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Freaking PCs, firefox, and printers

M

macswitcha2

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 18, 2008
1,255
8
I know this a mac site but hear me out... On my girls new laptop I installed firefox (FF) said that it needed to make changes to the computer so i clicked yes and the printer (HP Laserjet 1020) stopped working...it said that no printer was installed so I thought that firefox caused this since the printer was working fine just a couple minutes before installing FF...so I uninstalled it. The printer still was not working...did a system restore and nothing...

My girl calls HP, they spent almost two hours via remote access trying to fix it...messing around with the registry to no avail. They hook her up with Smart Friend and now she has to spend $57 to have them try to fix it.

I am happy to be a mac owner and not deal with this crap. However, I feel sorry for my girl... Is there anyone that can explain what happened? Any Current Mac and PC users that knows a free solution?

Btw, she has a Sony Vaio CW series with Windows 7.
 
Did system restore. Nothing. And, the machine Never came a Windows 7 disk so how can u reinstall it?
 
Did you try reinstalling the printer?

1. Disconnect the printer
2. Insert software disc or run downloaded package from the internet
3. Follow instructions
 
Smart friend solves the issue...

They told her it was an update issue....they told her to delete Norton but to have Sony help her with deleting it to assure that all of it is removed...and then download kaspersky.


WAITE!!!! False Hope! They tested the printer and it worked...it printed...but righter after she hangs up with the person, she tried to print something and it said she did'nt have a printer....

Tomorrow we will try the solutions recommended here. Thanks!!!

Ok...my girl is still having issues with the print spooler that seemed to have gotten messed up when I downloaded Firefox. I uninstalled firefox thinking that that will correct the situation bur it did'nt. My girl got on the phone with someone from Hewlett Packard and he took control over her Sony Vaio but couldn't fix the issue and so he connected her with Smart Friends and they seemed to have fixed it since she was able to print again but everytime she tries to print a certian PDF article the sprinter stops working.



Now, she notices that her computer is taking longer to start on when it was super fast.

QUESTION: Should she do a fresh install of Windows 7? Should she erase all of the bloatware first? And since the machine did not come with a physical disk of Windows 7, how can she reinstall it?

Fiery Furnace said, "There should be a Recovery DVD/Partition." What should be her steps in doing this?


I appreciate all the help I can get since I want to help her since I am a little responsible for the issue since I was the one who recommended Firefox and downloaded it from FireFox's site.


This will be appreciated!

Another question...is her issue strictly a software issue?
 
You can reinstall a windows operating system from scratch without install disks on most PCs, it will wipe your entire computer and put it back to factory state, a quick google search should give you instructions on how to do this. There should be a ghost partition on your hard drive that contains these restore files.
 
ARF900 said:
You can reinstall a windows operating system from scratch without install disks on most PCs, it will wipe your entire computer and put it back to factory state, a quick google search should give you instructions on how to do this. There should be a ghost partition on your hard drive that contains these restore files.
Click to expand...


I did a google search and there steps but they assume that the owner has a physical disk.


Searched windows 7 Recovery Partition and found http://www.pronetworks.org/forums/windows-7-built-in-recovery-partition-and-options-t104922.html

However, I'm assuming that to get to the windows boot manager you will have to press F8 at start up?
 
What probably happened was the print spooler got corrupted. The first thing I would do is ditch Norton, especially if it is Norton 360 or whatever they call it now. It sucks. The problem is some of these security suites get too aggressive and disable stuff that Windows needs to work. I see it all the time in internet access, and I wouldn't be surprised if it screwed up the print spooler service after the Firefox install. XP and older OSes were notorious for printer spooler screwups.

A couple of things to check:

1) Go to Start, then Run/Search and type in "services.msc". This will bring up your services.
2) Scroll down until you see the print spooler service. Right click on it, and select Properties. Make sure the service is set to Automatic, and the status is Started. If either is different, change it.

After doing this, you may need to restart the printer, and reinstall it. If that doesn't work, or if the print spooler service is missing, things get more...interesting. You will need to repair the install, which you need an OS disk to do. At least, that's what I always had to do in XP.
 
steve2112 said:
What probably happened was the print spooler got corrupted. The first thing I would do is ditch Norton, especially if it is Norton 360 or whatever they call it now. It sucks. The problem is some of these security suites get too aggressive and disable stuff that Windows needs to work. I see it all the time in internet access, and I wouldn't be surprised if it screwed up the print spooler service after the Firefox install. XP and older OSes were notorious for printer spooler screwups.

A couple of things to check:

1) Go to Start, then Run/Search and type in "services.msc". This will bring up your services.
2) Scroll down until you see the print spooler service. Right click on it, and select Properties. Make sure the service is set to Automatic, and the status is Started. If either is different, change it.

After doing this, you may need to restart the printer, and reinstall it. If that doesn't work, or if the print spooler service is missing, things get more...interesting. You will need to repair the install, which you need an OS disk to do. At least, that's what I always had to do in XP.
Click to expand...



Thanks...but what about people saying that windows 7 can be reinstalled via the recovery partition?

In any case, I will try this step.

Right now...my girl is on the phone with Sony Vaio people and they helped her delete Norton and other programs.

She will call me after she is done. They are helping her with the printer issue.
 
macswitcha2 said:
Thanks...but what about people saying that windows 7 can be reinstalled via the recovery partition?

In any case, I will try this step.

Right now...my girl is on the phone with Sony Vaio people and they helped her delete Norton and other programs.

She will call me after she is done. They are helping her with the printer issue.
Click to expand...

I have never tried doing a system repair using the recovery partition. I have only been using 7 for a couple of months, and I haven't encountered an issue that required a repair. What I was talking about was using the system recovery tool on the Windows disk. When you boot to a Windows CD, you can proceed like you are going to install, and eventually get an option to perform a repair. You can also trigger this repair by using the "sfc /scannow" command in a command prompt. SFC stands for "system file checker". It basically repairs any corrupt/missing Windows system files.

Hmm...I just thought of another option. Most systems that use these hard drive based recovery partitions give an option to burn recovery disks to DVD. On my HP desktop, it covered 3 DVDs. On some systems, the option is pretty easy to find. On others, you may have to do some searching. Basically, this will burn that recovery partition to DVD bootable media. It's usually a good idea to have these anyway. You may be able to use these to perform the repair.
 
steve2112 said:
I have never tried doing a system repair using the recovery partition. I have only been using 7 for a couple of months, and I haven't encountered an issue that required a repair. What I was talking about was using the system recovery tool on the Windows disk. When you boot to a Windows CD, you can proceed like you are going to install, and eventually get an option to perform a repair. You can also trigger this repair by using the "sfc /scannow" command in a command prompt. SFC stands for "system file checker". It basically repairs any corrupt/missing Windows system files.

Hmm...I just thought of another option. Most systems that use these hard drive based recovery partitions give an option to burn recovery disks to DVD. On my HP desktop, it covered 3 DVDs. On some systems, the option is pretty easy to find. On others, you may have to do some searching. Basically, this will burn that recovery partition to DVD bootable media. It's usually a good idea to have these anyway. You may be able to use these to perform the repair.
Click to expand...

Ok...My girl is reinstalling windows 7 and thus it will return to factory setting. Hopefully, this will help with her printer. What I decided to do is buy her Windows 7 Professional under my school discount, back up her docs, wipe her hard drive out, and give her a fresh install. That is the best option and we should of done this from the door.
 
Norton is ****, Kaspersky is great, worth the money. Only compareable product IMO is NOD32.

Sounds like a driver issue, don't reinstall W7 just to fix it... Most likely steps will be to: Strip off HP items, remove from reg or run a reg clean, reboot, reinstall printer drivers and software, test printer, update if required.

If booting slowly, remove un-nessesary **** from startup items using msconfig or from accessorys on the start menu(from memory, i mainly use XP), Could also be software not installing properly, check event viewer.

Check eventviewer at time of attempts to print and get me some error messages. Does the issue occur for other users on this machine(eliminate the profile)? Can other people print to the printer(eliminate build/printer)?

Most helpdesk people are very average. not suprised you had no luck, probably only trained on their HP products.

Hopefully this makes sense, I'm half asleep. PM me if you need help, I might not check this thread again, but more than happy to help with some more info supplied.
 
What the hell??

Why the hell did you try and install FF in the first place?? She's on Windows 7 use IE8, or if you're so anal use Chrome, but stay the hell away from FF.

Get rid of Norton and download Microsoft Security Essentials, free of charge AV software.

Stick to this and your PC will be fine, stop dicking around with it.
Enable Windows Firewall (preinstalled)
Install Microsoft Security Essentials (free download)
Keep Windows Update to automatic
and most importantly, don't install crap you don't need like FF.
 
grapii said:
Why the hell did you try and install FF in the first place?? She's on Windows 7 use IE8, or if you're so anal use Chrome, but stay the hell away from FF.
[...]
Click to expand...

LoL...thanks...and loving the straightforwardness.


I never new FF would be a problem since I used FF on my PC before with no problems. However, that was a couple of years ago. I now use nothing but Mac.

OZMP said:
Norton is ****, Kaspersky is great, worth the money. Only compareable product IMO is NOD32.[...]
Click to expand...


Thanks...will connect with you if I have to.
 
Firefox is suspicious software that you should stay away from installing on your computer? Really? I don't think so.... :rolleyes:

Whatever the problem is, it probably does not have to do w/FF.
 
mkrishnan said:
Firefox is suspicious software that you should stay away from installing on your computer? Really? I don't think so.... :rolleyes:

Whatever the problem is, it probably does not have to do w/FF.
Click to expand...

Thanks....I suspected that FF is most likely not the problem although things went haywire with the printer once I did download it.
 
Ok...I have documented everything that everyone advised me/her to do. We have not done those things yet. My Girl had Sony help her remove Norton and other bloatware (not all of them) and my girl asserts that the printer prints docs from the web and other things but once she prints from the PDF doc that sh wants to also print, the printer stops working. So, Sony tells her to reinstall windows 7. However, this installs all the bloatware and Norton back on and so sony takes her through the steps of eliminating some of that stuff...she checks the printer...no good. Now, she's on with HP people and its taking literally hours to help her.


I don't think they can help.


So...I waiting to hear from her and if the Printer is not printing...I guess we will do the fresh install.
 
A couple of simpler things to try before reinstalling:
1) get another copy of the pdf, from a different source if possible. Does the problem persist?
2) download a different pdf viewer. I like pdf xchange, it is small and allows notes, and try printing from there. Does the problem persist?
3) download and install ghostscript and the ghostview. Open the pdf in ghostview, save as a postscript file (ps) and then open the ps file and try to print from ghostview. Does that work?
4) In ghostview, save the file as a pdf. Now open the pdf in your regular reader or pdf xchange and see if that works.

These things can be tried in 15 minutes or so where as a reinstall would take a lot longer. This really doesn't seem like a Sony problem, HP problem, or even windows. If the problem can really be narrowed down to a pdf file (or several) then those specific files might be corrupting the printer configuration when given the command to print.
 
MacVibe said:
A couple of simpler things to try before reinstalling:
1) get another copy of the pdf, from a different source if possible. Does the problem persist?
2) download a different pdf viewer. I like pdf xchange, it is small and allows notes, and try printing from there. Does the problem persist?
3) download and install ghostscript and the ghostview. Open the pdf in ghostview, save as a postscript file (ps) and then open the ps file and try to print from ghostview. Does that work?
4) In ghostview, save the file as a pdf. Now open the pdf in your regular reader or pdf xchange and see if that works.

These things can be tried in 15 minutes or so where as a reinstall would take a lot longer. This really doesn't seem like a Sony problem, HP problem, or even windows. If the problem can really be narrowed down to a pdf file (or several) then those specific files might be corrupting the printer configuration when given the command to print.
Click to expand...

Thanks! All of the advise is great...I will take all of this into consideration. Thanks!
 
What have PCs come to these days. Not giving you restore DVDs, tons of bloatware, everything is so confusing, charging customers to help them fix problems that never should have happened... I <3 my Mac

Try this and good luck.
 
bumzo1 said:
What have PCs come to these days. Not giving you restore DVDs, tons of bloatware, everything is so confusing, charging customers to help them fix problems that never should have happened... I <3 my Mac

Try this and good luck.
Click to expand...

Her next machine is a MAC!!! Best believe that!
 
bumzo1 said:
What have PCs come to these days. Not giving you restore DVDs, tons of bloatware, everything is so confusing, charging customers to help them fix problems that never should have happened... I <3 my Mac

Try this and good luck.
Click to expand...

You can thank Microsoft for that one. They tend to think all Windows users are thieves, and are going to pirate their software. They actually give discounts to PC makers who don't include the OS on media. Since, you know, that will completely stop people from pirating copies of Windows.
 
grapii said:
Why the hell did you try and install FF in the first place?? She's on Windows 7 use IE8, or if you're so anal use Chrome, but stay the hell away from FF.

Get rid of Norton and download Microsoft Security Essentials, free of charge AV software.

Stick to this and your PC will be fine, stop dicking around with it.
Enable Windows Firewall (preinstalled)
Install Microsoft Security Essentials (free download)
Keep Windows Update to automatic
and most importantly, don't install crap you don't need like FF.
Click to expand...

FF is fine, I use it on W7 with NoScripts :p
it also happens to be standard in alot of XP SOE's, so calm down. Unessesary crap is bad, but FF is for alot of people worth having.


Also try installing just the printer drivers and not the full software package.
Make sure you eliminate the data and pritner itself as potential issues.
 
If I understand you correctly, she can currently print from some documents, but not from her PDF reader? I agree that I would first try installing another PDF reader and seeing if the problem persists. Also, I would recommend re-installing the printer (if it was not just detected via plug and play) and this time right-click on the installer and choose 'Run as Administrator,' as it also sounds like there could be a permissions error causing the issue.
 
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