Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I had to reinstall Windows (7 64bit) on my computer. I installed Qimage .240 from a flash drive. It installed perfectly. I tried to open Printer Driver from within Qimage , the print to file window opened, I went into File, Print to, & changed it to Print to Printer. I received a message saying 'No Windows printer installed', which is not true. I can access the Printer driver from Windows control panel, I printed a nozzell check pattern no problem & Light room also recognised the printer. Then I decided I would update Qimage to the latest version & I received a message saying 'unable to connect to site', but I clicked the update button anyway, & the latest version downloaded & I installed it no problem. (The printer is an Epsom 7900) Any help will be appreciated as I am not a happy camper now!!!

Did you install the driver again for the Epson 7900>

Fred

Yes, Fred, I did install the printer driver from the disc. The printer driver seems to be working ok as I can print the nozzle check ok, & light room recognises the printer ok. Thanks for your prompt reply, Fred, much appreciated. William

I think I would try HELP and ANALYZE SETTINGS. See if it shows anything.
Then I would reinstall the driver.

Fred

I just tried that, Fred, no joy.The printer driver version is 6.73. William

Is it a network printer?  If so, both the printer and the computer it is connected to must be turned on, else QU cannot communicate with the printer.  In most programs like Lightroom where printing is more of an afterthought, they don't actually try to "talk" to the printer to get capabilities, status, etc.  QU actually asks Windows for a list of printers and when it gets that list, it querries the printers for availability and printer capabilities.  If the printer is not "reachable", you get the message that you quoted.

Regards,
Mike

Hi Mike, It's not a network printer, it's connected via a usb cable. The printer was turned on. I've been using Qimage from the beginning, I love it, it's a brilliant programme, with excellent help. I have to pop out for an hour or so, but I'll be back!!! William

QU uses the standard Windows function EnumPrinters and that function is returning an empty list (no printers).  Meaning... Windows is reporting that no printers are installed.  So it's not a QU issue but rather a Windows issue.

There are only two things that can cause Windows to report that no printers are installed.  The first is if you are running QU with elevated privileges or under a different user account.  For example, you might run other programs normally but you have QU set up to "run as administrator"... and the admin account has no printers installed.

The second thing is an antivirus program interfering.  For that, try disabling any anti-malware software you have temporarily and restart QU to see if that solves it.  If it does, you'll need to add an exception for QU in that software.

Mike

In addition to my post above, I found thousands of posts online about various programs reporting that no printers are installed.  The solution to that (again a Windows solution) is to:

(1) Make sure there is a "default" printer selected in devices and printers.  Apparently having no default printer can cause problems with Windows.

(2) Make sure the "print spooler" is set to "Automatic" under services.msc and is currently running.  On that one, a non-started (or stopped) print spooler can cause Windows to report no printers installed.

Mike

We have tried the suggestions in the last two posts re disable software firewall, disable antivirus, run as admin, checked services.msc to automatic and started, checked the permissions, reinstalled the printer wtiht restart, changed the default printer to another with no joy.  An error did appear once, "system error, code 1722, The RPC server unavailable" but not appearing now.

William

This is what I found

Looks like Mike was correct!
(2) Make sure the "print spooler" is set to "Automatic" under services.msc and is currently running.  On that one, a non-started (or stopped) print spooler can cause Windows to report no printers installed.



http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/Support/Articles/SLN40050

Manual solution: Follow the steps below for your version of Windows
Windows 7 or Vista

    Close all programs, restart your computer and test to see if the message recurs. If it does, continue with the below steps.
    Close all programs including Point of Sale.
    Click the Windows Logo button and choose All Programs > Accessories.
    Click Run and enter services.msc in the Open field.
    Click OK and click Continue on the User Account Control.
    Locate Print Spooler in the listing of services, right-click it and select Properties.
    Change the content of the Startup type field from Disabled to Automatic.
    Click Apply and then click OK.
    Click Restart the service.
    Close the Services window and open Point of Sale.

William,
This is what you are looking for.

Fred

Mike was right re services.msc - automatic but even if it is running it needs to be stopped and restarted and that sorted the problem.  Thank you for all your help.  William

problem has returned, have tried everything suggested, printer still prints through photoshop etc. but not being recognized in qimage.  problem arose after we setup as shared printer, we could print using qimage from networked PC through PC that is directly connected to printer and printed from word on PC directly connected to printer with no problem but when we tried to print from qimage same error as before, so we removed share printer, reinstalled software etc but to no avail please help.

I have the same problem with 2015-109. Print spooler is active and started automatically. No network printers, just the ones connected to my pc with USB. Disabling Malwarebytes anti malware has no effect. Other software does recognise the printers and can use them.

I uninstalled 2015-109 and installed 2015-105 (latest version of previous license period, but never used): same problem. I then uninstalled 2015-105 and installed 2014-135 (latest version that I actually have used): no problems at all. Recognises the printer straight away, and produces a perfect print.

So I would say there must be some problem for some users with the latest versions, maybe something that has changed between 2014 versions and 2015 versions? Any help pleas, as I'd like to use the latest version.

Sir,
I went through the entire upgrade log from 2014.135 to current 2015-109, and there were no changes to anything related to printing.

Can you make 2 tests please.
Read the qimagepr.ini file using Notepad, while you have 2014.135 installed. (What does it say(There's only one line))

Then please disable your ANTI VIRUS software (Most AV software have a temporary disable feature ) and download a fresh copy of 109.

Reinstall the latest 2015.109, (and please disable the AV software for the install also.

Read the qimagepr.ini file again.

Fred

I had this problem as you can see from the previous post in this thread. My problem did not seem to be Qimage or Windows related. I solved my problem by connecting the printer with a shorter printer cable, the original cable was about 15 feet long, I'm now using a shorter one & the problem has disappeared. Some printers have a problem with long cables, this is not an unknown problem. This may or may not help you, but it did solve my problem.

Regards,

William 

Thanks William for chiming in!  A questionable cable is certainly a possibility.  I compared 2014.135 and the latest 2015.109 and both are identical with respect to the code that gives that message about "no printers found'.  It's only one command that Qimage Ultimate is calling at that time: a Windows API command called EnumPrinters.  That command is supposed to return the number of Windows installed printers on the system.  The only way to get that "no printers found" message is for Windows itself to return zero to that function, indicating that no valid Windows drivers have been found or that the printers are not available.

The difference between Qimage Ultimate and other software is that Qimage Ultimate queries the system for valid printers as soon as you start it: because printing is a primary function with Qimage Ultimate.  When you start other software, they don't care about printers until you go to "File", "Print" and that function may not have a problem if it's an intermittent issue like bad cabling.  So QU may show the problem right away yet you may not have a problem in other software... or you may not have a problem right away and may have intermittent issues along the way (later).

As Fred said, anti-virus software is probably a good thing to rule out.  Disabling AV software and retrying is a good idea but unfortunately, no AV software can be completely disabled by using the AV built-in "disable" function: it has to be uninstalled completely and the machine rebooted to rule out interference by AV/anti-malware programs.  Needless to say, these are the only two reports I've seen and with so many users using QU, it's likely a local problem.  So AV interference (AV software denying QU access to printer information) and bad cabling seem like logical things to check.  That 2014.135 works in one instance and 2015.109 doesn't: might just be a timing issue.  The code is the same.

Regards,
Mike

Thanks for the replies, I will try some of the suggestions this weekend and report back. I doubt the cable is the cause. Why would only QI 2015 have problems with this cable and no other software for the past 6 years this printer has been connected with this cable?

Interesting is that QI queries for printers at startup of the program. This might explain something as sometimes my printers are turned off while I start editing an image and only turned on when I want to print it. Although the printers were turned on when I uninstalled 2015.109 and installed 2015.105 and 105 also reported no printers.

Just to clarify,
Qimage is checking for installed printers properly registered in Devices in Windows.
It doesn't know or care if the printers are not turned on yet.

Fred

I have the Qimagepr.ini file in 2 locations: c:\programdata\ddisoftware\qimage and c:users\all users\ddisoftware\qimage. Or is this just 2 names for the same directory as the contents seem to be identical?

Anyway, the contents of the file is only partly readable (lots of strange characters), but the name E P S O N   S t y l u s   P h o t o   R 1 9 0 0   S e r i e s appears a few times. The file is 2567 bytes, that seems a bit much for 1 line? Corrupt file?

After re-installing 2015-109 the error remains. The qimagepr.ini file is the same as before, 2567 bytes and lots of strange characters and has the date of 3 december 2014. The qimage-u.ini file is readable however and somewhere has a line that says "EPSON Stylus Photo R1900 Series".

My Qimagepr.ini is 4 kb.
Try HELP RESET PRINTER
If that doesn't change the file. Then delete it.

If you are reading the file using Notepad, you will see a horizontal scroll bar. It's a lot more than one line

And when I check the Windows contol panel, there are several printers being reported. Canon Pixma iP4000 (default printer), Epson R1900 and a Canon MX920 (network) printer.

Devices and Printers

this is more what part of the file looks like. I have deleted it, but the problem remains and no new file is created.

e r i e    
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    š4d
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Ð                                                                                                
                        E P S O N   S t y l u s   P h o t o   R 1 9 0 0   S e r i e s      
          
              €
ÿÿ 
 
    Ü                                                                       W    
   
 
                H                                                                                   E C F N 0 0 0 0                 E C F N 0 0 0 0                 E C F N 0 0 0 0                 S P 4 D E 6 ~ 1 . I C M         S P 4 D E 6 ~ 1 . I C M         S P 4 D E 6 ~ 1 . I C M                  ø
                 4  š  
        Ð  Ð  ˜  :   Ð  Ð  @  â   T   T   T   T                   @  â   T   T   T   T  
                 d                                   ÿ 2         
                 
  Ü                                              

That is what my devices and printers looks like, just with different types of printer.

When I reinstall 2014-135 everything works again and all printers that Windows reports are available. I tried using the qimagepr.ini file that 2014-135 creates with 2015-109 to no avail. Resetting printer or all program settings also does not work. So something strange is still going on.Disabling the anti-virus (Comodo Internet Security) does not help. Installing application data on a different drive did also not help.

Oh well, off to bed, I'll give it another try tomorrow.

I spent some time this morning trying to purposely mess up my system to emulate your problem.
I installed Qimage on a separate hard drive. I did that to change the default setting in the install wizard to set different location.
The reason for that is that the Qimage installer remembers the last location it was told to install.

Maybe, somehow you had two installation locations and it wasn't overwriting?
Nope. It overwrites and it installs in any location, and a reinstall over it with a different version (old or new) lays right over the previous one.
I installed on a non bootable drive; just a storage drive, and Qimage still sees the printers.
I reinstalled back to the normal  C: drive, remembering that there is a place to set the install location and again, another place to set the location of the DATA files.
I messed that up on purpose, and still, other than not knowing where to look for my history of used folders, Qimage found the printer.

I am convinced the problem has to be NON QIMAGE. It may be something related somehow, but it cannot be any buggy code in the program.
Maybe someone has an idea to try, but I am fresh out,.  Maybe Mike will have something he can test with you.

Hopefully, Fred

I know there's no logic to this, but have you tried version 110, the latest one?

I can only state what I've said before: this is not a QU issue because it is not QU that is reporting no printers installed.  It is the Windows operating system that is reporting zero (to QU) for the number of printers installed.  Since the code in 2014.135 is identical to 2015.109 and 2015.110 and you get different results, it appears something is interfering with Windows communication to QU so my bet is still on your Comodo Internet Security software.  Anti-virus software cannot be fully disabled without uninstalling it completely.  I did find several hits where Comodo's firewall (a part of their Internet Security Suite) was blocking printer drivers.  Although this is a shared printer, here's one example:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/88134/comodo-blocking-my-shared-printer/

Mike

I too use Comodo and have a minor issue with it.  Whenever I update Qimage it insists on Print to File unless I disable Sandbox and keep it disabled ie it won't allow using the printer.  I'm trying to remember the error messages/prompts I used to receive.  Might be worth checking.  If that turns out to be the issue and you want to keep sandbox enabled I'll check what I did to allow that (I don't enable sandbox currently).

Good luck

Sandy

It seems that indeed Comodo internet security was the cause of the problem. Disabling it did not help, but updating to version 8 (from 7) did. As I like living on the edge, I also updated QI to 110  :). Also works fine!

Thanks everyone for help and suggestions!