Windows 7: printer restarting in middle of job

Since I got my new computer with win7pro 64bit...... I've had an intermittent problem which is that when printing mostly from word2010(use this for 98% of printing) the print job will restart in the middle of the job(I print from 300 to 50,000 page jobs 99% are mail merges)

PRINTER: SAVIN 9060 network connected(using the RCPS driver - because of the overlay capability)

I've watched the print que while merging/spooling/printing and it never does it as it is spooling/printing only after it is done spooling and it is VERY, VERY random
In the print que it will say: printing 356/2,500 then it will say Error-Printing the printer pauses then it will just start over spooling/printing from the beginning again

my SAVIN IT TECH(they could not re-create the problem on another win7pro 64bit computer) and I thought it could be the product of using older version word .docs.....so I starting converting them to word2010 .docs and it was still doing it so then I started re-typesetting some starting from scratch with a word 2010 .doc and still have the problem but still very random
printer and print driver have been uninstalled and reinstalled numerous times did not help

disabled on board parallel port(in BIOS), disabled Bi-directional printing no help
before new computer I was running winxp pro.....word2000 with no problems at all
I have one other issue also......when writing files out to a winXP pro network connected computer sometime the files will get truncated....again VERY, VERY random




starting to wonder if the BIOS or the memory is flaky in this NEW computer

I've been fighting this for about 5 months
any help would be greatly appreciated.....
Thanks in Advance,
Tony

Tony, welcome to the Forums!

Just to be sure that the problem is not with the printer itself, try printing to a "software printer". There is usually a XPS printer installed by default, or you can download and install a pdf printer. Use these to print your files and see if the problem is with the spooler or something else in the system. If that works out OK, I would simply try another printer. I am not familiar with SAVIN brand, but if another printer works fine, then the problem is specific to this particular printer. At that point the problem could be solved either by installing an updated driver or by replacing the hardware. You could try printing from another machine to see if there is a hardware problem, of course.

To be honest, I don't see how a version of a doc file can affect the printing process. If BIOS or memory had problems, you would see them manifest themselves in more than just an intermittent printing problem.

Finally, is the printer connected via ethernet or wirelessly? By the way, what happens if you connect the printer with a wire directly to your PC?

unifex, thanks for the quick response

couldn't understand the doc version affecting it either but that's what the SAVIN IT rep suggested(I think they are tired of messing with me) keep telling me they think it is my computer

I will try some tests to the XPS printer

currently it is hooked up with an ethernet cable through a linksys 10/100 8port workgroup switch....I'm goin to try a USB cable next to see if that helps(hopefully this afternoon but maybe in the morning) I will let you know what happens

Since it is a network printer, is anyone else printing to it? Are they having issues?

DeaconFrost,

I can print to it from my old computer running winXP pro with office2000 all day long no problem(printed from it fine for alittle over a year)

UPDATE

unifex,

yesterday I did about 10 tests merging/printing to the XPS printer that worked fine, this morning I had a live job(1040 pgs) to run so I merged to the XPS printer fine then printed that file to my printer

it spooled fine printed 543 letters then restarted so I cancelled that print job and printed from 544 to 1040, it ran to pg 999 and restarted again so I cancelled that one and printed the rest

have not had time to go get a USB cable yet to hookup directly to printer.....hopefully I can get one at lunch today

It could possibly be a network issue. Driver or the NIC in the PC is flaky, faulty Ethernet cable, or bad port on the Linksys Switch.

Hey Zepher,


the cable and port on the switch are the same that I was using with my old computer.......is there a way to test the driver and/or NIC in the PC without replacing first

Well, if you can print to the XPS printer and also use your printer from another machine, then I would also think that the problem lies in the network connection. I would still recommend to confirm this by trying to print via a direct (USB) connection. Assuming this goes well, I would suggest the following: first, delete the printer port and then re-create it, sometimes something about the port gets corrupted. If this does not help, try using a different port on your switch. Finally you could try another switch.

Now, in addition, I would say that I always prefer to use the direct connection to my printer. With network printers there are sometimes strange problems. For example at the University I have to use the network printer (they are not buying printers for everyone ). These printers are on the intra-net, with fixed IP addresses and all I need to do in order to connect is to create a standard TCP/IP port, at least in theory. In practice, I always need to repeat the procedure several times before it works, doing pretty much the same thing. Sometimes the printer would not be found, sometimes it would be found but would not print and so on. There does not seem to be anything else to do besides trying to create the port again. But after trying for a few times it works and once it works - it works. I admit that I never have to print 1000 page documents (I am not even sure our printer can hold 1000 pages). At the same time, at home I connect my printer with a USB cable and never have a problem.

I've actually found network printers to be much easier to set up, regardless of using a print server or just doing direct IP printing. I used to work for a very large printer manufacturer and never encountered the issues you mention, and even in the 5 years I've been IT Manager at my current job, I haven't come across that issue. Print servers simplify the job if you have multiple OSes connecting to the printer. But, once you create the port, it is there and ready, even if you have to come back and reload the driver. I always ping the printer first to make sure the IP responds, but that's it. Works everytime.

With USB printers, they don't always prompt for the USB cable, and some drivers can fail to install based on the cable being plugged in our out. They usually involve loading a load more to the computer than a network driver as well.