[Solved] OO can not find my printer

[Grandpa]

I have used OO for several years without any problems at all, some days ago I updated F-secure IS and several strange things happend in my PC after that (it's now uninstalled and replaced by an other IS and the PC is like new again), one thing is that I can not find the printer in OO, so I uninstalled OO and cleaned registry and everything, I also removed the printer, after that I reinstalled OO 3.4.1 and then the printer, I also renamed the folder "user" to "user.old" and restarted OO, but OO don't find any printer anyway, but it did work fine in OO before the incident with updating F-secure, and it still works fine in other programs but not in OO.

I can't think of anything more to do, so I'm out of options and really need help.

[RoryOF]

Have you rebooted your computer _after_ reinstalling the printer?

How is the printer connected - USB, LPT, Network, WiFi or serial?

What model printer?

[Grandpa]

It's a OKI C530dn and is connected with USB, and yes it's rebooted and it print out in everything excepte in OO, also as default printer.

[Grandpa]

In file/printer settings I get a message: No default priter was found. Choose a printer and try again.
Clicking OK open "Adjust printer", but there are no printer to choose.

[RoryOF]

It is "dn", which means it has a network connection. It is worth connecting it to your internet router with a network cable and trying it as a network printer. There have been some reports of printers not driving from OpenOffice. From memory (very fuzzy) many of these were Windows 64bit.

[Grandpa]

Thanks RoryOF.

Didn't think about that.
So I installed the OKI as a network printer, but it's the same as before, it can print out in other programs but not in Open office.
But it's also strange, cos if I hold the mousepointer over the icon "print directly" a notice shows the name of the printer but it doesn't print anything if I click it.

[RoryOF]

Ths looks as if there is some incompatability between the OKI printer driver and OpenOffice. If we knew what printer the OKI emulated, you could install it as that and see if that worked,

OK, I''ve done a little reserach: the OKI seems to emulate PCL6 and PCL5c printers. You could install another printer, selecting HP 4500 PCL 5c driver (on the same connection, be it network or USB), and see if that works. Alternately, if you have OKI installed as PCL 6, try PCL5c instead.

[Grandpa]

Hi RoryOF.
It says PCL only, the driver I have downloaded from the website says PCL, x64, type 3.
But it's the same as earlier when they worked together, I also have scanned the whole PC for conflicts, errors in system or what ever, and I just don't find anything, and that's what is so strange, cos there always use to be a solution to find somewhere, but now I'm really lost.
So I'm really greatful to have your support RoryOF, really.

[Grandpa]

One more thing, after have tried to print a document, Open office crasch and try to recover the document.

[RoryOF]

I'd suggest looking at the OKI site again. I found PCL 6 drivers. From memory PCL 3 is quite old.

[Grandpa]

I downloaded driver PCL5C, but in driver options it say PCL, x64, type 3, its however the latest driver I can find.
I just printed a PDF, it works just fine but still OO can not find the printer.

[RoryOF]

I suspect the problem is to do with OpenOffice being 32 bit and your Windows being 64 bit; it is possible that the earlier working of the printer has been stopped by some update of a system file. I can't make any other suggestion than that you try (say) the HP 4500 driver as another printer on the same connection. This at least will leave your C530 printer available to all other applications.

[Grandpa]

Can find Laserjet 4515 PCL6, 4014/4015 PCL6, 4200/4300 PCL6.
Also Officejet J4500, but that's a inkprinter, right?

[RoryOF]

I may have miss typed. Try HP 4700c
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/Te ... sId=473038

[RoryOF]

It might also be worth downloading and reinstalling Windows 7 Service Pack 1. I am aware that automatic updates should have loaded this, but a manual reinstall sometimes helps sort out peculiar problems.

[Grandpa]

Downloaded HP PCL6 driver, so I have now two printers at the same USB, but OO don't find any of them, also tried as network printer, OO doesn't find them either, have cleaned my registry again, also cleaned some 0-byte files, but no way.
It might be as you say RoryOF, something have changed in system files, it's very likely cos after updated F-secure IS strange things happend.

Yeah, that might be a good idea to reinstall SP 1 as you say, thanks.

[RoryOF]

No matter what the current fashion is, I find it is _always_ advisable to restart any operating system after a major system-level update.

[Grandpa]

Affter looking around I found Service pack 1, uninstalled it, downloaded SP1.exe and installed it, after some restarting I downloaded 28 new updates, reboot again, evrything done, start OO writer, and no printer to be found, no OKI or any of my two Brother labelprinters, not even the HP PCL6, all of my printers works everywhere else but not in OO.

[RoryOF]

OK. Last gasp effort. It can sometimes happen that the order of installation matters to OpenOffice; it is worth reinstalling your printer _after_ OpenOffice (and rebooting), to see if that works.

[Grandpa]

Uninstalled the printer, rebooted and installed it again, rebooted but OO can not find any printer.

[RoryOF]

I came across this earlier topic, where the poster notesa fix (in the last post)
http://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/vi ... 15&t=59636

It might be worth trying. Also my post in the same thread about switching the USB port from bidirectional might work - it was reported to work back in early OOo v3 days. If trying that port configuration change one should probably reboot Windows to be sure it has taken.

[Grandpa]

After uninstalled F-secure IS, I installed Comodo IS instead, included in Comodo there is a program who search for errors, Anti error, that program doesn't fix the problems but it connects to a support who can help fix the problems.
Jeremy, the supporter connected to my PC and started look around in a lot of folders and files, then he sarted clean here and there, renamed some folders to .old and made new ones, also OO-folders, he did work with my PC for at least an hour, but he fixed it.

I consider my self as pretty good as a user to fix errors, but I must say that Jeremy is in a class way way over me, he did things I didn't know they even was possible to do or that theese things even excisted.
Okay, it cost me 49,95 USD for one year support, but it's really worth it.
So everything is all right now, some other issues that happend when updated F-secure are also fixed.
If someone else gets into trubbel that seems to impossible to solve, I really recommend this way.

[RoryOF]

It is good that you have got the problem fixed, even if it did cost money! I suggest that you should do a complete system backup to DVD, so that if the problem reoccurs you can restore the system to today's setup. You should backup your data separately, so that a system restore does not overwrite (and henceerase) your latest work.

[Grandpa]

Yes, it came to my mind too.

In this PC I have three harddrives plus one is an extern.
One HD for op.system and programs, one for documents and downloaded files, one for all my photos, and the external unit is for backup and copys of documents and photos.

All my downloded files I burn to DVD when they take to much space and I like to have more space for new ones, this includes the programs too as they are downloaded but theese I burn on seperated DVD.
I also have Win 7 / 64 pro wich means that it makes systembackup (I think that's the right word for it in English) to the ext.HD once every week, not all my programs included as I got them on DVDs, together with a systemrepairdisc I can restore "the can".

For half a year ago my C:\, a SSD drive crashed, I had to install windows a new on the new drive and I got all programs on DVDs, but it was a lot of job to get it the way I wanted again, so I'm really glad my problem with OO and the printer got solved without reinstall Windows again.
This way to keep documents, photos, programs or what ever in two places I feel pretty safe.

I thank you RoryOF for helping me try to fix the problem, I learned something more I haven't been thinking about before, about SP1, I will keep that in mind.

[RoryOF]

Saving to DVD can be troublesome in time, as DVDs can deteriorate over time (years?), becoming unreadable. There is a program called DVDisaster which constructs a safety recovery image from DVDs, but it has to be run before any deterioration.

[ghubbs]

After connecting my printer directly to my computer and setting that as default I found Open Office was still looking for the printer online and will not print. Now I have quite a few documents in que and don't know what to do.

[ghubbs]

It was a network configuration issue...problem solved !