Invisible printing - shows in print preview (XP)

[bjg1]

There are currently three people having the cut off printing problems. They all print to different printers, but all print to HP printer models. Two people and myself print using the same print drivers (or supposed to be the same). The admin assistant is the most critical of the people having problems, because it's her job to make sure the documents look good when printed. The document that was attached is the latest document to have issues. The admin has issues but no one else has problems with the document, as you found.

We usually have all our computers set up by the same person and to meet our specifications for software set up. I have emailed the admin to see if the "Use printer..." option is checked (we would not have it checked in our software set up). The admin is printing to a unique printer. We only have a few of that model. Microsoft's support implies that our issue with printing is print drivers. We have deleted printers and reselected the network printers, which seems to help for awhile.

I believe that if the two people using the same drivers print to another printer, they do not have the problem. The admin is in a small office in another time zone. She only has one printer available.

I know that I have given you more information than you wanted, but I am at a loss for a solution. Any other ideas?

[JanB]

I don't know is this is related to your problem, but today one of our users converted a Word 97 document to PDF (with Adobe's PDF Writer) and found out that about half a page of text was missing. After taking a close look, I discovered that the problem was caused by unprintable characters used as bullets in a 4-paragraph part of the document. Correcting this solved her problem.

[bjg1]

Thanks for the info, Jan.

I checked the original document and don't find any unusual characters. The first page is a letter on letterhead (graphic logo in header); the second page has a table at the top and another at the bottom; and the third page is landscape with a table.

I converted the document to a PDF and it was fine.

Don't we just love a mystery?

[Phil Rabichow]

I've been away today, so forgive the late reply. Other than driver issues, I don't have any other ideas. You might check with HP to see if they've had these issues with some of their drivers. You can go to their site & download the latest drivers.
Cheers,

[bjg1]

Thanks, Phil.

We are using the latest drivers, which may have started the problem. We will keep looking for updates to the HP drivers. At this point drivers appear to be the like cause of our issues.

Thanks to all for your input.

[lizat]

Dear Loungers,

I roiginally raised this problem and the discusison was a useful pointer for all sorts of things. Amazingly our problem disappeared without anything being done so I could not persue the suggetsions. Anyway this has resurfaced and I cannot fix it this is the situation:

Normal A4 document it contains tables, some form field (check boxes) and some borders. It has previously printed successfully and although recently updated it was only words nothing in terms of layout. The "invisible" text varies so it is inconsistent. The document will print successfully on a different printer?! And the probelm exists with other types of document which suggests that it isn't Word but something generic. I have tried the folowing:

reboot both the local PC and the server
re-install the printer driver & usinhg the latest

unchecked the A4 resizing
reset all margins (although they looked OK)
used the printer metrics (compatibility)
none of the text is or ever has been hidden (anyway I print hidden)
have checked the MS Kwbase

since it isn't just word it must be either printer or operating system problem. on connecting theprinter to another machine and installing latest drivers we can print the documents successfully. i don't know what we've proved so far more than it's trans-application, not the driver, possibly my machine - the printer is attached directly to mine and shared, can't think it's the printer of driver as they wouldn't selectively and inconsistently print or not whole lines.

I think I'm drowning here any ideas?
liz

[jscher2000]

Liz, what printer is it, and what are the versions of Windows on the machines that do and don't print the document successfully?

Also, I'm confused because two people have described problems in this thread. Are parts of your document not printing (big1's problem) or is miscellaneous stuff appearing on your printouts?

[JTill]

To: Lizat, Maybe your problem is a lack of printer memory. The printer is just not able to process very complicated pages that require more printer memory. If you change the print quality, say from 600 dpi to 300 dpi, which means the printer receives less info, does this fix the problem on the problem pages?

I also agree with the previous observation that there are too many different problems in this thread. ....J. Till

[lizat]

John,

The printer is an HP 1300 - I don't like it it is a "domestic" printer really but somehow this office has it - its connected directly to my machine which runs Windows XP and also it is shared with others through the network, they also run Windows XP. And , yes, they sometimes get the problem too.

My problem is invisible printing not spurious additions. It feels like a driver problem but we have the latest so I'm stumped - in fact I am trying to get it replaced with a better quality printer.

thank you................... liz

[lizat]

J.

That I could diagnose, I think, but this is a problem with documents taht have previous printed fine, very small and very large.

[jscher2000]

There are two types of drivers, PCL 6 and PostScript, both of which are available for the LaserJet 1300 (maybe at this link, if it works for you). If you have tried both, perhaps there are some configuration details you can change, but if not, please try the "other" one and see if it works any better.