[RESOLVED] Printing Problems from PowerPoint

[DannyDunn]

One of my users has a 39 page PowerPoint "documnent" that she is attempting to print to a HP LaserJet 6P. It's dropping characters out of the header mostly after about page 9. Reloaded PowerPoint, Reloaded printer drivers, still same problem. It also happens when she tries to print to an HP Color printer on the NT network.

ANY ideas short of a 5 pound sledge hammer would be helpful.

[LadyTech]

That's a pretty large file, so maybe the printers just don't have enough memory.
To get by for now, just have her print 8 pages to a time. A pain I know, but will work until you can really find the problem.

------------------
There are only two things in life, but I forgot what they are. --John Hiatt

[Sowulo]

And try a new printer cable. Sounds a little weird but one client printed these huge reports constantly and once every month or so the columns would start mis-aligning and replacing the printer cable was the only thing that would get it printing correctly again.

------------------
Men's view of Women: All your sex are belong to us...
Women's view of Men: All your attention, time, and money are belong to us....

[DannyDunn]

I would think it was a printer cable, if it didn't screw up the same way printing to a network printer.

[Sowulo]

k. One last thought. I've seen some pretty weird stuff when the printer port was only addressed in device manager by its address (378 for LPT1) and not it's IRQ as well. This was very common when Win95 came out--not so common with newer versions but I still run across it on occasion.

------------------
Men's view of Women: All your sex are belong to us...
Women's view of Men: All your attention, time, and money are belong to us....

[DannyDunn]

GOD I LOVE MICROSOFT!!!!
I fdisk'ed,formatted and reloaded everything on the laptop. Latest printer drivers for HP Laserjet 6 and Coler Laserjet 5. Reloaded entire office package, still the d**m thing is dropping characters during printing. I don't get it. I'm about ready to call a witch doctor.

[MacGyver]

I don't see how reinstalling the OS is going to help this problem. The likely problem is that there isn't enough memory in the printer. The other thing that you could check - the amount of memory can be specified in the HP driver, so check that the settings in the driver properties are correct.

[DannyDunn]

2 or 3 other people in the same office can print the exact same doc to the same printer and it prints properly. That's the part that is keeping me awake at night

[DonJ]

It really sounds like it is a Laptop problem to me. What kind of Laptop is it? Have you checked things in Device Manager for conflicts, errors, etc.? How about Virtual Memory?

If it screws up while going through the LPT port to the LaserJet and also screws up going out the Network Interface Card, then I would suspect something that is common to both...RAM, Hard Disk errors, or IRQ conflicts as suggested above.

HP website is down...or really slow right now...but go here to check for latest drivers if you feel that could be the problem:

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/software.html

Good Luck!
DonJ