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My printer won't print. Please help.

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by kittykatydid, Oct 11, 2010.

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  1. kittykatydid

    kittykatydid Thread Starter

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    I have had my printer for about 2 1/2 years and it has been great until about 2 weeks ago. I can make copies but if I try to print from my computer it gets to 55% and then stops and it doesn't print. At the beginning of September it was printing fine, but for the past two weeks I can not get it to print anything. I have tried updating, uninstalling and reinstalling, and restarting the computer, even took it for a long truck ride home to consult with my mom and it still didn't help. Can please help me? I am a college student who has a lot of homework and papers to print and really need my printer to be working.

    Thanks,
    Katie
     
    kittykatydid, Oct 11, 2010
    #1
  3. cwwozniak

    cwwozniak Trusted Advisor Spam Fighter

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    Hi Katie, and welcome to TSG.

    It might help if you told us the brand and model number of the printer and what operating system you are using.

    Does the printer settings/preferences screen have an option for printing a test page? If so, does it print without problems?

    Does the problem appear for all software applications that try to print or just some?

    Do you get any kind of error or warning message at the 55% stop point?
     
    cwwozniak, Oct 11, 2010
    #2
  4. kittykatydid

    kittykatydid Thread Starter

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    Sorry.

    It is a Dell Photo All-In-One Printer 926.

    Yes it does have the test page option, and yes it prints that without a problem.

    The only thing I have tried to print is Microsoft Word because of essays and research papers that are due.

    No error message appears, it just stops and will not go any further.

    One of my professors here at school let me borrow his USB cord and it still stopped at 55%.
     
    kittykatydid, Oct 11, 2010
    #3
  5. cwwozniak

    cwwozniak Trusted Advisor Spam Fighter

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    Does it stop at 55% no matter what MS-Word file you open and no matter the size of the MS-Word document?
     
    cwwozniak, Oct 11, 2010
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  6. kittykatydid

    kittykatydid Thread Starter

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    With smaller files it stops at 55%. With some larger ones that are a full page or more it stops at 10-15%.
     
    kittykatydid, Oct 11, 2010
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  7. cwwozniak

    cwwozniak Trusted Advisor Spam Fighter

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    Have you tried printing an older MS-Word document that has printed OK and has not been edited since then? That may let us know if the problem is in the document file itself.

    Have you tried printing a couple of full pages using another program like Notepad or from your web browser. That may let us know if the problem is with MS-Word rather than the printer drivers used by all programs.
     
    cwwozniak, Oct 11, 2010
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  8. kittykatydid

    kittykatydid Thread Starter

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    Yes. It went to 55% and stopped it was just a page document.

    It went all the way to 99% with the word pad document, but I just typed up a couple of lines. It never pulled the paper into the printer and never even woke it up.
     
    kittykatydid, Oct 12, 2010
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  9. cwwozniak

    cwwozniak Trusted Advisor Spam Fighter

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    What version of Windows are your running?

    If you have a "Run ..." option from the Windows Start button in the task bar, select it and type in services.msc in the Run dialog box and click the OK button. That should open the Services control panel. Scroll down to "Print Spooler". What is shown for the status and startup type?
     
    cwwozniak, Oct 12, 2010
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  10. kittykatydid

    kittykatydid Thread Starter

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    I am running Windows Vista.

    Under status it says started.

    Under start up type it says automatic.
     
    kittykatydid, Oct 12, 2010
    #9
  11. cwwozniak

    cwwozniak Trusted Advisor Spam Fighter

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    I am not quite sure where to check next. There may have been some issues at one time with the printer having problems with Vista. I found one web site that discusses the problem but the URL may contain a word that may not get past this site's naughty word filter. Here is a tiny URL with a link to the actual site: http://preview.tinyurl.com/2ct4llg

    The discussion was for a problem the printer had from day one and I am not sure if it would apply to a problem that appeared after 2-1/2 years of no problems.
     
    cwwozniak, Oct 12, 2010
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  12. kittykatydid

    kittykatydid Thread Starter

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    Thank you so much. I don't really know all that they were talking about and I don't think there are any users on mine. I don't know how to look either.
     
    kittykatydid, Oct 12, 2010
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  13. cwwozniak

    cwwozniak Trusted Advisor Spam Fighter

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    cwwozniak, Oct 12, 2010
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  14. kittykatydid

    kittykatydid Thread Starter

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    I have downloaded that a couple of times and it didn't work.
     
    kittykatydid, Oct 12, 2010
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  15. Courtneyc

    Courtneyc

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    Let's first find out if the problem is the printer or the computer. What you need to do is take that printer and connect it to another computer. Try printing the same document. If it also stops at 55%, the problem is the printer (most likely the memory).

    If not, uninstall, reboot, and reinstall your printer drivers. Make sure you reinstall the print drivers BEFORE you plug in the printer.

    Courtney
     
    Courtneyc, Oct 12, 2010
    #14
  16. kittykatydid

    kittykatydid Thread Starter

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    I will do that this weekend hopefully when my classes slow down and i have another computer to hook it up to.
    Thank you for all the ideas.
    I will let you know if it works.
     
    kittykatydid, Oct 13, 2010
    #15

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