Printing problem

[Zonie]

I have a client with XP home, can print from word and other applications just fine. If the try to print an email from outlook express or a page from internet explorer, all that comes out is the code from the internet or email. Have checked the settings in internet and outlook express and see nothing wrong. Anyone have any ideas or have seen this?

[Zonie]

Can anybody enlighten me on this problem???????

[shamus]

Have you reinstalled the drivers for their printer? I't would appear to me they're hosed.

[Zonie]

Thank you Shamus for answering. The client just got back from vacation, went back over and uninstalled theprinter and reinstalled to make sure this had been done since they said they had done it once allready. Still have the same problem. I am at a loss as to what can be causing this. I have even gone into printer and faxes > server properties and deleted the driver there.

[emr]

I've seen something similar where OE emails were printed in a small typeface even though they appeared normal size on the screen; this was because the setting in IE menu View | Text Size was set to smallest. It seems that this setting governs OE also.

Weird but true.

Sounds like something similar but I can't think what it could be. Maybe check Encoding settings?

This may be way out there but the similarities occurred to me as soon as I read your post.

Good luck.

[Zonie]

Thanks EMR, checked this out and found the settings to be OK. I think I have an idea as to what is wrong. It seems the client had automatic updates turned on and it installed IE 7.0 on the system. SInce the problem printing is confined to IE and OE, I am going to uninstall the I7 &.0 and let it revert back to the IE 6.0 since this is bundled with OE. I have had numerous problems with the new IE on quite a few clients and reverting back has corrected the problems. Will be doing this at the beginning of next week and will post the results on this ongoing saga. Thanks for all the assit.

[shamus]

I bet your right, had many weird problems appear after IE7 install\update. Let us know if that was the culprit.

[Zonie]

Well, still at a dead end, uninstalled the IE 7.0 and the problem still persists. I am now without a possible solution other then wiping the system and starting over unless someone else has an idea?

[arch0nmyc0n]

I had a similar problem with OE a while back, I remember fixing it but I'll be damned if I can remember how.

Does the Print Preview show the messed up print or what it should be printing? What printer is this? Is it a cheapy or a high end? My Dad has a printer with all sorts of setting within the printer that affect how his prints come out, it wouldn't be a stretch that there would be something on the printer itself translating it. Is it running through some sort of printer server across a network or directly plugged in? I had a problem with a DI704P messing up completely and consistantly on printing from simply accounting, but everything else was fine.

[Zonie]

Thank you for the reply. The printer is a HP All-In-One of which the model escapes me right now. It is in a home and not on a network. The print preview shows the correct printing. The menu contains only the standard print settings and nothing special. (IE, fax settings, paper selection and scanner settings. I have looked through them all but nothing stands out.)

[arch0nmyc0n]

Hmmm... out of curiosity, if you open up an HTML document in Word does it still mess up?

Oh and in Internet Options, in the Appearance section, all the options are set properly there?

In Fact I'd go through and make sure all internet options are set to default.

Does he have any other printer drivers installed? I had a problem with a corrupted PDF printer driver and printing from a computer once.

Does he have any HTML editing software installed? If so, maybe it did something...

All else fails, how long has this been going on? System Restore an option?

[Percy]

I had a client about 4 years ago with the same problem in IE, though he didn't say anything about OE having an issue. Since he was using dialup, I had him save the page to his local machine, then print, worked fine.

Your guy using dialup or broadband?

[Zonie]

All internet options were set back to default, ( made sure ). No other printers are installed, no editing software, the page opens correctly in word, appearance options are set correctly, and the service is broadband. Not sure how long this has been going on, the client did not know. Thanks for all the hints and suggestions.

[arch0nmyc0n]

Yeah I'm out of ideas... unless... try jumping around it and screaming wooba wooba... saved the best advice for last...

[Zonie]

Well the saga ends with the gremlins being exiled. Don't know why, the client has been gone for a week and called back last night to let me know everything is fine now. The only thing they done was to turn the PC off for that period of time and when they turned it on and tried to print, everything worked great. Go figure. Thank you everyone for your help.