Issue with HP Print Driver

[JL]

I'm using Office 2003 Pro on an XP desktop. I've got a wireless network setup with an HP printer (5550) connected directly to another desktop. I periodically have problems in all Office programs (Word, excel, etc.) when performing different (non-printing) actions. For example, the error occurs when opening some documents. It sometimes occurs when changing font attributes in other documents. The likely cause I get when I send the error report is that "The error was likely caused by: Hewlett-Packard Printer Driver".

I have downloaded the most recent available driver from HP. The problem is intermittent (but often enough to be more than a nuisance). And no other products on the system are having print-driver problems. Anyone have any ideas what this could be?

JL

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi J.L.,

You didnt' mention what the error or error message is so it's a little tougher to diagnose You could have a corrupted printer
driver and removing all the bits of the HP driver after uninstalling it then restarting before installing the latest driver might
help or you may want to try one of the HP beta drivers that address specific issues.
http://hp.com/pond/ljbeta/index.html

========
I'm using Office 2003 Pro on an XP desktop. I've got a wireless network setup with an HP printer (5550) connected directly to
another desktop. I periodically have problems in all Office programs (Word, excel, etc.) when performing different (non-printing)
actions. For example, the error occurs when opening some documents. It sometimes occurs when changing font attributes in other
documents. The likely cause I get when I send the error report is that "The error was likely caused by: Hewlett-Packard Printer
Driver".

I have downloaded the most recent available driver from HP. The problem is intermittent (but often enough to be more than a
nuisance). And no other products on the system are having print-driver problems. Anyone have any ideas what this could be?

JL>>
--
I hope this helps you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

The Office 2003 System parts explained
http://microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.asp

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi JL,

This could be caused by not having the printer driver installed
locally.

Office applications query the printer driver during various operations
such as to obtain font list or if you open a document in Word it
queries the driver to obtain the printable area for pagination, etc.

If you are using a network printer driver and if it is not available
then the errors you describe can occur.

Remove the printer and add it back using the Add Printer Wizard so the
driver will be installed locally.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

I'm using Office 2003 Pro on an XP desktop. I've got a wireless

network setup with an HP printer (5550) connected directly to another
desktop. I periodically have problems in all Office programs (Word,
excel, etc.) when performing different (non-printing) actions. For
example, the error occurs when opening some documents. It sometimes
occurs when changing font attributes in other documents. The likely
cause I get when I send the error report is that "The error was likely
caused by: Hewlett-Packard Printer Driver".

I have downloaded the most recent available driver from HP. The

problem is intermittent (but often enough to be more than a nuisance).
And no other products on the system are having print-driver problems.
Anyone have any ideas what this could be?

 

[JL]

Thanks for the response. The driver is installed locally. I think I've discovered a pattern. The problems only seem to occur if the printer itself is turned off.

 

[Bungalow Bill]

OK, I am sick and tired of messing around with this. Here is my setup. Toshiba notebook on a wireless LAN using Linksys router technology, going to a Compaq Desktop that is connected directly to a HP 7130 Office jet. You would think that this is a pretty good setup and that I should have no problems running XP on the notebook with Office 2003 and on the desktop running Windows 98. The problem is not Windows 98 - trust me

Whenever I took my computer on the road and the home network was unavailable - using any MS product (wordpad, excel, word, powerpoint and so on) produced so many errors it was insane to try and get any work done. Of course, as a lamb being led to the slaughter, I called Microsoft about the issue. They of course said it was everyone elses fault! So off I went to be slaughtered with frustration, poor product support, and no fixes! Days and weeks went by and still I was bleeding badly.

I actually thought it was me (you know those voices that say it might be YOUR computer setup) and pulled out the yellow pages and came close to seeking psychiatric help as I began to think I was making this all up

I went through all the hoops, reinstalls of drivers, Office 2003, even system reinstalls and the slaughter now with the madman laughter continued (inside my head).

It turns out the above posts are correct in how Office 2003 works. It querys the printer or printer driver for information. If the printer is off, or offline, or unavailable YOU WILL HAVE ERRORS in the MS programs - but I have found it is only these programs you will have problems

So I did the local install driver install and pointed it to my printer through the shared path (not through an local LPT port) and thought the slaughter was over, but no, it continued as I went to Borders to enjoy a nice productive day - the errors came back! Remember Office 2003 does not like it when the printer is offline or unavailable

My solution so far until I find a "better" way is to install TWO drivers - yes TWO drivers. When the wireless network is available I make the default the networked printer icon - it does not make a difference if this is locally installed. However, if I am on the road and unable to access the networks or shared printer and it is unavailable or "offline", before I start ANY MS Office program I will go into the printers folder and switch the default to the "local" printer which looks like it is attached to LPT1 - even though there wikll never be a printer attached to this port for my configuration. So, when I am on the orad, MS Office sees the driver installed locally and does not need to go any further in determining if the printer is offline or not. This has seemed to work for me

Dont know about you. But you might want to give it a try. So the moral to this story is I have two drivers installed - one points to a network printer and the other points to a local port (LPT1). If I am on the road after bootup I will swtich the default printer to the local printer - when I am at home I will switch to the network printer.

I have pretty muched tried everything...any more solutions will be helpful like how to eliminate this extra step of switching default printers to get this ridiculous program to work when the printer is offline or unavailable would be helpful. Just be aware I have tried lots and lots of ways and heard lots and lots of "solutions" :