Correcting Specific Printing Problems

This section describes problems or errors that might occur when printing, and explains how to fix them.

You cannot print to a local or network printer.

• Clear the print buffer. Turn the printer's power off, wait about five seconds, then turn the printer on, and try printing again.
• Try printing a test page.
• Verify that there is paper in the printer, that the printer is not jammed, and that there are no problems with the printer cartridge or toner.
• Trying printing to a file.
• If you can print to a file, try copying the file to the printer port (for local printers).

To copy a file to a printer port

• At the MS-DOS prompt, type
• copy /b filename lpt1:

  The switch /b directs the system to print a binary file.

If copying the file to the printer port prints the document correctly, the problem is in the communication between Windows 95 and the printer. Check the following (and consult your printer's documentation as needed for further information):

• Check the printer, making sure it is plugged in, turned on, and online.
• Check the printer's self-test program.
• Check the printer connection and printer cable.
• Check the printer configuration.

You cannot print because of a network-specific printing problem.

• Make sure other network resources are available.
• Try connecting over the network to the print server.
• Try removing and adding network protocols.

If you still cannot print, the printer driver might not be working correctly.

You cannot print because of a printer driver.

To check the printer driver in the Printers Folder

1. Right-click the printer's icon, click Properties, and then click Details.
2. In the Details properties, verify that the driver name is correct.
3. Click the Paper tab, and then click the About button. Verify that the driver version is the same as the one listed in the manual from the printer manufacturer.
   • Try printing using another printer driver. For example, use the Generic/Text Only or Generic Laser Printer driver. If this works, check the driver version, and either reinstall or upgrade the driver.
   • Try printing from the MS-DOS command prompt to determine whether the description for the printer driver in the Registry is invalid.

To fix the Registry description for the printer driver

• Remove the current printer driver and reinstall it.

If you still cannot print, an application might be conflicting with the printer driver.

You cannot print because of an application conflict.

1. Try printing from a different application.
2. If successful, check the failing application's configuration, and reinstall the application if needed.

If you still cannot print, determine whether you have a spooling problem.

You cannot print because of spooler problems.

To disable all spooling and print directly to the port

1. In the Printers Folder, right-click the printer's icon, click Properties, and then click Details.
2. In the Details properties, click Spool Settings.
3. In the Spool Settings dialog box, click Print Directly To The Printer.

If you can print, there is a spooling problem; do the following to correct it:

• Use scandisk to check disk integrity and disk space.
• Disable EMF spooling and enable RAW spooling, as described in "Enhanced Metafile Spooling Support" earlier in this chapter, and then retry printing. EMF spooling is enabled by default for all non-PostScript printers.

You cannot print to a printer shared using a server from a network vendor other than Microsoft.

Redirect LPT1 to the shared printer, and then run the Add Printer wizard to set up the printer on LPT1. For example, if a network printer is connected to LPT1, type the following at the MS-DOS prompt:

netuse lpt1: \\servername\sharename 

This command depends on the network you are using; consult network documentation to find out how to redirect an LPT port, and then use the Add Printer wizard in Control Panel to set up the printer on the LPT port.

You cannot access remote NetWare servers when making a dial-up connection.

This problem occurs when the computer making the remote connection is also running File and Print Sharing for NetWare Networks. In this case, the File and Printer Sharing service automatically becomes the default server, but it cannot receive the information needed to find the remote servers. To avoid this problem, disable File and Printer Sharing for NetWare Networks before you make the dial-up connection.

You cannot print because of a bidirectional printer problem.

To disable bidirectional printing support in the Printers folder

1. Double-click a printer's icon, click Properties, and then click Details.
2. In the Details properties, click Spool Settings.
3. In the Spool Settings dialog box, click Disable Bi-Directional Support For This Printer.

If you can now print successfully, make sure you have a 1284-compliant printer cable.

Graphic images don't print correctly or output is garbled.

• Start the computer in Safe Mode, and then retry printing.
• Disable Enhanced Metafile spooling.
• Print with a PostScript driver, if supported by the printer. If this prints, then the problem is a UNIDRV.DLL error.
• If PostScript fails, there's either a problem with the GDI or with the application. To verify that it is an application problem try printing another file or try printing from another application.
• Try printing shorter jobs or fewer jobs at a time. If you are printing a long document or several documents, the spooler may be printing one page over another.
• If the graphic is in PostScript (EPS) format, try copying the PostScript file to the printer.
• For a PostScript printer, try changing from vector-graphics to raster-graphics mode. Raster-graphics mode uses less memory.

The printer partially prints pages.

• If the printed page is missing part of a graphic image, this may mean that the printer has insufficient memory. To check for insufficient printer memory, try reducing print resolution.
• Try printing the same graphic image from a different document and application.
• Check the printable region by running a print test from the printer.
• If the printed page is missing a section of text, check the font that is used, and verify that the font is valid and correctly installed (check the Fonts folder).
• Try printing from a different document with the same font.
• Try printing from the same document with a different font.
• Try enabling Print TrueType As Graphics.
• Try simplifying the page by reducing the number of objects, such as lines, or reduce the number of fonts.

Printing is slower than normal.

• Start the computer in Safe Mode, and then retry printing.
• Verify that EMF spooling is enabled.

You can also try the following:

• Use the Disk Defragmenter utility to check for excessive hard disk fragmentation, and defragment the hard disk drive.
• Check for available disk space for temporary files.
• Check for available system resources.
• Check the printer driver and reinstall it, if necessary.
• Disable the option to send TrueType fonts as bitmaps, as described in the following procedure.

To disable printing TrueType fonts as bitmaps

1. Right-click the printer's icon, and then click Properties.
2. Click Fonts, and then click Send Fonts As.
3. In the Send Fonts As dialog box, click Outlines, and then click OK.

The computer stalls while printing.

To troubleshoot a computer that stalls while printing to a local printer

1. Start the computer in Safe Mode, and then retry printing.
2. Check the printer driver version and reinstall the printer driver if needed.
3. Check the video driver, and reinstall the video driver if needed.
4. Check for adequate free disk space on the TEMP drive.
5. Delete residual spool files, and then retry printing. (See the procedure named "To Clear Residual Spool Files" later in this section.)

To troubleshoot a computer that stalls while printing to a network printer

1. Start the computer in Safe Mode with network support.
2. Try all but the first task in the preceding procedure.

You send a document to the printer, but nothing is printed.

• Check that the system has enough free hard disk space.
• You may need to disable Enhanced Metafile spooling.
• Check that the spooler has cleared the unprinted spool file.

To clear residual spool files

1. Delete spool jobs by deleting .SPL files in the Windows SYSTEM\SPOOL\PRINTERS directory.

   For RAW print jobs, .SPL files contain the actual printer data. For EMF print jobs, the .SPL files contain a list of EMFs that reside in the TEMP directory.

2. Check the TEMP directory and delete all .TMP files. All EMFs have filenames similar to EMFxxxxx.TMP.
3. Shut down and restart the computer, and then try printing again. Windows 95 cleans up corrupted .SPL files and their corresponding EMFs when you restart the computer.

Note An error message may appear, although it may be hidden behind other windows, when you print from a Win32-based application in Windows 95. Press alt+tab to bring this message box to the foreground of your desktop.