Canon S500: The handle is invalid

[parsifal]

Almost always when I try to print anything, XP informs me that "the handle is invalid". First this started to occur after XP had been up too long, about two hours or so, and later it became a problem that wouldn't get fixed even if PC got rebooted.
I learned that it has something to do with print spool service. Restarting this service helps once in a while, but usually it requires something more drastic like reinstalling printer drivers.

I've also read that having some HP printer drivers on computer may cause this with other printers. However, I do not have any such drivers. But: I am using HP's PC, and I've found some HP software on my hard disk installed by default. I guess it could therefore be possible that there were some hidden HP drivers on the PC, but I do not know where to look. And in any case I find it doubtful that any of such drivers were active. But you newer know...

So, if anyone can help me, I'd appreciate it.

I am using: XP Home SP1, Canon S500 and the latest drivers, and (I'm telling this because McAfee has caused some similar problems) Norton Internet Security (AV is 2004, firewall 2003), which didn't cause any problems on my previous PC and with the current printer.

[NooNoo]

Which hp is it?

Is the printer connected via usb or parallel?

[parsifal]

Which hp is it?
The PC? Pavilion t549.fi (I think only Finnish(.fi) and French(.fr) versions are available). The printer driver supposed to cause problems is that of HP4000. I, however, have never had one.

Is the printer connected via usb or parallel?
Parallel.

This is the knowledge base article I found
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=180892

Most notably the part:
NOTE: This behavior can occur when you try to print to printers other than HP4000-series printers if HP Complete Printing System for Windows is installed on the computer.
I have found no traces of it on my system.

[NooNoo]

What type of lpt1 port (parallel port) is assigned in bios? What type is it in device manager?

[parsifal]

What type of lpt1 port (parallel port) is assigned in bios? What type is it in device manager?
ECP in both.

Assigned IRQ in BIOS is 7. The device manager's port settings section under "filters' resource method" (whatever it is in English) is set to never use any interrupt. Resources section shows only two I/O ranges and a DMA channel. The DM displays no conflicts.

[NooNoo]

Uninstall the printer, remove the lpt1 entry in device manager, shut down and change it in bios to epp.

Reboot and allow windows to install the lpt port again, then reboot and install the printer again.

[parsifal]

I did as you adviced, and so far it works great. Hopefully it will stay that way. Thank you!

But how come it works?

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci212069,00.html says the following:
EPP is for non-printer peripherals. ECP is for printers and scanners.

[NooNoo]

depends on how the standard is implemented in the bios and the printer and the printer driver.

sometimes ecp standards are badly implemented and using the fall back of epp or "normal" will solve the problem because it no longer tries to use the extended capabilities which are part of the standard.

[confus-ed]

Many bioses have a setting 'ecp/epp' (so both at 'once') for lpt1, if you can then use this setting, as it gives you benefits both ways around, it'll first try & use the simplest way & only call extended fuctions when the port signals 'no function' back, as a rule of thumb (when its present) its good, its how I set bios in any new board when I don't know what might get connected to it (Hp printers will always try & use ecp fuctions as they wrote the standard a very nerdy link about ecp (http://www.technick.net/public/code/index.php?load_page=http%3A//www.technick.net/public/code/cp_dpage.php%3Faiocp_dp%3Dpinconpar_ecp%26PHPSESSI D%3D92541cde99f29daec90e1385e557f053) - they don't however write very good drivers to use with their own stuff :eek2: ).

[parsifal]

It's back. It worked fine for a while, but today the same problem occured again. I've had XP up for 5 minutes and it won't print anymore. Nothing seems to help. I tried ECP, EPP and Bi-directional setting, but none of them helped (combined ECP+EPP is not possible, and though BIOS info tells there's an option of "output only" it won't let me choose that, only cycles through the three I mentioned). And yes, I did uninstall the port using Device Manager before changing BIOS settings.

[confus-ed]

Must be the printer queue then & not the printer, so something is maybe interfering with that like perhaps my old favourite for 'messing stuff up' - NAV !!!( I must say now, that whenever I encounter any 'weirdness' & NAV is around, rather than spend 'forever' googling, I just completely uninstall the damn thing & then re-install {having tested my 'whatever' while its not on there}

Can you clarify, this bit ? ..using: XP Home SP1, Canon S500 and the latest drivers, and (I'm telling this because McAfee has caused some similar problems) Norton Internet Security (AV is 2004, firewall 2003)..

Maybe that'll give us some clues..

[parsifal]

Must be the printer queue then & not the printer, so something is maybe interfering with that like perhaps my old favourite for 'messing stuff up' - NAV !!!( I must say now, that whenever I encounter any 'weirdness' & NAV is around, rather than spend 'forever' googling, I just completely uninstall the damn thing & then re-install {having tested my 'whatever' while its not on there} I too, then, should probably uninstall it. I just wouldn't like to frequently install and uninstall it because of problems like this. Perhaps I should switch to another AV/Firewall. Too bad. I really like NAV. Good thing I haven't paid anything yet (it came with the PC).

Edited: Any hints? Something similar to NAV's functionality would be good.

Can you clarify, this bit ?
I don't know for sure, but I possibly remembered it wrong. I can't locate where I originally read it from, and all I can now come up with is more or less the following:
"The latest version of McAfee VirusScan 4.0.2 seems to cause problems when running on Windows 95 or Windows 98. You may see an error saying "The handle is invalid" when trying to run an executable file. There is a service pack directory on the McAfee CD at \McAfee\win9x\sp1. (See Desktop Support). You should install the service pack files if you are using the Novell provided NetWare Clients on Windows 95/98."
http://www.umkc.edu/is/tc/publications/archives/BITS/Bits_8/Bits_8.html

I am not, however, using Novell software and/or Windows 9X. I guess my memory played tricks on me. I apologize.

[confus-ed]

So my (& I think the forum's) general free pick for av/firewall combo is AVG & kerio (they both also have paid versions), both are pretty good (you may have to 'keep tabs' on AVG being up to date AV definition wise),& much less system intensive than NAV too :thumbs:

Have you now tried minus Nav to see yet ?

[parsifal]

Have you now tried minus Nav to see yet ?
Yes. I've been running without NAV for a little while, and so far everything has worked great. I'll see how it goes and inform you later.

[confus-ed]

Yes. I've been running without NAV for a little while, and so far everything has worked great. I'll see how it goes and inform you later.

So we'll see then .. though we've been here before :D

[parsifal]

The handle is invalid. :rolleyes:

[confus-ed]

So its still busted ? I dunno what to say now .. the only thing I can think of is some orphan/spurious registery entries maybe doing it, but we are now well into the land of guesswork .. I suppose I could suggest sp2 (since that fixes ' miscellaneous memory handling & timing faults' among other things, mind it breaks quite a few too, so I'm not so keen ..) as various hotfixes I have found vaguely relating to this all now allegedly are fixed by that.

What are we actually printing & with what product ? (the s/w) .. I can find lots of KB's to do with sql errors, we aren't by chance printing some d/b or linked spread sheet ?

[parsifal]

So its still busted ? I dunno what to say now .. the only thing I can think of is some orphan/spurious registery entries maybe doing it, but we are now well into the land of guesswork
I did browse through some registry entries relating to parallel port (bad characters in keys and entries), but that seemed not to be the problem.

What are we actually printing & with what product ? (the s/w) .. I can find lots of KB's to do with sql errors, we aren't by chance printing some d/b or linked spread sheet ?
From blank notepad window to word documents and shared printing (on a home network). Nothing too complex.

Well, I guess it could be some mischievous background process or something, although the occurence of the problem is quite random and only uptime related, it seems.

I think I'm going to get my hands on a USB cable and connect the printer through it, though it is not the solution I'm after. And it's probably quite doubtful if it'll even work. But I'm giving it a shot.

[confus-ed]

..I think I'm going to get my hands on a USB cable and
connect the printer through it, though it is not the solution I'm after. And it's probably quite doubtful if it'll even work. But I'm giving it a shot.
Well a usb cable shouldn't cost the earth if you shop carefully (beware such places as PC world they cost 10x what they should!)& it will change the driver we are using, so since 'handle' is indicative of some s/w somewhere dropping a variable generated by something (quite often a driver) I guess this has as much chance as anything !

Let us know how you get on, if only for reference, I dunno whats causing this http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0304/fragend/confused-smiley-013.gif

[parsifal]

Let us know how you get on, if only for reference, I dunno whats causing this
After several uptime hours (a total of a couple of days) and few reboots the printer still seems to be working fine via USB port. I hope it stays that way this time. After switching to a USB cable XP just installed a new printer, but didn't ask for any new drivers, and it seems to have installed Canon's own drivers.

Well... we'll see how it goes from here.
Thanks for all your efforts. It's really nice to have such benevolent folks around.

[confus-ed]

So you are welcome & lets hope it stays fixed this time ! ;)