Printer Problem

Question

My Epson Stylus Photo 890 has worked well with my Windows Vista PC. It recently stopped printing. In discussion with Epson Help I followed instructions to uninstall and re-install a printer driver. I can now print a test page and I can print from emails and in those respects the printer appears to be working normally. However I cannot print even the simplest document from routinely used applications like MS Word. The document appears in the printer queue window which says "printing" but nothing else happens. I have checked all the usual page set up issues. Even documents which have successfully printed before, no longer print.

Suggestions welcomed.

Thanks and regards

Ian T

Answer 1

Ian_Turner,

Thank you for visiting the Microsoft Answers community forum.

I have seen this issue a couple of times before and it always turns out to be something strange and unexpected and takes some time consuming troubleshooting to find the cause.  It could be a third party piece of software or driver that is causing an unexpected conflict, a service that seems totally unrelated that is not running that needs to be running, etc.  So let's start the process of elimination by doing a clean boot.  This will eliminate most third party startup processes and services.

Step 1: Perform a clean boot

Log on to the computer by using an account that has administrator rights.

Click Start, type msconfig.exe in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER to start the System Configuration Utility.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue.

On the General tab, click Selective Startup, and then click to clear the Load startup items check box. (The Use Original Boot.ini check box is unavailable.)

On the Services tab, click to select the Hide all Microsoft services check box, and then click Disable all.

Note: Following this step lets Microsoft services continue to run. These services include Networking, Plug and Play, Event Logging, Error Reporting, and other services. If you disable these services, you may permanently delete all restore points. Do not do this if you want to use the System Restore utility together with existing restore points.

Click OK, and then click Restart.

Once your system restarts, try printing a test page from the Printer's properties page in control panel.  If that works, try printing a document from Word. 

If that resolved the issue, then you will have to enable one service at a time in msconfig until the printer fails so you will know which one is causing the conflict.

If this did not fix the issue, put your system back to normal and run the System File Checker:

To run the System File Checker tool, follow these steps:

Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.

Right-click cmd in the Programs list, and then click Run as administrator.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue

At the command prompt, type the following line, and then press ENTER:

sfc /scannow

When the scan is complete, test to see whether the issue that you are experiencing is resolved.

Let us know how this works out for you.

Thank you,

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Gloria

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

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Answer 2

Thanks for input. Yes, I checked these issues. Applications used are all common office and design applications that have never raised printer problems before. Following suggestion from support person Gloria I checked for possible conflicts and removed Nokia phone software. On re-installing the printer driver I seem to be back to normal.

Regards

Ian T

Answer 3

Thanks for your input. Tried the msconfig route, but ended up not being able to print test page (although I could still print from emails). Followed the suggestion to run System File Checker. On completion it gave msg "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations" so I guess that at least is some good news.

I went back to the list of installed programs and noticed that Nokia recently sent some large updates to their Nokia PC Suite which I sometimes use for managing files on my mobile phone.

This included: Nokia PC Suite, Nokia Cable Driver, PC Connectivity Solution and five assorted Windows Driver Packages. I uninstalled them all, uninstalled the Epson driver software, restarted and re-installed the Epson driver.

I have now been able to print files from at least two of my regularly used applications, so it looks like the problem was a conflict between the Nokia software and Vista.

Thanks again and regards

Ian T

Answer 4

Is the printer set as the default printer?

Which applications don't print?

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Never ever approach a computer saying or even thinking "I will just do this quickly".

My hangouts Format and Reload or Windrivers

Answer 5

Printer recently stopped printing - dialogue says "printing", output zero. Epson help desk sent me instructions for uninstalling and re-installing the driver. Printer prints emails, web pages and its own test page but nothing from other applications - not even documents it has printed before without hesitation.

Suggestions welcomed

Thanks and regards

Ian