[gdulmage]

Running Windows Vista Home Premium.
When I boot up for the first time each day, and I go to FilePrint, the
printer goes through its print process , making all the noise as if it
is going to print, and then shuts down. When I do File/print again, it
prints and does so for the rest of the day. If I reboot for any reason,
I have to go through the same thing again.
Any Suggestions?

[ARock84]

How old is the printer? It dosen't sound like you have any issues with your print drivers, since there is communication between your computer and your printer! Also make sure your print spooler is starting, when you start your computer, this may be the cause! If its not running you can't print any documents, so when you tell it to print the first time you may be turning it o, and then the second time you tell it to print, its on so it decides to print. Try it out and see what hasppens.



ARock84

[rgreen4]

Also - do you a) leave the printer on all the time b) turn it on before you turn on the computer or c) turn it on after the computer.
What brand and model of printer is it?

[gdulmage]

The printer is an HP Laserjet 1020 and the driver is an up-to-date vista driver.

You said, " make sure your print spooler is starting." this seems like it coulld be true, but I don't know how to start the spooler. Also, I have the printer on all the time.

[rgreen4]

Actually Arock84 mentioned the spooler, not me. But Windows is quirky about starting Windows first and then the printer. Some machines will not recognize a printer turned on that way. Since you leave your printer on all the time (as do I) that should not be the problem. If you ever turn it off, just remember to turn it on before you start the computer as then the computer will recognize the presence of the printer.

The Laserjet 1020 as all of that series is, is host based. That means the printing process is performed on the computer and then the image is sent to the printer. The HP 2xxx and higher series are all printer based meaning the printing process is performed in the printer so it does not use computer resources.

This brings up the next question. Are you attempting to do the file/print very shortly after booting the computer? When the computer goes through the boot process, after the desktop appears and then the sidebar appears, there are still several other background programs it has to go through, such as loading the anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.

What program are you using to send the print job to the printer?

[ARock84]

See if any of these ideas work for you. If not I will post how to check your print spooler.....I know at work sometimes documents won't print on some personal printers and you have to go in and delete hung up files that are waiting to be printed, that just have never been printed. Not sure why they don't print, but they like to hang up. There is also a couple other files that have to be deleted with this process. But try the other methods first, since you can print.



ARock84

[gdulmage]

Are you attempting to do the file/print very shortly after booting the computer?

No, I just tried today for the first time, 4 hours after booting.

What program are you using to send the print job to the printer?

It does this with every program. All the MS Office programs as well as DreamWeaver, WinmaIl, my tax program, etc.

[gdulmage]

Just an aside. It does this when I try to print on my photo printer (Hp Photosmart 8150) and my Wife's HP Photosmart 7660.

I am interested in the turing on the print spooler idea.

[ARock84]

Through Vista go to start search... and type in services open that program to get your services that are open.

Find the Print Spooler and make sure that it is set to automatic start.

By the sounds of it you do not need to delete any files since you can print, just that it gets hung up and dosnt want to print at first. See if this will fix your problem or not. Im not sure exactley what files have to be deleted since I did this over 1 yr ago. But I will find out if need be. Good Luck



ARock84

[rgreen4]

After you verify the Spooler is set right, also try this. Thanks Asrock for that tip, I didn't know that was there.

It may be a timing out problem. It it takes too long to wake the printer up before it gets a response back, Vista may shut down the print. As for the print spooler, I'm not sure you can even turn it off in Vista. We will come to that feature later.

First, lets do a few tests. I will be gone most of the day tomorrow, and will be getting ready for the trip tonight, so I won't be on much longer.

The first test is to create a pure text file by using Wordpad. (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Wordpad) Just one line should work and save the file in your documents folder. I called mine test.txt.

Then open a command window (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt). You should get a window with a black background and white text. If your window open with the default you should have a flashing cursor at the end of the prompt of "C:Usersusername>" where username is the ID you signed onto the machine as. Enter the command "CD Documents" and hit enter. Then the directory of Documents should follow your username in the prompt. Enter the command "DIR" and you should see the file test.txt (or what ever you called it) listed.

Then enter the command "copy test.txt prn" and hit enter. Now this won't work for me as I have only network attached printers and it won't work with them, only directly attached printers. If this works, then there is one more test to do.

Open your printers box by Start -> Control Panel and under Hardware and Sound, click on the word "printer". This will list all the attached printers. Then double click on the printer you want to use and you should get a box that looks like this:



This is the print spooler (double click on the above thumbnail image to enlarge and sharpen it)

With this open, print something to this printer in the conditions you encounter (first print of the morning) and see what is listed and how quickly it is listed. If there is a problem it should show error in status. Post back the results.

I tried this with my printer, using Word2007 to print a one page item that pre-existed. Immediately after clicking on print, I clicked to the window with the spooler and it was already listing "Spooling" followed shortly by "Printing" in the status column, then the line disappeared and the error light on the printer illuminated (I had the paper drawer open). Since the error was at the printer, not the connection or in the spooler, my computer thought the page was printed. (After I closed the paper tray, it did.)

[gdulmage]

You won't believe this!

When I go to the Cmd prompt in C:usersglenndocuments and do a DIR of test.txt or .txt or Test. it returns test.txt.

However, when I type copy test,txt prn it returns "cannot find file" Ugh!

I then shut down the printer and turned it back on and while in Windows Vista I opened test.txt and sent it to the printer. It appeard briefly in the print spooler window and then jsut disappeared. When I tried to print it the second time, it printed correctly.

I also checked the Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Print Spooler/Properties and the spooler is set for Start and Automatic.

I think at this pont we shoulld drop this. It is noot that much trouble once a day to send something to the printer twice. Thanks for all you r time and trouble.

[gdulmage]

I checked the Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Print Spooler/Properties and the spooler is set for Start and Automatic.

Also, see my answer to rgreen4 for more.

Why don't we just drop this? It is not too much trouble to send a document to the printer 2 times once each day.

Thanks for all you help.

[rgreen4]

I hate to give up, but sometimes the effort to solve something is greater than the effort to go around it.

The fact that it shows up in the spooler and then quickly disappears says it is sending it to the print processor, which as I pointed out earlier is in the computer on that series of printer. It may be a driver issue.

Before we give up completely, open again the printer box that shows the document spooling, and click on printer and then on properties in the pull down menu. In the box that opens, click on the "About" tab and see what date and version show up for the driver. Looking up the drivers, there are actually two. One is for Plug-n-play for USB connected printers, but the other is also for USB connected printers but is designed to be installed before hooking up the drivers. Both are dated 12/10/2007.

Here is the link .

[ARock84]

One last thing that I would try befor I give up would be uninstall the printer and reinstall it.... Who knows maybe one of the files got curropted. But make sure to go and delete everything before reinstalling....I.E. Drivers and any programs that may have been asociated with it! :)

Good Luck



ARock84

[gdulmage]

:) Well, what do you know! I went to the link and reinstalled the driver (actually downloaded both drivers, but only one would install - dont ask) and now the printer prints first time as soon as I turn it on!!!!

Thank you so much for your help.

[gdulmage]

I think you can see by my answer to rgreen4 that jhe sent me a link to new drivers which I installed and now the printer works as it should.

Thank you for your help also.

[rgreen4]

You are welcome. That's what the community is about.