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Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/21/2010 10:25:20 PM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		Shit, don't wonder why I ask here, people here know just about everything.

I got a new system, the OS (XP Pro Corp) is reloaded. I have Office 97 Pro. As far as I know nothing has changed since it worked fine.

Recently it will not print. When I go to print and after telling me the printer in that window I hit OK and the program closes immediately. What's more in the "About" thing, with the version and all that, my product ID has changed. I have a product ID that works with almost everything Microshaft put out up until 1998. I know it by heart, if anyone has need Cmail me, I don't think it's quite right to just put it out here. But the fact is that it has changed. How the hell did that happen ?

That is my media PC, and it handles all the printing, file serving and whatever in this house and once I get the majicjack siuatiion straighened out it will handle that as well because it never gets shut off. I even have the PC-TV  interface and it is hooked up to about a four hundred watt amplifier. Right nw for me the monitor is big enough so I don't need to hook up a bigscreen. In the future I might, might not.

But the thing is why won't it print. I tesed printing out of other programs and it works fine. In fact when I rebooted I let the PC go off and tested the copy function of the HP MFP and it worked fine. Even after the reboot, 97 would not print and did the same thing, close as soon as I hit OK. Other programs are fine. Of course now that I think of it other programs are not from microsoft. Just XP and Office.

Any guesses on this ? Might it have something to do with the keycode ? If so I can remove the damn thing and start from scratch. Strange though, I did reinstall Office and it went really quick and did not ask me for a key. Could I have the wrong disk, like a student version or something ? If so I'll have to look for the right one, and I know I have it somewhere.

Regardless, all I want it to do is print.

T
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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/21/2010 10:47:44 PM   
Justme696


Posts: 3236
Joined: 1/7/2008
From: Royal kingdom of the Netherlands
Status: offline 		If you have a wrong "disk" then you might be blacklisted. ( contact Microsoft)

Also..do you have the cable attached? ( last time my neigbours had that problem...they had no cable attached..lol)..copying still works with out cable.

Also demo disks of the office package stop printing afther a while. But as you already have it several years..I guess you have the full version.

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/21/2010 11:16:17 PM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		It's OEM from EEK - Packard Bell !

Could it really be that ? I think I got a newer version floating around somewhere but I like the old one. I like things to happen immediately so I do have programs that were designed to run on a 486 on a new PC, dual core, bunch of gigahertz, two gigs of ram and a half terabyte drive. With older software everything opens in the blink of an eye, and I like that, especially since I already know how to USE said old software.

Cable is attached, I did print out of PSP 4 and Notepad without a problem. But word just closes.

T

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/22/2010 4:50:58 AM   
DarkSteven


Posts: 28072
Joined: 5/2/2008
Status: offline 		My guess is that Office magically autoupdated itself to a more current rev, and screwed up the printer driver internal to it somehow in the process.

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/22/2010 7:51:57 AM   
pahunkboy


Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline 		maybe un-install and reinstall the printer.

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/22/2010 8:49:25 AM   
DomKen


Posts: 19457
Joined: 7/4/2004
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline 		try uninstalling Office and reinstalling.

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/22/2010 10:51:18 AM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		I guess that's the best course of action right now, totally remove it and start over.

Incidentally I did try to install 97 Pro on a Vista machine. It runs but did not claim the file extentions. But that might be because a trail version of the the newer version came with it.

One nice thing is now I have the space to reinstall everything, even the OS. It's been done once and my C:\WINDOWS is already cahnged to C:\WINDOW. Next time it might be C:\WINDO.

But really, the first next thing to do is probably uninstall it completely, and delete all of it's created directories. Nice thing is I have the disk on the harddrive, so it does install very quickly.

I keep you "posted"

T

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/22/2010 11:27:06 AM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		Now this is really fucked up. I removd it completely and reinstalled it with my own keycode, and it now reads it out right, but it still does the same thing.

However I did find that if I don't go to File>Print, and just use the print icon it does work. However I want to print a bunch of copies, and then take the same pages and reinsert upside down, then they get cut in half. I guess I can do it this way but it is uncanny how this particular problem exists. Why does it work from the icon but not from the file menu where I can tell it to print ten or twenty copies ?

In other words, is Microsoft Office Profeesional 97 actually crippleware ? It wouldn't surprise me one bit. Maybe I should look into getting Openoffice.

Fact is I don't trust Bill gates anymore than Alex Jones. Maybe I should go see what the Linux people are up to.

T

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/22/2010 11:42:25 AM   
CalifChick


Posts: 10717
Joined: 10/28/2007
From: California
Status: offline 		Go to Microsoft Support:  http://support.microsoft.com/ 

Look for the service paks for Office 97 and download them.  Make sure the OS is compatible with Office and make sure both are compatible with your printer.  Go to your printer's support page and make sure you have the correct drivers.

Cali


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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/22/2010 12:15:21 PM   
ShaharThorne


Posts: 11071
Joined: 2/24/2009
From: Somewhere in TX
Status: offline 		What cali said...

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/22/2010 12:23:41 PM   
stella41b


Posts: 4258
Joined: 10/16/2007
From: SW London (UK)
Status: offline 		Switch to Linux.

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/22/2010 12:37:42 PM   
pahunkboy


Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline 		Throw it out the window.


that is why they call it- dare I say?


Windows

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/22/2010 5:42:38 PM   
MasterG2kTR


Posts: 6677
Joined: 8/7/2004
From: Wisconsin
Status: offline 		Is this a 64 bit version of XP ?  If it is that in itself could be the reason for the problem. XP -64 doesn't play well with many legacy programs.

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/23/2010 10:24:17 AM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		All good, but it used to work. It's now a matter of figuring out what happened. The OS did not change, the PC didn't change and the printer didn't change. It just won't print out of the file menu.

Should be known that I don't cry wolf when it is only a little puppy at the door. In other words I do try to solve things on my own, this is just a bit extra wierd. And I think it is one hell of a twist that it will print using the icon rather than the menu. So it is obviously still in possesion of whatever the interface is to the print driver(s).

I might just have to upgrade it as much as I hate that prospect. I'll have to look through my stack of disks and keycodes and see what I got. The oldest newer version is what 2000 ? I might just have that.

As usual I'll keep you "posted".

T

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/23/2010 11:29:02 AM   
sub4hire


Posts: 6775
Joined: 1/1/2004
Status: offline
Sounds like it may be a virus to me.  Ran any lately?  The kid next door was having the same issues.  After scanning for adware...then installing a current virus program on his computer it worked fine.  Took me a couple of hours though.

Just an idea.

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/23/2010 12:21:46 PM   
Fitznicely


Posts: 1597
Joined: 10/18/2006
Status: offline 		Two things to try:

Reset the print spooler: Right click on "My computer", go to "Manage", in the console, go to "services and applications", then Services and look for "print spooler". Right click on it and you'll see start stop restart, etc...

Stop the service, then start it again. If it's stopped, start it. See what happens.

Now, I KNOW this sounds rudimentary and silly, but I worked for a company not long ago who had a mission critical app that would fuck up every time the office print server went down. Ten second fix, but deeply deeply annoying when you have the entire customer services building calling you to tell you.

Second thing:

Ditch Office 97 POS and get OpenOffice. Better, compatible with BLOODY Office 2003 files, less bloaty and FREE.

< Message edited by Fitznicely -- 2/23/2010 12:26:52 PM >

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/23/2010 10:39:20 PM   
Termyn8or


Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline 		Hmmmm, reup the print spooler. Yes I will have to try that.

If I get Openoffice I'll do it on a spare PC, once I am used to it maybe I'll give 97 the boot.

T

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/24/2010 4:07:59 AM   
Fitznicely


Posts: 1597
Joined: 10/18/2006
Status: offline 		I just remembered, in addition to the stupid, very badly coded misssion critical app that crashed every time the print server hiccuped, we'd reset the spooler to clear problems when our Active Directory management console died. Something to do with DLL files....

Wouldn't happen in Linux...*mutter mutter*


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I tell you this: No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn
Proud Owner of Darkmoonkat. Such a good girl!

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RE: Now here's a wierd PC problem - 2/24/2010 9:17:16 AM   
CalifChick


Posts: 10717
Joined: 10/28/2007
From: California
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Termyn8or

All good, but it used to work. It's now a matter of figuring out what happened. The OS did not change, the PC didn't change and the printer didn't change.



Trust me, that's irrelevant.  Sometimes something will work for years, no changes, no upgrades, no downgrades, etc., and suddenly it will no longer work.  Sometimes a small piece of the code gets corrupted, which may be what happened to you.  That's why we said go get the downloads for your drivers, and make sure the hardware and software is all SUPPOSED to be compatible with each other.

If you're not running a good anti-malware program, try malwarebytes (google it).  The free version is fine if you want to just run a check and have it fix whatever it finds.  We got the paid version ($25 regular price, I found a coupon code online that dropped it to $20).  The paid version runs all the time, blocking malware before it can get established in your computer.

Cali


_____________________________

AKA "The Undisputed Goddess of Sarcasm", "Big Bad Cali" and "Yum Bum". Advisor to the Subbie Mafia, founding member of the W.A.C. and the Judgmental Bitches Brigade, member of the Clan of the Scarlet O'Hair-a's and Team Troll

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