MS Word crashes when loading with default network printer

[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?

 

[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?

 

[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?
>
>
>

 

[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?
>>
>>
>>

 

[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?
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>
>