Adobe Reader (and only Adobe Reader) Will Not Print

[G8racingfool]

Very rarely have I seen a regular uninstall and reinstall of Adobe Reader fix an Adobe Reader problem. Have you tried removing all the Reader temp files and using the uninstall tool? http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/acrobatcleaner.html

Nice. I'll try this out. I'll admit I didn't realize that Adobe had a cleanup tool for this.

What make and model of printer. PCL3? Can't be anything modern. Spend a $100 on cheap laser that will run rings around old stuff.

The printers (there's two of them, both doing the same thing from the same system) are OfficeJet 8710s so they're pretty modern. That makes it even stranger that there's a PCL-3 driver but no 5 or 6.

 

[Mick]

A very small bell is ringing...I seem to remember something similar from way back with an HP printer - can't remember the model, I'm afraid. Dig into printer properties, get to the 'Advanced' section - assuming there is one - and see if you can find a bunch of options about Spooling. Dicker around with those. Uncheck if checked, check if un-checked - sure you know the drill. Make sure you clear the printer queue each time you run a test page. I know that's pretty vague, but like I said - it's the faintest of memories, and it's quick, easy and cheap to do.

 

[Computer Bloke]

Have you reached the point where you're ready to give up yet? Is your client getting cross? Have you spent more time on this than you feel able to charge for?

If so, please try replacing Adobe Reader with something a bit more reliable - I like Nitro, but there are lots of alternatives.

It would be nice to find out what the source of the problem is, but your client probably doesn't care and just wants it to work.

 

[mikeroq]

The printers (there's two of them, both doing the same thing from the same system) are OfficeJet 8710s so they're pretty modern. That makes it even stranger that there's a PCL-3 driver but no 5 or 6.

Notes on (some) PCL variants:

• PCL3 was introduced in 1984 with the first LaserJet printers.
• PCL3 was superceded by PCL4 in 1985.
• PCL4 was itself superceded by PCL5 in 1990 (with the LaserJet III printer).
• Modern LaserJet devices (except for the relatively cheap 'host-based' and 'mobile-printing' models) support either PCL5e (monochrome devices) or PCL5c (colour devices); some business inkjet models also support PCL5.
• The PCL5 variants are backwards compatible, so should understand PCL4 and PCL3 print jobs (although there may be a few differences (e.g. with font selection)).

• PCL6 (more accurately referred to as PCL XL) is a totally different language, which is notcompatible with PCL5 at all.

• PCL3 GUI and PCL3 Enhanced (which are used by consumer (and many business) inkjet products) are based on the original PCL3 standard, but contain proprietary extensions which are not understood by PCL4/PCL5 devices.
• These inkjet products do not understand PCL3/PCL4/PCL5/PCL6.

Those Officejet 8710s only support HP PCL 3 GUI and HP PCL 3 Enhanced
Curious as to how much time you have spent on this? Does Adobe print to another printer model?

 

[HCHTech]

Buried somewhere in the printer driver or print settings of Adobe is a checkbox to "print as image". Find that checkbox and click it.

Also, is THIS the driver you are using? It's from July of 2017... (Removed PCL3 statement, @mikeroq seems to have that topic well in hand)

 

[dude1]

Does the printer work in Reader in another user account?

 

[G8racingfool]

Notes on (some) PCL variants:

• PCL3 was introduced in 1984 with the first LaserJet printers.
• PCL3 was superceded by PCL4 in 1985.
• PCL4 was itself superceded by PCL5 in 1990 (with the LaserJet III printer).
• Modern LaserJet devices (except for the relatively cheap 'host-based' and 'mobile-printing' models) support either PCL5e (monochrome devices) or PCL5c (colour devices); some business inkjet models also support PCL5.
• The PCL5 variants are backwards compatible, so should understand PCL4 and PCL3 print jobs (although there may be a few differences (e.g. with font selection)).

• PCL6 (more accurately referred to as PCL XL) is a totally different language, which is notcompatible with PCL5 at all.

• PCL3 GUI and PCL3 Enhanced (which are used by consumer (and many business) inkjet products) are based on the original PCL3 standard, but contain proprietary extensions which are not understood by PCL4/PCL5 devices.
• These inkjet products do not understand PCL3/PCL4/PCL5/PCL6.

Those Officejet 8710s only support HP PCL 3 GUI and HP PCL 3 Enhanced
Curious as to how much time you have spent on this? Does Adobe print to another printer model?

Fantastic information thank you. So far I've been spending what feels like a little too much time on this. As far as printing to another model, they don't have any other models in the office, it does however print to the MS PDF printer just fine.

Buried somewhere in the printer driver or print settings of Adobe is a checkbox to "print as image". Find that checkbox and click it.

Also, is THIS the driver you are using? It's from July of 2017... (Removed PCL3 statement, @mikeroq seems to have that topic well in hand)

Correct, it's been the same driver/software package since that date and it worked great previously. Other applications print just fine so logic would suggest it's not the driver's fault (worked previously, hasn't changed, works with other apps).

As far as the PAI checkbox is concerned: Perhaps it's related to the documents I'm using for testing, but I find that option unavailable/greyed out.

Does the printer work in Reader in another user account?

Negative. Already tried that out and it does the exact same thing.


Just an added note, I have yet to try a full uninstall/reinstall of Reader as per @trevm999's suggestion but I'll give that a whirl tonight and let ya'll know how it goes.

 

[Krynn72]

Just an added note, I have yet to try a full uninstall/reinstall of Reader as per @trevm999's suggestion but I'll give that a whirl tonight and let ya'll know how it goes.

In addition to that, I'd recommend running CCleaner / BleachBit to get rid of left over registry keys after its uninstalled (and before you reinstall). I've had issues with software where uninstalling and reinstalling should have fixed the issue, but because it reused old reg keys when reinstalled it still didn't work. I always use ccleaner after an uninstall these days to avoid this issue since it sends you off looking for other problems and wasting time.

 

[G8racingfool]

Tried the full removal/reinstall to no avail. Getting increasingly annoyed at this problem. Cannot find any reason whatsoever why this is happening. All I have is a very unhelpful error code and a system that by-and-large is the exact same as it was when it was working previously.

/frustration

Still thankful for the help so far guys. Maybe one of us will still have a eureka moment.

 

[glennd]

A very small bell is ringing...I seem to remember something similar from way back with an HP printer - can't remember the model, I'm afraid. Dig into printer properties, get to the 'Advanced' section - assuming there is one - and see if you can find a bunch of options about Spooling. Dicker around with those. Uncheck if checked, check if un-checked - sure you know the drill. Make sure you clear the printer queue each time you run a test page. I know that's pretty vague, but like I said - it's the faintest of memories, and it's quick, easy and cheap to do.

I didn't see a reaction to this idea and it makes sense to consider the windows spooler. it could be damaged or the permissions have changed. If you can, look for the spooler settings and switch it over to "Print directly to the printer".

The approach, really, is to consider, one at a time, every link in the chain from the software to the paper.

 

[glennd]

It worked great up till today but will not work now.

So what happened between when it worked great and when it didn't?

 

[Mick]

Scatter-gun approach: Have you run Windows Tweaking AIO?

 

[mikeroq]

At this point I would just reload the machine.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Or just use a different PDF product. Lots of basic PDF readers out there. Most of them work faster than Adobe bloatware.

 

[mr m]

Scroll to PDF file solutions. It tells you how to run the Adobe "preflight" utility. It seeks out and can correct file syntax issues. Worth a shot.

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/troubleshoot-pdf-printing-acrobat-reader.html

Like Mick said try Tweaking's tool and/or if Win 10 a refresh.

 

[G8racingfool]

Alright, tried the suggestions by @Mick to no avail. Also looked at your suggestion @mr m but this is Reader and that option is only available for Acrobat.

After dilly-dallying around with the printer settings however, I managed to make the "Print As Image" option available and selecting that appears to work. I'll know for sure tomorrow morning.

 

[G8racingfool]

So, little update on this. Printing as an image works and I (and the client) are content with this solution for now. At some point in the future I might revisit this but there's just so little information that trying to troubleshoot the "real" cause of the issue is next to impossible (at least, with my current level of knowledge). The only error code available is the one in my OP which I've come to find out is actually mostly generic and, without knowing the inner workings and code of the Windows print spooler isn't going to tell me much.