Printers: Common Questions and Answers
What you should find out first
1) Which Version of Maplewood?
2) Which Operating system?
3) Is the Computer networked, if so, which network? If Yes, is the printer networked or local (attached by a cable) to this machine (Note: if using a network, and the printer is attached to the workstation that is having the problems, then the printer is local to that machine).
4) If Windows is running, what is the DEFAULT printer?
Legend
PRB = Problem
S/W = Software (Maplewood)
OS = Operating System
NW = Networked (although printer may be local!)
PRB S/W
| # | Ver | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 01a | Any | Any | - Doesn't print at all | 1) Ensure printer is on.
2) Ensure cables are not loose. 3) (WIN) Check printer timeouts. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 03b | Y | - Stops printing midway through print job. | 1) Out of printer memory (ie. w/wrebu.exe)
2) Go to Start, Settings, Printers, right click on default printer, Properties, Details (tab), Spool Settings (button) and set spooling to On, and set to start printing after First page is spooled. 3) Go into printer description and ensure using Laser codes for Laser printer and Dot matrix code for dot matrix printer. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 04a | Y | - Doesn't start printing until exit | 1) Local Printer - Access your Program Manager, Main Folder, Control Panel, Printers, highlight the default printer, press Connect, ensure "Fast Printing Direct to Port" is turned Off.
2) Follow instructions in PRB04b solution 1. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 04b | Y | - Print job delays for a while before starting | 1) Click Start, Run (in Win3.x, go to Program Manager, click File, Run), type SYSEDIT, click Ok, click Window, select SYSTEM.INI, look for lines (INI sections) that reads "[Network]", and "[IFSMGR]". If you find then, modify the "PrintBufTime=" settings (if they exist, add if they don't) to have value of 10 in each section. If you don't find one or both of the above sections, add them to the end of the .INI file,
|
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 04c | Y | - Doesn't start printing until exiting DOS back to Windows. | 1) Click on Start, Settings, Printers, right click on the default printer Properties, Details (tab), Port Settings (button), set "Spool MS-DOS print jobs" to Off if the printer is Local, and On if the printer is Remote from this computer. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 05a | Y | - Doesn't print at all and gives "Printer not Ready" error. | 1) Printer cable loose.
2) Go to Program Manager, Main Folder, Control Panel, Printers, Default Printer, Properties and set "Use Print Manager" to True. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 05b | Y | - As above. | 1) Network printer capturing not set - to check this in Novell, at the DOS prompt, type: CAPTURE /sh.
To check this in WinNT, type: NET USE. If not captured, ask to have their network admin to capture it. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 06a | Y | - Can't get French accents. | 1) If a C.Itoh serial printer taken to PC from mainframe (ask if they moved to Maplewood from SAS), then French characters not available due to printer architecture
2) If printer is Proprinter compatible, set the printer to Proprinter mode (see manual), and select the Alternate character set. 3) Check printer description leader string - if not set, it will need to be set to use French character set, which they may have to find in their printer manual. 4) EPSON: Use following as leader string for printer description: {27}@{27}C011{27}6{27}t1{27}M{27}0 |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 07a | Y | - Hangs when asking for name of student to print when printing reports. | 1) Likely, the sound is turned off, and they are trying to type name in lower case, which tells Maplewood to search by student letters rather than name. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 08a | - System crashes when trying to print from DOS. | 1) If Laser printer, ensure true laser printer description,
2) If DOT matrix, ensure a true dot matrix description (ie Proprinter) description is selected. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 09a | - Doesn't eject last page. | 1) Go to System Maintenance, Select Printer, Modify Printer Setting, choose printer from list and put "{12}" (less quotes) in the trailer line. Insert this string before any existing string in that field. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 09b | Y | - Doesn't eject last page. | 1) Go to Start, Settings, Printers right click on default printer, Properties, Capture Settings (tab), turn "Form Feed After Job" to On. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 10a | Y | - Prints report every other line. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 11a | Y | - Error during printing from report builder. | 1) WIN31 - Access your Program Manager, Main Folder, Control Panel, regarding downloading, Printers, select the default fonts.printer icon, Setup (button), set "Print Truetype as Graphics to On (if you don't see this option here, click on Options button - different printers have it in different places).
2) WIN95 - Go to Start, Settings, Printers, right click on default printer, Properties, Fonts (tab), set "PrintTruetype as Graphics" to On. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 12a | - Printouts running on to next page in Report Builder. | 1) Go into Report Builder, select Layout, set lines per page and printed lines per page to either 60 or 66 (opposite of current value -depends on which way printouts shifting, and type of printer - normally 60 for laser, and 66 for dot matrix). |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 12b | - Printouts not centered. properly on Avery Labels. | 1) Set lines per student to 9, physical & printed lines per (7 * 2) page as 60 (laser) or 66 (dot matrix), header and footer as 0. The laser settings will 2 labels per page (6*2), unless they set lines per page to 66, which will in turn throw off pages (see PRB# 12a). |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 13a | - Accents not printing properly on Teachers Marks disk. | 1) Laser printers only: look on their teachers marks disk and /or their ADMIN\PR directory for a PC8.EXE program. If it doesn't exist, we need to send it to them (from I:\EXES). This program is to be run before running the teachers marks disk each time. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 14a | - Changes to printer descriptions not changing anything. |
1) Ensure they are selecting the printer description that they are modifying. 2) Ensure they have not substituted any "1" (numeric one) characters for the "l" (alpha lowercase L) in their printer descriptions. 3) Ensure codes are for proper type of printer. |
| # | NW |
Problem |
Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 15a |
- Attendance grid not printing correctly after first page. |
1) Follow directions in PRB#02a solutions 3 and 4. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 16a | - Printer is not holding printer description between printouts. |
1) Windows is resetting printer settings when printer is idle too long. Send print jobs faster, or continuously rather than pause between pages. See PRB04b solution 1 and 2 to fix this problem. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 17a |
- Prints in Maplewood for Windows but not in any other Windows programs after following PRB#02a. |
1) Create Windows printer icons for each: their original settings, and PRB#02 settings. They'll have to select their printer for each print job. This is a temporary fix until there is a proper solution. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 18a | - Prints report card school info on second page on Laser jet printers. | 1) Go to System Maintenance, Select Printer, Modify Descriptions, Undefined, type "REPORT CARDS", enter the following into LEADER string all on one line with no spaces:
{27}E{27}&l6d2a0l0e65F{27}(10U{27}&k0S Enter regular Laserjet printer settings for all other fields. |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 18b | - Page shifts down on each subsequent page. | 1) Go into Leader line and lower the value in front of the F in the portion of the leader string following {27}&l (laser printers only).
2) When prompted for lines per page, if selecting 51, select 47 instead (transcripts only). |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 19a | - 1/4" too far to right on HP Deskjet series printers for transcripts and they have no string in their LEADER in print description for setting left margin. | 1) Take down the name of school, and give it to Support - they need a special version of program for printing transcripts (ENMOTR.EXE and CHSTTR.EXE). |
| # | NW | Problem | Possible reason(s)/solution(s) |
| 20a | - French high schools using Mark reporting - Final Report card - and the french characters aren't printing here are 3 things to try. | 1) If the printer isn't a Hewlett Packard Laserjet printer. HPLJ3D - try removing the (10U from the leader line. {27}(10U is a PCL code recognized by all of the HP printers (see the HP II and HP VI manuals sitting on support shelf). Other brands of HP compatibles *might* not recognize this number.
2) Try turning off/rebooting the printer & pc's - This is what worked for L'Horizon; someone may have changed the printer's control panel and turning it reset it back to the defaults. |