From: R. Davis (woodsend7_at_hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jul 15 2002 - 11:44:14 EDT
OK, this is OT except for the fact that it happens on a A20p that I've had
for a year and that has been an excellent and trouble-free machine. But I'm
totally baffled by the problem and seek the collective wisdom of this group.
I'm running W98SE. Suddenly (ie, due to no particular event or change I can
recall), it will no longer print to several specific network printers at
work, while continuing to print to others. (Local printers have continued to
work fine.)
When I try to print from e.g., Word, Word will go thru its usual printing
behavior and the printer icon shows in the system tray (ie, no error msgs
from Word or Windows), but when doubleclicked the printer icon shows nothing
in the queue, and nothing ever shows on the network printer. (Problem is
printer-specific, not program-specific; other programs fail in the same way
on that printer.) The printers that don't work for me work fine for others.
Diagnostic steps:
Deleted relevant printers and reinstalled with fresh drivers. No change.
A different machine plugged into my ethernet drop prints to those printers,
so network connection is ok. When using my wireless card the behavior is
the same (ie same printers work, same don't work), so network is not the
problem.
Tried printing to a file, capturing a printer port, and from DOS copying the
file to the captured printer port. DOS always reports the file copied just
fine, but while this works fine for the printers that work for me, the bits
just disappear for the troublesome printers.
One of the printers that works is the same model as one that doesn't, so I
tried changing just the port setting on the working printer, pointing it to
the non-working port/printer. Doesn't print. Conversely, changing just the
port setting on the non-working printer to point to the working printer port
allows me to print to the working printer when output is pointed to the
non-working printer. ("working" of course means I can print to it;
"non-working" means I can't; the printers work fine for others).
The problem thus appears isolated to the port: Windows thinks it's printing
successfully to those network printers/ports, but the bits are disappearing
into the ether. Oh yes, all these printers are shared off the same print
server machine, yet even so some work for me and some don't.
The only possible thing I can recall that might have happened around the
time those printers stopped working for me is that I briefly enabled the IR
link so I could transfer a powerpoint file from someone else's computer to
mine. I have no idea why how/whether that could have created a problem, but
I've run out of all plausible explanations.
I've spent quite a few hours on this and am entirely baffled. Suggestions
and/or additional diagnostic steps most welcome.
thanks
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