Vista - Vista 64 installs printers, won't print

My Vista 64bit system has suddenly decided to not print at all. I had no problems in the past, but last week I started to receive an error notice with programs: 'before you print, you need to select a printer...' (wordpad and adobe pdf reader); if I try to print a document in Word 2007, I get an error message that reads: 'windows cannot print due to a problem with the current printer setup.' With Firefox I get 'an unknown error occurred while printing.'

I have tried deleting all my printers (a Canon all in one and an HP Laser Jet 1320) and reinstalling them. That worked once, but the problem recurred shortly thereafter. Now, if I delete and reinstall, I still can't get the printers to work, and I get the same old error messages.

How does one go about fixing a problem like this? Can I use my original Vista install disk to fix just the printer function and leave everything else alone? This is, as you can imagine, a debilitating problem.

PS: In trying to troubleshoot, I'm finding that both printers will print a Windows Printer Test Page if I click on 'properties'. And, according to the test pages, 'If you can read this information, you have correctly installed your [printer]'

So, something really strange is happening here: the printers are installed, but for some reason none of my applications seem to be able to talk to them. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

We develop software and we are convinced that this is not an Intuit problem, but a bug in VISTA 64.
In particular a Windows API DocumentProperties function call to get size of DEVMODE record for printer properties. See,
On Vista x64, DocumentProperties fails from UAC-elevated process - MSDN Forums

It does not affect all VISTA 64 users or all applications. Since it affects some Intuit users it appears to point to Intuit.

You need to report this to Microsoft. Loudly.
When the bug appears, it affects all printers installed on that computer. So it is not a printer driver problem.

I see no mention of Intuit in the OP's post as seen here on the message
from the MS NNTP server. This message seems to have come through a gateway
to this newsgroup.

Regardless-

The failure sequence might have been: function/system call -> printer driver
failure -> spooler failure (possibly involving a prior RPC) -> failure of
all printer drivers.

If the fault only appears in conjunction with the Intuit program, perhaps
some help can be had from them.

Scant help, I know but that's all I can say given the OP's information as
seen here.
--

Tom
MSMVP 1998-2007




"ddlnick" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:68e6160e305315471b3d231f284f8836@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

I am the original poster-- I did not mention Intuit because, in fact, I have no Intuit software on my computer. However, this does appear to me to be a VISTA 64 issue, and it does, in fact affect all printers installed on the computer. After many hours in chat with the Microsoft Vista online support people, the problem does appear to be connected to spooler functions, but we were not able to solve it. I finally used my backup and system restore to restore my system to a point two weeks ago, and my printing seems to work again.

The only significant additional software I added to my computer in the past two weeks was Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil for Windows, which I was using to stream foobar to a couple of airport express's. I have no idea if the problem is connected to that, but I sent an email to Rogue Amoeba's customer support.

I don't know how long this 'fix' is going to work or whether I solved anything in the long run by restoring from an earlier point, so if anyone has insight into this problem, please tell me!

Some more notes based on our experience with VISTA64 and printing problems. First, 32 bit applications run on a 'virtual environment' called WOW64 in the VISTA64 system. This might be important.

As neatokino noted, a 'restore' to some previous point does work, sometimes. For us, downloading Windows updates returns the problem.

The difficulty is convincing Microsoft that there is a problem with their system. In general, for previous reports of the problem, Microsoft cannot reproduce the problem, so the case is 'closed', and the suffering software application trying to print is blamed. The problem only appears on some computers. From a programmer's perspective, it appears to be an 'initialization' situation, ie. the memory where some data variable/s happen to be stored, on a particular computer, may or may not have default value/s that are favorable or unfavorable to a function call's result. As programmers, we are taught to initialize all data to some known value, usually 0. So if the data happens to be assigned memory that happens to have a proper initialized value, the problem does not appear. On another computer, the data may be assigned to memory with some random value, which may cause the function to return 'failure'.

In this case, we traced the call to DocumentProperties() which is used to retrieve properties of a selected printer. There are two calls. The first call is a simple request for the size of the DEVMODE structure that the printer driver will need to fill with that printer's properties. The application uses the size to allocate memory for the properties which are filled in by a second call to DocumentProperties().

It is the first call that fails, no matter which printer is selected. It is a very simple request, and one 32 bit integer value should be returned in the range of 500 to 5000 or so. A -1 is returned, when the bug manifests itself. A call to 'GetLastError()' does not indicate any error.

Microsoft also provides a 'PrintDlg()' method in a comdlg32.dll which provides a convenient 'wrapper' for the 'OpenPrinter()' and 'DocumentProperties()' and other printer management functions. Using PrintDlg(), the error returned from CommDlgExtendedError() is CDERR_MEMLOCKFAILURE 0x0000000a which seems to indicate that a 'lock' on allocated memory of -1 size (-1 is also 0xffffffff a very large number) is failing.

These are hints for the Microsoft programmers to check. I don't see a whole lot of code to check. The size of DEVMODE request would seem to be a straight 'pass through' to the printer driver identified by the 'handle' received from previous 'OpenPrinter()' call. Since all printers fail, when the bug manifests itself, then the software code 'to' and 'back' from the printer driver call needs to be reviewed.

I have the same EXACT problem. After many many hours on my own and with HP
phone support(which was no help at all) I finally figured out that it's the
Airfoil program that causes the problem. Once it's screwed up I was unable to
fix it and had to do a complete restore to the initial factory setup (twice).

I've e-mailed Rogue Amoeba to see if there's a remedy but haven't heard from
them yet.

HP pavillion desktop
Vista home premium (64bit)
HP C5280 photosmart printer

"neatokino" wrote:

Neatokino has indicated that printing problem affects well known programs including ones from Microsoft own 'stable of programs' - Wordpad and Word 2008. And other well known programs Adobe .pdf Reader, Mozilla Firefox browser. I have noted 64 bit printer problems on Intuit's (Quicken and Quickbooks) forum.

This NOT an individual application problem, but a VISTA 64 bit problem, and Microsoft needs to 'take notice' and fix the problem. I have posted on Microsoft's developer - MSDN - forum, but no response from Microsoft.

It is time to start taking the 64 bit systems back to 'Best Buy' or similar, and tell them to replace with a system that works, i.e. 32 bit VISTA.

Same problem. I have added no new software. I have Vista Home Premium x64 on the computer.

How do I go back? What upgrade in Vista caused the errors to occur? Can I restore to the day before that and turn off the auto update vista system?

I am not a technical computer guy. I make plastic bottles for a living, but I need to print.....

It appears that Microsoft does not have a 'handy web form' or email address
to send 'bug' reports to. They used to have such a way to report problems.
Either they were 'swamped' with reports, or have decided that there are no
more 'bugs' in any Microsoft product?

We 'googled' 'Printing problems in 64 Bit VISTA' or similar and found three
'forums' with discussions on the subject. We figured a moderator would
take some interest and action to investigate. Apparently in this case,
Microsoft did a brief investigation, could not 'reproduce', and thus 'closed
the case'.

Microsoft's 'developer' forum. This forum has the best chance of 'getting
attention'. We have traced the problem to the specific Microsoft API
(DocumentProperties()) that fails to return the expected results.
On Vista x64, DocumentProperties fails from UAC-elevated process - MSDN Forums

Some users of Intuit's Quicken 2008 have the same problem. Maybe someone at
Intuit has some contacts at Microsoft? Some 'work arounds' discussed.
Quicken Community - Solution to Printing Problems Vista 64 Quicken 2008

www.vista64.com seems to be 'official looking', and appears to be good place
to
collect and discuss problems on VISTA 64.
Vista 64 installs printers, won't print

In our case, we have 32 bit software that runs fine on all versions of
Windows starting with Windows 95. The printing interface used is provided
in the official Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC). We use Visual C++ 6.0
(getting a little 'old' perhaps, but works fine for our purposes). We can
reproduce the problem on a HP 64 bit VISTA touch screen tablet pc - state of
the art.

Some work arounds have been discussed on the forums mentioned. Lowering the
'execution level' from Administrator to Standard level seems to fix the
problem for us, until Windows Updates 'kick in' on their daily downloads.
Some of our customers report that a 're-boot' (power off/on restart) fixes
the problem until Windows Updates. The forums lists other 'tricks'.

Same problem just appeared on my system (vista home premium running on laptop with AMD Turion 64 x2). Every program I've tried to print from (currently MS Word, Adobe Acrobat, Netscape) has it. Printers look installed, and will print a test page if you go to the printer from control panel, and select "properties" off the file panel and then click print test page. Haven't tried rebooting yet, nor contacted MS; the problem just appeared. Looks like a problem MS needs to fix, quick--it has me thinking maybe I'll try a Mac next time. Will post a fix if I find one that works for me.

hbarnum