ejected are completely blank, just as if the printer had printed everything
on the page in white ink on the white background instead of using black ink.
What is really strange here is that non-text files from Powerpoint seem to
print fine. In addition, the default user account (mine, which also is an
administrator) prints everything perfectly from all these applications. As
another data point in this mystery, the Epson USB printer seems to work fine
from all user accounts.
What I have tried to do to fix the problem (unsuccessfully):
1. While logged in under my account, I deleted the HP printer from the
control panel and the LPT port from the device manager. I then restarted the
PC and let Windows discover the hardware port and printer and then
automatically reinstall the HP Deskjet 870C drivers. After this action, my
default user account also exhibited the same inability to print problem.
2. I then used the system checkpoint capability to restore the backup from
August 3 (as far back as it would go). After restarting the PC, the default
user account once again could print, but none of the other accounts changed
their behavior so were still not able to print to the HP.
3. I then performed Windows Updates to bring the restored copy back to the
latest available patches. I also updated Macafee Antivirus since this too
had been corrupted by the previous system restore. I then ran Lavasoft
Adaware on all user accounts and Registry Mechanic to assure everything was
perfectly clean.
This brought the system back to pretty much the same point as when I started.
4. I then tried to uninstall the printer from the control panel, but this
time did it from my wife's (non-default user) account. After restarting the
system and re-discovering the printer, the default user avccount still could
print fine, but the other user accounts showed no change in behavior.
I have scheduled a check disk utility to look for corrupt files on the next
system start up, but otherwise, I am stumped on what is different between the
user accounts that could result in the printing problem I am seeing. Ideas
are very much appreciated so thanks much in advance for your thoughts.
Bob