Unable to Print from non-Default Administrative XP HE Users

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
 
G

Guest

Try uninstalling the drivers via Add/Remove programs. Then goto HP's website
download the latest drivers, and install them. If there is no HP printer
listed in add/remove, then just remove the printer from the printer folder,
and install with new downloaded drivers.
 
G

Guest

Criscar,

Even though this is pretty much what I'd done previously, I tried what you
suggested without success.

HP web site says that there are no unique drivers/software and users should
use the Windows XP SW and drivers.

I deleted the HP printer from the control panel, then clicked on the add new
printer and let Windows automatically detect the printer as suggested on the
HP web site. This went fine and I was able to print the test page at the
conclusion of the installation, BUT I still was not able to print anything
from Word, MS Outlook Express, etc. NOTE: Although I failed to mention this,
the test page print worked fine previously when logged in as any user.

The interesting twist here is that after doing this process, I can no longer
print from my account (the default user). I will now do another system
recovery to get back to where I was earlier in the day.

Does anyone know what would be different in the SW execution for printing
between these different users. It does not apear to me that it is the
printer driver causing the problem.

Bob
 
G

Guest

Cari,

Thanks for the response. I've had Macafee Antivrus (Macafee Security Center
and Macafee VirusScan are the two specific programs shown under add/remove
programs in the control panel) loaded on this particular computer for at
least 24 months and it has not caused any problems ... at least that I knew
of anyway. I do constantly upgrade Macafee to keep the DATs and the
application SW current though, so it is possible that an application update
might have caused this issue. FYI, the currently loaded version of Macafee
Virusscan is 10.0, build 10.0.27, Engine Version 5100, DAT Version 4862 and
the DAT file was created 9/28/2006.

Why do you suspect Macafee and is there any way I can either prove or
disprove it is the issue? Any other thoughts on hat I could try?

Bob
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top