Office 2003 Pro Issue

I have a problem I can't figure out. Let's start from the beginning, I recieved a call for a business computer not working properly. I get the laptop that has been to about 3 other computer techs else where. They claim there was 8 virus infections on this laptop. I have no clue what they did nor remove because there was nothing malicious on this laptop period when I got it.

Initially when I got the laptop it would not connect to the internet. I tried everything possible to get it working, nothing worked. I decided to run Reg Supreme Pro just to see, it found over 2000 problems so I figured it needed a repair. I did a repair reinstall of WinXP Home. Once the repair was completed it booted up and restarted over and over. I finally got into the system and it had error after error so I just explained in detail what had to be done. I backed up everything he requested and formatted, reinstalled WinXP Pro per his request.

I have about 50 documents in Excel and Word. The documents were copied to a disc and burned, no errors. They open perfectly fine, no errors. When you attempt to print you will get an error "This document failed to print". Well, if you cancel or leave it alone it will print about 20 mins later. I tried these documents on my personal computer, they printer perfectly fine. I reinstalled the printer, same thing. I opened a new document in Word, typed some junk, printed fine.

Basically my problem is this, I have some Word documents that are very important, they are invoices that cannot be lost. They will not print from this laptop, anything else will but these documents. They print on any other computer. This is a clean install of Windows. Also, these documents printed fine until the first tech "worked" on it.

I have no clue as to what is going on. Any help will be appreciated.

 

Im not real good on this subject so somebody else may need to help, when you repair some folder names are changed, this is where i think your problem might be. ed

 

The documents print fine on another computer, but they will not print on this laptop with his printer. It has a clean install of Windows, that's what gets me.

 

OK, got ya now, sounds like not enough memory, how much is in the laptop? Im also thinking some errors might be memory errors. ed

 

It's 1GB memory in the laptop.

 

If it has two sticks of memory pull one out and try with only one, then trade with the other stick, trying one at a time. ed

 

This is a business computer, we're talking millions of dollars in invoices. I would rather try something related to the software, lol.

 

Well in that case, do you have the printer software on cd? If you do uninstall, and reinstall. If not you should be able to go to their web site and get the printer software.

 

The printer works fine, it's the documents that will not print. Everything else prints fine. The documents will print on other computer and printers but this laptop and its printer.

 

Well you cant have it both ways, if the documents print on another pc its not the documents, bad memory will do this to you. ed

 

HI!
Try this:
Open each document that won't print.
Use Select All and Copy to copy your entire document to the clipboard.
Select New from the File menu and create a new blank document.
Paste your document into the blank document.
Try printing again.
Shot in the dark, but might work......

 

Tried this, when I do this in the Excel files, it doesnt set all of the cell sizes and it's all messed up.

 

Well, I just tried this and it worked for me. Maybe it will work for you, but it will only save the info as is.

Select all the cells you need to 'save' and 'Copy' them.
Open Word and 'Paste'.

At least he'll have the info and it should print from Word, no prob.

 

It's not that easy, copy and paste will not work. I've tried everyway possible. Keep in mind, I'm not new to computers, very seldom can I not figure something out.

 

New to computers or not it is often the simplest solutions that we overlook in our frustration despite years of experience. The malware forum is a prime example, as is this forum where we see posters who have worked as IT professionals years. We've all had those Duh! *smacks self in head* moments! LOL

Did you get the updates for Office after reinstall? My first thought other than a memory issue is that the documents are not printing due to a compatibility issue with the current outdated version installed on the laptop.

For clarification: My apologies in advance if you already said it and I missed it..haven't had my quota of caffeine yet this morning.

In post #12 you said you tried copy/pasting in Excel but the cells got messed up. Did you try doing this on the laptop or on a different computer using the backups you created?

Have you tried copy/pasting the Excel documents in to Word using the backups on a different computer? In this case the cells will sometimes get messed up however although it is more time consuming you can usually click in each 'messed up' cell and copy/paste the content for each individual cell and this will restore the cell to it's original state.

Have you tried copy/pasting the documents in to another program (from the backups on a different computer) using a different program such as Open Office, re-saving then transferring them back to the laptop to see if they will then print?

 

Lets take one baby step......

You said you had some number of Word documents that fail. Take one and only one. Open it, SELECT ALL, copy. Open a new document and paste. Does that now print????? If it does......we are a step closer to a solution.

 

No, I wasn't able to get the Office updates because at the time I didn't have the connection available. I will try this first and see if it helps. The laptop previously had Office 03, I reinstalled Office 03 Pro that he got from work. How would memory effect the printing of a document, that confuses me?

I've tried this on the laptop with the original and backups and also tried it on my personal machine with the backups. This particular form was specifically designed, it has many cells and each cell is a different size. It will not copy and paste properly.

 

There are few Word documents, most of them are Excel spreadsheet (invoices) and all have set cell sizes and images. The print on other computer and printer but not the laptop. The laptop has a clean install of Windows. The only thing added was Office 03, Adobe, AOL and the printer driver.

 

Yeah, I did! I have tried to copy and paste into everything possible. It will paste but not anywhere near in the same format.

Could it really be the memory causing this? Also, let me throw in some additional information, before and after the clean install the USB ports will NOT install a USB jumpdrive. The printer is USB but prints anything but these documents.

Is it possible these documents will only print if the Office suite is the same version as before? It previously had Office 03 Standard, he wanted Office 03 Pro so I installed the update on the clean install. The version I printed from on my computer was 03 Pro so I don't know what's going on. Like I said in my many years in computers I have never seen anything act like this.

 

OK....lets go another way.

Take the documents to a machine where they work.

Save them down to a different EXCEL level....then bring them to the broken machine and try to open and print.

Oh.....one more thing....are macros involved?

 

Yes, the printer does have it's own power source, the jump drives however are powered by usb as you said.

They were burned to a CD before anything was done to the laptop once I got it. Device Manager looks ok except for a modem driver I can't find and he does not have the disc.

No, I havn't, reason is because I don't know for sure it was infected, I was informed it was told by a tech that initially worked on it. I wasn't sure to take it serious because he isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

I will however try to open them on my computer, save them again as a new filename and then open them on the laptop and see how that works out.

 

The Excel files have the business logo in the top center and the address information to the left and the invoice information on the right. Other than this everything is text in cells.

 

Okay, I have tried everything, let me brief on what's going on.

The laptop will not print anything from Word, Wordpad or Notepad. It gives the error "The document failed to print and so on", it does this on two printer now so I do not think it's the files or office.

Could this be a USB problem or what because I am lost for real.

 

I would also disable any Anti-virus or Firewall that are installed BJ.

Steve

 

Thanks guys for the time in posting. Here is what I did. I connected to my wireless internet and shared printer and it printed just fine. I finally have the laptop here with me without anyone watching over me the whole time.

I guess it's a USB issue? USB printers will install but wont print "document failed to print error", USB jump drives will say installed and working but doesnt show up. Computer owner stated his USB mouse wouldnt work either.

Drivers are install, XP Pro SP2.

 

You might check the manufacturer's website for USB patches or updates.

Steve

 

IF, it is a USB issue you could always try a printer with a parallel cable instead of USB, that would be an easier solution.

Quick question though...if you have got the laptop online yet ( sorry if I missed anything ) will it print things from the web?

 

I performed a BIOS update and my USB jump drive works so I assume everything is ok now. I will test it and let you guys know.

Thanks again for the replies!

 

I updated Office and Windows, did a BIOS flash/update to the latest update released in Jan 06.

I connected to my wireless network and printed on my shared printer. I then attach it directly to another USB printer and it printed fine. All USB jump drives are working and everything seems to be working fine.

Thanks for all of the replies.

 

No idea about the print malfunction but to address accessing the original data without the copy paste nightmare:

Open the invoices on another computer

The data being entered in the appropriate fields on the invoice (ideally) should be designed and set as a linked or embedded object(s) and by default there will be a destination file associated to those links that contain only the data entered; as for the complex formating and pictures etc that create the design features and layout of the invoice they will by default be in a source file. You only need to locate the destination file.

good luck

Note: suggest re-creating the invoice and linking the data input to an excel spreadsheet.
set the invoice properties to a single form so when opened it will no longer give the end user memory issues.