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printing problem, how do I troubleshoot?


broc croll

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VW 10.0,iMac G3 350 mhz., 0S10.2, printer HPdeskjet 5550.

HP 5550 printed letter size drawings no problem but after several print jobs the print center stopped the job. I would start job and it would attempt to connect to the printer but failed. I can print from other applications. It is only with VW that there is a problem. Is there a basic maintenance process I should try? I've heard discussion of doing something with VW preference file, and have also heard discussion of repairing disk permissions. Any advice on this specific problem or just basic "house cleaning" measures would be appreciated!

I had been using OS 10.2.6 with VW upgraded somewhat from 10 (can't remember version!) before my G4 hard drive

went belly up...HP5550 had caused no problems.

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Open the print center, then double click on the printer to bring up the actions dialog box for the 5500.

Leave this dialog box open so you can see it when you switch to VW. (You might need to resize VW and make it smaller)

Go to VW and print. See if an error message pops up in the print dialog box such as Error open PS stream or something else.

It may stay for a bit or it may flash quickly right after you click "print" in VW.

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Katie,

Thanks for your quick response. When I go to the actions dialog box for the 5550 I do not get an error message. First it shows that it is "opening printer connection", and then it says Jobs Stopped. If I click on Start Jobs it goes thru the same thing. Understand that before this was happening I was in the process of printing several sheets from the same file. Page Set-up for letter size for Deskjet 5550 and VW Set Print Area for one page. Size set up is not the problem because I had just been successful printing in that same file. Nor can I print from other VW files. That is why I thought there might be some kind of "clean up" procedure I could do.

Even if you are at a loss as to how to advise me on my printing problem, could you say something about the usefulness of "Repair disk Permissions" on OSX and also the procedure in VW that I have heard discussed on this forum. I think it had something to do with VW preferences.

Any help is appreciated.

(I should mention that while I am attempting to print, my efforts are often interrupted by "VW unexpectedly quit" messages!)

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First thing first, turn off the printer for a few minutes and then turn it back on. Restart your computer after the printer is restarted.

Then try to print from VW with the same step I outlined above (to see if an error message appears)

The DJ family of printers will not print subsequent jobs from a specific application once one job has failed. You have to "reset" the printer que so to speak.

If you are crashing when you print sheets, you might be overloading the printer or memory. Each decent size drawing sheet can generate a printer file around a gig and sometimes larger. If you send 4 or 5 of these at a time, it's too much for the computer and printer to handle.

Permissions - Under OS 10 you have permissions, similar to Windows and Unix (more unix than windows)

Every time you install programs, uninstall programs, move applications around, among other things in day to day computing, permission files are updated. There are user permission files for each user on the computer. OS 10 doesn't do a good job at updating the permissions properlly and after a while, they get out of whack and the computer does all kinds of weird things.

In the utilities folder is Disk Utility. Open this and click on the First Aid tab.

Verify disk permissions first. This will report all the files and folders on the computer that have changed permissions or conflicting permissions or corrupt permissions. It may even report at the end that no errors are reported. This is misnomer. You should ALWAYS then click on Repair disk permissions. This will put everything back where it should be and aligned.

When you run this, you should not have any other application running as it may interfere with the process.

As a rule of thumb, you should perform this process every time you install or remove an application. If you don't install or remove an application within a month, you should run it as standard maintenance.

There are other 3rd party programs that can do this for you, but personally, I don't recommend using them. For one, it's one additional uncertified application you have on the computer. Why mess with thrid party when Apple wrote something in the OS for it. Two, usually these programs are free or at least cheap. You usually get what you pay for, and on the day you need your computer the most - something bad will happen. Call it Murphy's Law *Smile*

It's a good rule of thumb to always stick to programs/applications the original OS manufacturer develops. At least you know it's certified and supported by the manuf should something go wrong.

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