HP LaserJet "Printer not found" problem

[Kit]

Hi, I have a longstanding printing problem which I'm
trying to solve.

When trying to print, the error message "The printer could
not be found" appears. This occurs when printing from
some applications (Adobe Reader, Outlook Express, IE 6)
but not others (Word, Excel). My computer runs Win98SE,
and is printing to an HP LaserJet 3300 via USB cable. The
problem appeared a few months after doing a clean install,
and can be temporarily stopped by setting another printer
as the default printer.

The same problem occurs with Win95 printing via a parallel
cable.

HP say that the problem is caused by missing Windows
files, but they can't tell me which files are missing.

Thanks, Kit

[Kit Carson]

I finally tracked down the problem, and since no-one else
seems to know the answer, thought I should record it here
in case others have the same problem.

The error is a combination of the Windows Print dialog,
which sometimes fails on some computers, and the HP
drivers, which sometimes don't call the Windows Print
dialog correctly.

It seems that the only solution is to use a different
driver. In my case, I was able to eliminate the problem
by using the PostScript driver that came with the printer,
rather than the PCL6 driver.

Kit


>-----Original Message-----
>Hi, I have a longstanding printing problem which I'm
>trying to solve.
>
>When trying to print, the error message "The printer
could
>not be found" appears. This occurs when printing from
>some applications (Adobe Reader, Outlook Express, IE 6)
>but not others (Word, Excel). My computer runs Win98SE,
>and is printing to an HP LaserJet 3300 via USB cable.
The
>problem appeared a few months after doing a clean
install,
>and can be temporarily stopped by setting another printer
>as the default printer.
>
>The same problem occurs with Win95 printing via a
parallel
>cable.
>
>HP say that the problem is caused by missing Windows
>files, but they can't tell me which files are missing.
>
>Thanks, Kit
>.
>