General Questions on PRINTING

Basics

When troubleshooting printing issues it is important to attack the problem as you would any other. Most problems should be a result of one of the following:

System

Is the problem really printing, or a symptom of printing?
If you receive a General Protection Fault (GPF) when printing, ask the same questions you would with any other GPF.

Are there other applications conflicting with Quicken?
Have you installed any communications software (such as fax or modem) that may be interfering with the printer port? Shut down all background applications.

Find where the problem lies.
Can you print from DOS or Write? If not, the problem is not with Quicken, but rather with Windows, the connections or the printer itself. If cheques are not printing, can you print a report?

Have you ever been able to print in Quicken?
If yes, what has changed since the last successful print job?

How does Quicken speak to the Printer?
Information from Quicken is sent to the printer via a printer driver. The printer driver interprets the information from the computer and puts it in a form the printer can understand. Different printers speak different languages. Some printers can speak more that one language. In order to enable this you must change settings in the printer itself. This is usually done through a menu or dip switches on the printer. The printer's documentations will state whether the printer speaks more than one language, and if so, how to change the settings.

How do I Change Printer Drivers?

In Windows 3.1/3.11
Go to the Main program group and click on Control Panel. Choose Printers.

By clicking on the Add button, you get a list of drivers that come with Windows, along with an option to install from disk. Choose the one you want and click Install. The driver should now be included in the Installed Printers list.

In Windows 95 From Start, go to Settings, Printers and Add Printer. Windows 95 includes a Wizard there to assist in installation.

What is Print Manager?

Print Manager is a Windows application that holds printing jobs until the printer can take the information. This frees up the system for other tasks. Under the Options menu in Print Manager the user has the choice of the quantity of resources that will be allotted for printing.

Common Print Problems:

Nothing prints out at all

Assume nothing
The first thing to do is to rule out human error. Check that the printer is in the “on-line” state. Make sure there is paper in the printer (if it is a cheque printing problem, replace Quicken cheques with regular paper). If you are printing over a network, try printing locally.

Check Print Manager for stalled print documents Double-click the Print Manager icon in the Main group or choose Run from the File menu, type PRINTMAN and press Enter. If there are documents listed under the printer name, then click the first one to highlight it and, if Print Manager says it is stalled, press the DEL key to delete it from the list. This will allow stalled or new print jobs to print.

If Quicken used to print everything correctly before The WPR.DAT file may have become corrupted. This file contains the Windows printer information which Quicken utilises. To correct this, exit Quicken, go to File Manager and select the Quickenw directory. Locate the WPR.DAT file, highlight it and go to File, Rename and rename it to OLD.DAT. Exit File Manager, restart Quicken and attempt printing again.

See if the printer can receive anything at all
“Port blast” from DOS. At the C:\> prompt, key in “type autoexec.bat>lpt1” If this does not print out the root directory to the local printer, the printer is not able to get any information from the system at all.

See if anything prints out from Windows
If you can port blast, try printing from Write to see if Windows is having a problem communicating with the printer. Do not use another application to do this. Some programs such as Word Perfect do not Windows for printing. Make sure Write is printing to the same printer as Quicken is. If Write can't print, this implies the problem is not with Quicken.

When “Garbage” is printed

Garbage generally indicates that the printer does not understand the language Windows is communicating in.

Verify the correct driver is being used
In Control Panel. Printers, make sure the correct driver is installed. If not click on Add to select the correct printer from the installed printer list. You can also get printer drivers mailed to you from the printer manufacturer.

Change the font
Occasionally garbage can indicate that the selected font is too complex or too large for the print area. In the Quicken Printer Setup window, choose the appropriate Font area (header or body) and select a different font and/or reduce the font size. New Courier, for example, is a very basic font and a good start when troubleshooting. You may also wish to disable any font controllers such as Adobe Type Manager - refer to the font controller documentation for instructions on disabling it.

Other emulations/drivers
Some printers can emulate different types of printers i.e. IBM Proprinter. In these cases check that the printer is speaking the same language as the printer selected in Quicken Printer Setup. Refer to the printer manual for clarification.

Clipped text
Clipped text is often a result of improperly set margins. Margins are held in more than one place. The most important, and limiting factor, is the printable region of the printer. Even though you put an A4 sheet of paper in, no printer can use 100% of that area. You need to find what these limits are by referring to the printer's documentation. If you don't have access to this information then assume 1” margins on all sides. In Quicken go to File, Printer Setup, Report or Cheque Printer Setup to change the margins in Quicken.

If you want the report to be wider:

You can increase the amount of information contained in the width of the report in one of the following ways:
Use smaller font size
Print report in landscape mode
Quicken 5.0 has a “fit to one page wide” option.

Cheque Alignment is off

Run through the form alignment process again.
Make sure to use the course alignment when possible for most of the adjusting. If you have a continuous feed printer, make a note of the position of the forms after aligning so you can accurately position the forms by hand the next time.

Make sure you are using Intuit cheques as Quicken is only guaranteed compatible with Intuit cheques.

“Creeping” Cheques

Reset printer driver margins to 0
Go to control Panel, Printers. Highlight the printer used and look under Setup for a button labeled Margins - not all printers have this.

Verify that the correct printer driver is being used
Click the down arrow in the Printer field in Control Panel, Printers in order to select the correct printer form the installed printer list. You can get the correct driver from the printer manufacturer or from Microsoft.

Font sizes may be interfering with the page length
Set to default fonts.

“Could not Open Printer” Message

Check resources
Go to Program manager, click on Help, About Program Manager - System Resources should be over 50%. If not exit Windows and retry. Close all other applications. Try running a smaller report by limiting the date range.

See if anything prints out of Windows
Try printing from Write to see if Windows is having a problem communicating with the printer. If Write can't print, then neither will Quicken.

Billminder Says There are Cheques to Print

Billminder is finding cheques to print somewhere else
Billminder looks at all Quicken files so look for cheques to print in other files.

General Protection Faults

Printer related GPFs (i.e. QWPR.DLL, Print Library, etc)

Not enough resources
In Print Manager, under Options, make sure “High Priority” is chosen for background printing

The DLL, Print Library, etc may be corrupted
Rename the affected DLL and reinstall Quicken. Check your hard drive for lost allocation units by running a CHKDSK or SCANDISK