MS Word crashes when loading with default network printer

[Guest Scott S.]

I have a Win2k3 server (not R2 but current on all SPs) that is a print server.

It holds the print queue for a Dell 3110cn printer.

All was well until we got 2 new laptops with Vista.

Once they were pointed at that printer as their default printer MS Word 2007

started crashing when you launch it.

 

Dell ships a single install package for the printer for XP,Win2k3, and Vista.

I installed the latest on the server and could see the new driver version,

but the Vista laptops still crash Word unless I set them to use the Microsoft

XPS Document printer driver. Then it loads, but of course you can't print.

 

I've browsed the Dell driver package and it appears that there is only one

driver for XP and Vista, yet the XP network clients work fine and the Vista

ones fail.

I found someone else online saying XP and Vista are supposed to use a local

driver, if it is available, even when printing to a network printer.

So I tried installing the drivers directly on the laptop, but it still

crashed Word.

 

As a temporary fix I setup one of the laptops to print directly to the

printer's IP instead of through the network share. That worked, but it

defeats the purpose of having a network share where I can change the default

print settings.

 

For this printer I actually have 3 queues on the printer server, one for

draft printouts that uses less toner and prints strictly in B/W, another for

full color, and another for Postscript. I would really like this to work

with Vista, otherwise as machines are replaced over time my print queues

become less and less meaningful, and the printer having a limited memory will

begin to cause clients to stall when printing.

 

Does anyone have a solution other than upgrading the server to Win2k8?

If not, does anyone know for sure that would work?

[Guest Alan Morris [MSFT]]

Re: MS Word crashes when loading with default network printer

 

Normally, if the application crashes, this is due to the print driver's UI

component corrupting the memory of the application. I would expect the same

failure in explorer when loading printer properties of the connection.

 

I assume you are using the latest driver available on the Dell web site.

 

I'm sure you would have the same failure if the print server were 2008.

 

Can you use the Dell provided Vista driver for the 3100cn PCL6 or 3100cn PS

for this device? You can install the Vista inbox driver by remotely adding

the driver to Server 2003 from a Vista client logged on as a user with admin

rights to the print server.

 

 

I'll confirm where the 3110cn PS driver fails and forward to someone to

contact Dell.

--

Alan Morris

Windows Printing Team

Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:

http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

 

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

--

Alan Morris

Windows Printing Team

Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:

http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

 

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

"Scott S." <ScottS@community.nospam> wrote in message

news:5A269D1A-5251-4A1C-97B2-00CBE7585ED0@microsoft.com...

>I have a Win2k3 server (not R2 but current on all SPs) that is a print

>server.

> It holds the print queue for a Dell 3110cn printer.

> All was well until we got 2 new laptops with Vista.

> Once they were pointed at that printer as their default printer MS Word

> 2007

> started crashing when you launch it.

>

> Dell ships a single install package for the printer for XP,Win2k3, and

> Vista.

> I installed the latest on the server and could see the new driver version,

> but the Vista laptops still crash Word unless I set them to use the

> Microsoft

> XPS Document printer driver. Then it loads, but of course you can't

> print.

>

> I've browsed the Dell driver package and it appears that there is only one

> driver for XP and Vista, yet the XP network clients work fine and the

> Vista

> ones fail.

> I found someone else online saying XP and Vista are supposed to use a

> local

> driver, if it is available, even when printing to a network printer.

> So I tried installing the drivers directly on the laptop, but it still

> crashed Word.

>

> As a temporary fix I setup one of the laptops to print directly to the

> printer's IP instead of through the network share. That worked, but it

> defeats the purpose of having a network share where I can change the

> default

> print settings.

>

> For this printer I actually have 3 queues on the printer server, one for

> draft printouts that uses less toner and prints strictly in B/W, another

> for

> full color, and another for Postscript. I would really like this to work

> with Vista, otherwise as machines are replaced over time my print queues

> become less and less meaningful, and the printer having a limited memory

> will

> begin to cause clients to stall when printing.

>

> Does anyone have a solution other than upgrading the server to Win2k8?

> If not, does anyone know for sure that would work?

[Guest Scott S.]

Re: MS Word crashes when loading with default network printer

 

Alan,

 

Yes it is the latest driver. It was the PCL driver that was having the issue.

I solved the problem, but I don't really understand what is/was going on.

 

We had no problem selecting the printer from the directory and adding it to

the laptop and setting it as the default printer.

 

Based on your statement of expecting the same failure in the explorer I

tried some things. We could double click it and see an empty print queue. We

could right click it and choose properties and get the driver GUI and play

with any tab page. So it seemed that you were wrong about that.

 

Everything seemed fine, except when loading MS-Word or MS-PowerPoint. But I

know they load the printer driver immediatley in order to format the

documents.

 

So I went looking and I found a Vista desktop setup for software testing,

but it was Vista x64. I figured I try it anyway. It connected to the

printer fine and it printed first try.

 

So back on the laptop, I tried opening plain old Notepad. It opened fine.

I typed "Testing 1 2 3" and then tried to print. I then got a pop up box

asking about installing the printer driver with the yes button having the

"admin mode shield" on it. I clicked yes, then something flashed by and then

it appeared again. I clicked Yes again, again something flashed by. Then we

got a different pop up that said something like "A StartDoc printer call was

not issued" with just an Ok button. Then we were back to Notepad.

 

I had tried pushing print screen when the popup window was up, but afterward

I couldn't paste anything. So I tried to print again expecting it to happen

again so I could write them down, but this time Notepad printed just fine.

 

I then tried launching MS-Word and it opened fine also ... so I don't think

it is a bug in the driver. And if it were, would the problem have also

appeared when the driver was installed locally and set to print directly to

the printer's IP?

 

Very strange solution, but it worked.

 

Thinking about it now as I was typing this I went back to the test machine

with Vista x64 and checked ... sure enough it had UAC turned off. It made me

wonder if it would have had the same problem if UAC had been on. Next time I

get a new machine I'll have to remember to try turning it off to see what

happens.

 

Is it possible a piece of Office 2007 that both MS-Word and MS-PowerPoint

use is missing a place where it should cause a UAC prompt to appear? Any

idea if I'm onto something here?

 

Thanks for the help,

Scott

 

 

"Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:

> Normally, if the application crashes, this is due to the print driver's UI

> component corrupting the memory of the application. I would expect the same

> failure in explorer when loading printer properties of the connection.

>

> I assume you are using the latest driver available on the Dell web site.

>

> I'm sure you would have the same failure if the print server were 2008.

>

> Can you use the Dell provided Vista driver for the 3100cn PCL6 or 3100cn PS

> for this device? You can install the Vista inbox driver by remotely adding

> the driver to Server 2003 from a Vista client logged on as a user with admin

> rights to the print server.

>

>

> I'll confirm where the 3110cn PS driver fails and forward to someone to

> contact Dell.

> --

> Alan Morris

> Windows Printing Team

> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:

> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

>

> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

>

> --

> Alan Morris

> Windows Printing Team

> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:

> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

>

> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

>

> "Scott S." <ScottS@community.nospam> wrote in message

> news:5A269D1A-5251-4A1C-97B2-00CBE7585ED0@microsoft.com...

> >I have a Win2k3 server (not R2 but current on all SPs) that is a print

> >server.

> > It holds the print queue for a Dell 3110cn printer.

> > All was well until we got 2 new laptops with Vista.

> > Once they were pointed at that printer as their default printer MS Word

> > 2007

> > started crashing when you launch it.

> >

> > Dell ships a single install package for the printer for XP,Win2k3, and

> > Vista.

> > I installed the latest on the server and could see the new driver version,

> > but the Vista laptops still crash Word unless I set them to use the

> > Microsoft

> > XPS Document printer driver. Then it loads, but of course you can't

> > print.

> >

> > I've browsed the Dell driver package and it appears that there is only one

> > driver for XP and Vista, yet the XP network clients work fine and the

> > Vista

> > ones fail.

> > I found someone else online saying XP and Vista are supposed to use a

> > local

> > driver, if it is available, even when printing to a network printer.

> > So I tried installing the drivers directly on the laptop, but it still

> > crashed Word.

> >

> > As a temporary fix I setup one of the laptops to print directly to the

> > printer's IP instead of through the network share. That worked, but it

> > defeats the purpose of having a network share where I can change the

> > default

> > print settings.

> >

> > For this printer I actually have 3 queues on the printer server, one for

> > draft printouts that uses less toner and prints strictly in B/W, another

> > for

> > full color, and another for Postscript. I would really like this to work

> > with Vista, otherwise as machines are replaced over time my print queues

> > become less and less meaningful, and the printer having a limited memory

> > will

> > begin to cause clients to stall when printing.

> >

> > Does anyone have a solution other than upgrading the server to Win2k8?

> > If not, does anyone know for sure that would work?

>

>

>

[Guest Alan Morris [MSFT]]

Re: MS Word crashes when loading with default network printer

 

I confirmed the Dell PS driver has a reference counting problem. You had

made the comment on the first post that you were using a PS share so I only

focused on the PS driver. That info will get to Dell.

 

--

Alan Morris

Windows Printing Team

Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:

http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

 

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

"Scott S." <ScottS@community.nospam> wrote in message

news:383A2428-2878-494D-8767-9AB4D09E5CED@microsoft.com...

> Alan,

>

> Yes it is the latest driver. It was the PCL driver that was having the

> issue.

> I solved the problem, but I don't really understand what is/was going on.

>

> We had no problem selecting the printer from the directory and adding it

> to

> the laptop and setting it as the default printer.

>

> Based on your statement of expecting the same failure in the explorer I

> tried some things. We could double click it and see an empty print queue.

> We

> could right click it and choose properties and get the driver GUI and play

> with any tab page. So it seemed that you were wrong about that.

>

> Everything seemed fine, except when loading MS-Word or MS-PowerPoint. But

> I

> know they load the printer driver immediatley in order to format the

> documents.

>

> So I went looking and I found a Vista desktop setup for software testing,

> but it was Vista x64. I figured I try it anyway. It connected to the

> printer fine and it printed first try.

>

> So back on the laptop, I tried opening plain old Notepad. It opened fine.

> I typed "Testing 1 2 3" and then tried to print. I then got a pop up box

> asking about installing the printer driver with the yes button having the

> "admin mode shield" on it. I clicked yes, then something flashed by and

> then

> it appeared again. I clicked Yes again, again something flashed by. Then

> we

> got a different pop up that said something like "A StartDoc printer call

> was

> not issued" with just an Ok button. Then we were back to Notepad.

>

> I had tried pushing print screen when the popup window was up, but

> afterward

> I couldn't paste anything. So I tried to print again expecting it to

> happen

> again so I could write them down, but this time Notepad printed just fine.

>

> I then tried launching MS-Word and it opened fine also ... so I don't

> think

> it is a bug in the driver. And if it were, would the problem have also

> appeared when the driver was installed locally and set to print directly

> to

> the printer's IP?

>

> Very strange solution, but it worked.

>

> Thinking about it now as I was typing this I went back to the test machine

> with Vista x64 and checked ... sure enough it had UAC turned off. It made

> me

> wonder if it would have had the same problem if UAC had been on. Next

> time I

> get a new machine I'll have to remember to try turning it off to see what

> happens.

>

> Is it possible a piece of Office 2007 that both MS-Word and MS-PowerPoint

> use is missing a place where it should cause a UAC prompt to appear? Any

> idea if I'm onto something here?

>

> Thanks for the help,

> Scott

>

>

> "Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:

>

>> Normally, if the application crashes, this is due to the print driver's

>> UI

>> component corrupting the memory of the application. I would expect the

>> same

>> failure in explorer when loading printer properties of the connection.

>>

>> I assume you are using the latest driver available on the Dell web site.

>>

>> I'm sure you would have the same failure if the print server were 2008.

>>

>> Can you use the Dell provided Vista driver for the 3100cn PCL6 or 3100cn

>> PS

>> for this device? You can install the Vista inbox driver by remotely

>> adding

>> the driver to Server 2003 from a Vista client logged on as a user with

>> admin

>> rights to the print server.

>>

>>

>> I'll confirm where the 3110cn PS driver fails and forward to someone to

>> contact Dell.

>> --

>> Alan Morris

>> Windows Printing Team

>> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:

>> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

>>

>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no

>> rights.

>>

>> --

>> Alan Morris

>> Windows Printing Team

>> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:

>> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

>>

>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no

>> rights.

>>

>> "Scott S." <ScottS@community.nospam> wrote in message

>> news:5A269D1A-5251-4A1C-97B2-00CBE7585ED0@microsoft.com...

>> >I have a Win2k3 server (not R2 but current on all SPs) that is a print

>> >server.

>> > It holds the print queue for a Dell 3110cn printer.

>> > All was well until we got 2 new laptops with Vista.

>> > Once they were pointed at that printer as their default printer MS Word

>> > 2007

>> > started crashing when you launch it.

>> >

>> > Dell ships a single install package for the printer for XP,Win2k3, and

>> > Vista.

>> > I installed the latest on the server and could see the new driver

>> > version,

>> > but the Vista laptops still crash Word unless I set them to use the

>> > Microsoft

>> > XPS Document printer driver. Then it loads, but of course you can't

>> > print.

>> >

>> > I've browsed the Dell driver package and it appears that there is only

>> > one

>> > driver for XP and Vista, yet the XP network clients work fine and the

>> > Vista

>> > ones fail.

>> > I found someone else online saying XP and Vista are supposed to use a

>> > local

>> > driver, if it is available, even when printing to a network printer.

>> > So I tried installing the drivers directly on the laptop, but it still

>> > crashed Word.

>> >

>> > As a temporary fix I setup one of the laptops to print directly to the

>> > printer's IP instead of through the network share. That worked, but it

>> > defeats the purpose of having a network share where I can change the

>> > default

>> > print settings.

>> >

>> > For this printer I actually have 3 queues on the printer server, one

>> > for

>> > draft printouts that uses less toner and prints strictly in B/W,

>> > another

>> > for

>> > full color, and another for Postscript. I would really like this to

>> > work

>> > with Vista, otherwise as machines are replaced over time my print

>> > queues

>> > become less and less meaningful, and the printer having a limited

>> > memory

>> > will

>> > begin to cause clients to stall when printing.

>> >

>> > Does anyone have a solution other than upgrading the server to Win2k8?

>> > If not, does anyone know for sure that would work?

>>

>>

>>

[Guest Scott S.]

Re: MS Word crashes when loading with default network printer

 

Actually I mentioned that I have 3 different printer queues, the last being

for PostScript. But the default one we use is the Draft Black and White one

which is PCL.

 

"Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:

> I confirmed the Dell PS driver has a reference counting problem. You had

> made the comment on the first post that you were using a PS share so I only

> focused on the PS driver. That info will get to Dell.

>

> --

> Alan Morris

> Windows Printing Team

> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:

> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

>

> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

>

> "Scott S." <ScottS@community.nospam> wrote in message

> news:383A2428-2878-494D-8767-9AB4D09E5CED@microsoft.com...

> > Alan,

> >

> > Yes it is the latest driver. It was the PCL driver that was having the

> > issue.

> > I solved the problem, but I don't really understand what is/was going on.

> >

> > We had no problem selecting the printer from the directory and adding it

> > to

> > the laptop and setting it as the default printer.

> >

> > Based on your statement of expecting the same failure in the explorer I

> > tried some things. We could double click it and see an empty print queue.

> > We

> > could right click it and choose properties and get the driver GUI and play

> > with any tab page. So it seemed that you were wrong about that.

> >

> > Everything seemed fine, except when loading MS-Word or MS-PowerPoint. But

> > I

> > know they load the printer driver immediatley in order to format the

> > documents.

> >

> > So I went looking and I found a Vista desktop setup for software testing,

> > but it was Vista x64. I figured I try it anyway. It connected to the

> > printer fine and it printed first try.

> >

> > So back on the laptop, I tried opening plain old Notepad. It opened fine.

> > I typed "Testing 1 2 3" and then tried to print. I then got a pop up box

> > asking about installing the printer driver with the yes button having the

> > "admin mode shield" on it. I clicked yes, then something flashed by and

> > then

> > it appeared again. I clicked Yes again, again something flashed by. Then

> > we

> > got a different pop up that said something like "A StartDoc printer call

> > was

> > not issued" with just an Ok button. Then we were back to Notepad.

> >

> > I had tried pushing print screen when the popup window was up, but

> > afterward

> > I couldn't paste anything. So I tried to print again expecting it to

> > happen

> > again so I could write them down, but this time Notepad printed just fine.

> >

> > I then tried launching MS-Word and it opened fine also ... so I don't

> > think

> > it is a bug in the driver. And if it were, would the problem have also

> > appeared when the driver was installed locally and set to print directly

> > to

> > the printer's IP?

> >

> > Very strange solution, but it worked.

> >

> > Thinking about it now as I was typing this I went back to the test machine

> > with Vista x64 and checked ... sure enough it had UAC turned off. It made

> > me

> > wonder if it would have had the same problem if UAC had been on. Next

> > time I

> > get a new machine I'll have to remember to try turning it off to see what

> > happens.

> >

> > Is it possible a piece of Office 2007 that both MS-Word and MS-PowerPoint

> > use is missing a place where it should cause a UAC prompt to appear? Any

> > idea if I'm onto something here?

> >

> > Thanks for the help,

> > Scott

> >

> >

> > "Alan Morris [MSFT]" wrote:

> >

> >> Normally, if the application crashes, this is due to the print driver's

> >> UI

> >> component corrupting the memory of the application. I would expect the

> >> same

> >> failure in explorer when loading printer properties of the connection.

> >>

> >> I assume you are using the latest driver available on the Dell web site.

> >>

> >> I'm sure you would have the same failure if the print server were 2008.

> >>

> >> Can you use the Dell provided Vista driver for the 3100cn PCL6 or 3100cn

> >> PS

> >> for this device? You can install the Vista inbox driver by remotely

> >> adding

> >> the driver to Server 2003 from a Vista client logged on as a user with

> >> admin

> >> rights to the print server.

> >>

> >>

> >> I'll confirm where the 3110cn PS driver fails and forward to someone to

> >> contact Dell.

> >> --

> >> Alan Morris

> >> Windows Printing Team

> >> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:

> >> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

> >>

> >> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no

> >> rights.

> >>

> >> --

> >> Alan Morris

> >> Windows Printing Team

> >> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:

> >> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

> >>

> >> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no

> >> rights.

> >>

> >> "Scott S." <ScottS@community.nospam> wrote in message

> >> news:5A269D1A-5251-4A1C-97B2-00CBE7585ED0@microsoft.com...

> >> >I have a Win2k3 server (not R2 but current on all SPs) that is a print

> >> >server.

> >> > It holds the print queue for a Dell 3110cn printer.

> >> > All was well until we got 2 new laptops with Vista.

> >> > Once they were pointed at that printer as their default printer MS Word

> >> > 2007

> >> > started crashing when you launch it.

> >> >

> >> > Dell ships a single install package for the printer for XP,Win2k3, and

> >> > Vista.

> >> > I installed the latest on the server and could see the new driver

> >> > version,

> >> > but the Vista laptops still crash Word unless I set them to use the

> >> > Microsoft

> >> > XPS Document printer driver. Then it loads, but of course you can't

> >> > print.

> >> >

> >> > I've browsed the Dell driver package and it appears that there is only

> >> > one

> >> > driver for XP and Vista, yet the XP network clients work fine and the

> >> > Vista

> >> > ones fail.

> >> > I found someone else online saying XP and Vista are supposed to use a

> >> > local

> >> > driver, if it is available, even when printing to a network printer.

> >> > So I tried installing the drivers directly on the laptop, but it still

> >> > crashed Word.

> >> >

> >> > As a temporary fix I setup one of the laptops to print directly to the

> >> > printer's IP instead of through the network share. That worked, but it

> >> > defeats the purpose of having a network share where I can change the

> >> > default

> >> > print settings.

> >> >

> >> > For this printer I actually have 3 queues on the printer server, one

> >> > for

> >> > draft printouts that uses less toner and prints strictly in B/W,

> >> > another

> >> > for

> >> > full color, and another for Postscript. I would really like this to

> >> > work

> >> > with Vista, otherwise as machines are replaced over time my print

> >> > queues

> >> > become less and less meaningful, and the printer having a limited

> >> > memory

> >> > will

> >> > begin to cause clients to stall when printing.

> >> >

> >> > Does anyone have a solution other than upgrading the server to Win2k8?

> >> > If not, does anyone know for sure that would work?

> >>

> >>

> >>

>

>

>