current printer is unavailable

[Mattps]

Office 2007, normally Excel intermittantly displays freezes then displays
"current printer is unavailable" whenever I try and print.

I have tried all the usual:

Reinstalled the printer driver
Installed the driver locally
Reset the regional settings
Installed all security updates for the OS
Installed all Office updates
Repaired installation of Office
Uninstalled and re-installed Office installation

All draw a blank and I keep getting this error message. It seems to be a
comman problem with Office 2007 but I have been unsuccessful in finding
anyone who has found a solution.

 

[Bob I]

Perhaps you have a USB attached printer and the Power Management on your
PC is turning off the USB port? Try Device Manager, navigate to the USB
items, look in Properties, and then look on the Power Management tab for
"Allow computer to turn off to save power" and UNcheck it.

 

[Mattps]

Thanks Bob,

There are no USB devices connected and it is a network printer that I am try
to print to.

Kind regards,
Matt

 

[Bob I]

Is the printer available? Is power management acting on the network
card? (same issue as USB)

 

[DL]

Are you able to print from Notepad?
Or from your printer driver/software, test print?

 

[Mattps]

I can still access the network (tested with Outlook and Internet). I am able
to print for every other application, including other MS apps like Word.

 

[Bob I]

Odd, perhaps there is something configured in Excel for the printer that
it doesn't support? Can you replicate the problem at will?

 

[Mattps]

No, it seems to be an intermittent problem, one minute working, next not. The
only way I can clear the error is to reboot. Restarting the spooler services

 

[Bob I]

You say "common problem" in your initial post. What info is "common"
between the folks that have it?

 

[Mattps]

When i say common, I mean if you Google there error you get a large amount of
people getting the same error but unable, like me to find a resolution.

 

[Bob I]

I searched for
Office 2007 "current printer is unavailable"

I got 40 working hits, with your posting being one of the 3 common
returns. You say intermittent which isn't appearing at all in the other two.

There are fixes for the non-intermittent ones posted. So the issue boils
down to determine what triggers yours. Are you running a local firewall?
Does the same file and print job always create a problem? What OS is
involved. Has it always happened? When did it start? Are there other
network printers available, and does it happen with them? Does it occur
with a Local printer, if no physical then Microsoft Office Document
Image Writer or one of the PDF file writers?

 

[Mattps]

I am not running a local firewall, it is not always the same document, it
hasn't alway happened. It started about 1 week before our last patch cycle -
I've tried a rollback but didn't resolve it. Other network printers and local
printers all have the same outcome as do the XPS writer and PDF printer.

The OS is XP x64.

I have tried the hotfixes for the non intermittent problems that Google
finds but these didn't help either so I removed them.

 

[DL]

I must confess the only problem I've ever experienced with a network printer
has not been specific to Office 2007
I know its a pain, but maybe try booting to safe mode with networking and
test excel again.
Another option might be to try running excel through this
http://www.dependencywalker.com/ (An MS program) and see if it can locate
the error

 

[Bob I]

This is what I can come up with, is that what you have tried already?

You receive an error message if you try to print a document on Windows
2000-based and Windows XP-based computers
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;873396


Also can you see anything in the Update logs or patch installed dates
corresponding to the start of the problem?

 

[Mattps]

Bob - This is one of the patches I have tried. However, x64 is not supported.
DL - Thank you, I will give it ago. I have tried running Excel in safe mode
"excel /s" but the problem still occurs.

 

[Bob I]

Also can you see anything in the Update logs or patch installed dates
corresponding to the start of the problem?

 

[Mattps]

Nope, checked that as well.

Thanks,
Matt

Also can you see anything in the Update logs or patch installed dates
corresponding to the start of the problem?

 

[Bob I]

Humm, once Excel can't see the printer, does Word still print to it?
Otherwise I'm starting to run out of ideas, and unfortunately 64bit XP
is kind of an orphan.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Folks in the Publisher group were having the same problem. Our workaround was to
to select a different default printer in the Printer Folder. When ready to print
the document select your preferred printer within the application. This seemed
to cure the issue. Our posters were then able to go back to the Printer Folder
and correct the default printer preference.

 

[Mattps]

Other Office applications get the same error, but I can still print from
Notepad. I have since rebuilt the workstation using the recovery partition
and re-installed Office but the problem has just started again.