Print Preview Stopped working - Not Honouring "the Code"

[s3ttr]

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Last week it was fine. Previous six months, worked like a champ. Printer and my family got along fine. This last week, Printer has a mind of its own. Will not show the preview anymore. Reselect, try again, checked the printer preferences in control panel, even did a system restore to about 10 days ago, then another system restore going 14 days back.

Went to Canon and re-installed the latest driver for the PIXMA MP530. I am jiggered. What is the part I am missing?

More Detail: When you have looked at the preview in software, you are generally ready to go to print. But there is one final step before printing. This is an important step because the price of ink is so high. We need that last preview to make sure its right. ... When selecting the "print" feature from the file menu, you are immediately presented with the page for selecting the printer and toggling through its unique options. For the Canon PIXMA MP530, it is actually in the "properties" section that you find the many options that are unique to the Canon's feature-set. It is in this group of features, that you actually tell the printer to preview, from its software. You can create a document in word, and see the preview, in word. Same for a webpage on firefox. But in the print preview for the Canon software, a webpage or word document can look different, because the way the printer software interprets the data. Often times it is the same, but from time to time, an anomaly will occur, and if you are trying to conserve on print ink (and not do the print job again) this final preview is the one you use to catch irregularities and errors. You can cancel the print job if it does not look right, but the computer has sent all its data for the job to the printer, and it is the printer's interpretation of the data that matters the most at this phase, prior to print. So it is this final preview I am talking about. For some reason the printer is ignoring the command.

I can get a preview for printing in OpenOffice Word, Scribus, Photoshop, Explorer or Firefox. But when I ask for the preview on the printer software, it by-passes the request like it is not getting the command to preview or (more diabolical) is deliberately choosing not to honor the code. (Shocking)


(Code Blue. Try it again. Again! Code Orange alert. Engage registry guard. Re-install
Canon drivers and software. Code Red. System Restore! Abort, abort!! ...You see
the escalation is rather indelicate and quite unfriendly. Still doesnt work.
What goes on here?

Captain, I suspect,
there is, a bug,
in the machine,
sir.

Sir, it is the XP talking back.

Windows, its evolving sir.
Just not how we wanted it to evolve. Sir.)

Used to be so easy. Hoping it is so easy, that I am overlooking something.

Thanks in advance for any positive ideas.



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[s3ttr]

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Emailed Canon for support. They were prompt in reply. Said to:

1) Pull out USB cable.
2) Use the disk (CD) to uninstall the MP530 program and drivers: a) Exit welcome screen, b) browse CD for folder named "MP," c) locate folder named "DRVSETUP," d) locate file called "DELDRV." e) double-click the file or execute and follow prompts to uninstall PIXMA MP530.

3) Restart PC
4) Use disk again to re-install the driver. (Apparently the driver has a rare bug or windows buggered it at some point in normal operation.)

5) Browse disk and select MP/DRVSETUP folder. Locate and double click the file named "SETUP." Follow prompts to install PIXMA MP530 driver.

6) Connect USB cable and the MP530 will, and did, complete the installation.

Canon opened up a trouble ticket and referenced it with a link. They also gave a 1-866-261-XXXX call back telephone number, with a comment that "certain issues are difficult to solve over email." They invited me to call a technician if I needed further support on the issue, and gave their hours 10a-10p. They went on to say if I preferred to do this via email, to reply to the email (with the trouble ticket number in the subject, which was already there).

There was a notice that if the product (the printer) was no longer covered under the manufacturer's warranty that they might require a 9.99$ fee be paid for support (which is understandable).

Overall, they gave excellent support on the issue. I was trying to uninstall/reinstall the drivers from their support page, online, which did not work. They referred me a specific file on the CD to do the uninstall and re-install. And this is what worked.



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