Default printer disappears from Word

[lozan365]

Every time I open Word the default printer has "disappeared". I get an error
message saying the printer has not responded and asking whether I want to
wait. This makes printing very, very difficult. Does anyone have a solution?

I am using Vista Home edition, Office 2003 and the printer is an Epson D78.
I have installed the new driver for the D78 and Vista. I have uninstalled and
re-installed Word and the printer, but all to no avail.

Everything worked fine until about 3 days ago. I have done a system restore
to before that date, but I still get the same error message that the printer
is not available each time I open a Word document.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The only time I notice that is when I start Word prematurely, before Windows
has quite finished loading itself and all its startup objects. Is that
relevant at all? Also, is the printer driver installed locally (even if the
printer is on a network)?

 

[lozan365]

No, it happens ever time I try to opean a Word document, even when Windows
has finished loading.

The printer is installed correctly.

I have Office 2003 Professional Edition if that makes any difference.

The printer worked fine with my old computer and Windows XP. I installed the
new driver for Vista when I changed PCs and it worked fine for about the
first month. I think some of the automatic updates must have changed
something.

It is driving me insane and making printing very difficult.

Printer works fine with Outlook, Excel, but not Word! There is no default
printer installed for Word even though it is there in the dropdown menu and
is set as the default.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I haven't seen this issue reported before. I'm cross-posting this to
microsoft.public.word.printingfonts, where perhaps it will attract the
attention of more specialized readers.

 

[lozan365]

Thanks Suzanne. Hopefully someone will have come across this problem before,
as I have tried everything I can think of and cannot solve the problem.

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Without knowing what has been tried and what results/error messages there
might have been:

The usual productive approach is to remove the present primer driver and all
associated software for the printer, reboot and clean up. Next, one would
install the basic driver for the printer, reboot and test.

The basic printer driver is here:
http://esupport.epson-europe.com/Pr...H3apcOIqUBTHzdYfMUQb9jTj+1Ul8AKLgU003D&tc=6#7

To remove the present driver:
Power off the computer and printer. Disconnect the printer. Restart the
computer. Delete the printer driver.

Clean up using the suggestions here, as appropriate:
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm

Restart the computer and install the drivers for the particular OS. Note
that there are different drivers for 32 bit and 64 bit Vista. Do not connect
the printer to the computer until told to do so in the instructions or
on-screen prompts.

Let us know how it goes.
--

Tom
MSMVP 1998-2007

 

[lozan365]

Hi Tom,

I changed computers about a month ago and connected my existing printer
Epson D78 which had always worked fine with the old PC (Office Professional
2003 and Windows XP) to the new PC (Office Professional 2003 and Windows
Vista).

Everything worked fine until about a week ago. Since then every time I try
to print a Word document I get a message which says "The printer has not yet
responded, but the Microsoft Office program may be able to proceed without
the printer information. Do oyu want to wait for the printer information".

When I get as far as the print screen in Word, there is no default printer
installed, even though the Epson D78 is shown on the dropdown menu.
I can finally print after a long time. . .

This only happens in Word. I can print in Excel and Outlook messages without
problem. But it is obviously Word that I need most often.

Prior to yourentry, I had already tried uninstalling both Office
Professional 2003 and the Epson D78 driver and reinstalling all again with
the Vista driver from the Epson site. The problem was unchanged.

Some web comments think the problem is linked to the status monitor on the
Epson. I disabled it, again no solution.

I followed your instructions, but the cleanspool.exe which is in the
resource kit mentioned in Bruce's pages is not valid for Vista.

The problem persists. . . but only in Word. I can print form other
programes, including Excel and Outlook, first time without problem. But in
Word I still get the message "The printer has not yet responded. . . "

It's extremely frustrating and makes it impossible to work with Word.

Thanks in advance for your help.