Powerpoint crash on print

[missuze]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Hi,
We are having big problems when printing Powerpoint documents (either .ppt or .pptx) on Xerox Docucolour 242 printers (updated with latest drivers).
This happens on different machines, all running Leopard 10.5.7 and MS Office 2008 (all latest updates). It seems to be more prevalent on documents with more than 5 slides, but is completely random as to when it happens - I have been running some tests (various different documents - from templates, from blank presentations, with images/text, completely blank) and it does not appear to be related to problems within a document.
Every other application prints to these Xerox printers with no problems, and PowerPoint will print to various other Canon & Xerox printers that we have.
When you hit "print", the the dialogue box saying "printing page xx" pops up, then crashes before the progress bar has reached the end.
We have tried the usual delete prefs&cache/make new user account/uninstall & reinstall office etc. to no avail.
It seems to be pretty much 50/50 as to whether the files will print or crash - for every 10 attempted prints, 5 will crash, and 5 will succeed.
I know there have been many previous posts referencing this problem, but it has clearly not yet been resolved, and there have been no real solutions other than temporary workarounds.
Would appreciate any feedback / fixes please Microsoft!!

 

[CyberTaz]

Well, intermittent problems are always hardest to resolve, but I honestly
don't believe this one is Microsoft's

The operating system offers different levels of print services based on
driver options which various programs access in different ways. It isn't at
all uncommon for a problem to surface when printing from a certain program &
not occur when printing from others. But the program you're printing from
simply calls for the services required. If the response it gets (or the lack
of same) is severe enough it will cause that program to crash even though it
happens to be an "innocent bystander". IOW, PPt doesn't actually print
anything, it just calls for the services & hands the data off.

By your description it isn't happening with all files, it isn't happening
with the same file all the time & the same files from the same program print
to other printers without the crashes occurring. My belief is that - even
though the driver is the latest - it may have corrupted... printer drivers
are well known for that, so the first thing I'd suggest is deleting the
printer, downloading a fresh copy of the driver & reinstalling it.

Another possibility is that there is an inherent problem with the driver...
I don't think it's coincidental that -- in a forum where we see the name
Xerox *rarely* -- it has now shown up in 2 postings within the same 90
minute time frame. And even if that is a coincidence, what is the liklihood
that they both would expressly involve a Xerox DocuColor 242? Methinks the
Xerox DC 242 driver may be in need of revision Have you checked the
Xerox support site for any banter on the issue as well as the availability
of a fix?