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Yet another computer question from me

cbxjeff
After a year of no printing problems my luck has run out.  My HP laser copies, & scans to file just fine but today I find that I can't print anything - a new e-mail, a saved file in my doc on my drive, or new data from say excel.  Since I can scan and save to the laptop as a file in "doc", the wireless communication seems OK.  Whenever I want to print anything from the computer everything seems OK at first.  I can do a print preview, do all the printer set up features if I want, and I see my printer highlighted. But when I ask to print I am asked for a file name and the document is saved in a "*.prn" format and goes to my document file on the drive and can't be printed from there. 

Any help appreciated,
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Comments

12 comments

Date Votes
  • dunbarboyz
    This is the same place I ask our computer wizard lady for help. She walks in smiling hits one button and lunch is on me.
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  • susie
    Appears that at some point you are choosing to print to file and the document is saved as a .prn file.  Double check all of your settings when going through the print process to include your defaults.

    3
  • cbxjeff
    Hi Susie,
    Thanks for the reply.
    If I attempt to print anything I begin and go to "file", "print", I get a dropdown which lists from the top my printers and the HP is highlighted.  Just below that section I see a line "status" and reading left to right on that line "ready", "print to file" (with a little square box that is not checked), and  "preferences".
    I hoped that the "print to file" would have been the problem.
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  • Mr. Perfect
    Yep. Somehow you are printing to file instead of to the printer.
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  • Rocky Raab
    Step One in all 'pooter probs: Reboot. Both computer and printer. Do a full off and wait, not just a restart.
    It seems to be a problem internal to the computer, not the printer. Likely somewhere in Settings.
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  • brier-49
    Uninstall & reinstall printer
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  • Hangfire
    Jeff, I think you're running Win 10.. If so, try a restart, not a full shutdown..
    Rocky- In Win10,  a restart clears the various dump files and RAM memory..In Previous versions of Windows this was, in fact, accomplished  with a full shutdown..This article offers a good explanation..
    https://www.howtogeek.com/349114/shutting-down-doesnt-fully-shut-down-windows-10-but-restarting-it-does/


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  • Rocky Raab
    Thanks, very kind of you. It figures that they'd change that to be the exact opposite of previous knowledge, right? Yet another reason to hate MS.
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  • cbxjeff
    Thanks for the replies guys.  Yes, there is a problem with the #1 laptop.  I can print fine with laptop #2.  Since this post of mine is old and getting buried, I may start a new one.  My thought now is to accept the problem and see if I can print a file on my drive that is on the .prn format.  Things were so much easier when I was just using a slide rule.  :)
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  • cbxjeff
    Oh, I see that my original is back to the forum top so I won't post a new question.  If I can learn to print a .prn file, I won't worry about this until I can take the laptop to the shop.

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  • Rocky Raab
    You know what I'm going to suggest with that #1 laptop, right?
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  • cbxjeff
    I do Rocky, but it's less than a year old and the best I have (except that it puts everything into a .prn file.  :)
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