Writer 1: Difficulty Printing Card to Canon BubbleJet (109863)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Creative Writer
  • Microsoft Creative Writer for Windows 1.1
This article was previously published under Q109863

SYMPTOMS

When you print a card to the Canon BubbleJet C600 printer, you may experience one of the following problems:

  • You may receive "out of space" error messages and may not be able to print the cards. For example, you may receive the following message from Spike:
    Hey I'm almost out of space. If you're working in the writing studio you should save your work....
    You may receive similar messages, or the computer may stop responding (hang) when you print a card to the Canon BubbleJet 4000 printer.

  • The printer may print a blank sheet of paper followed by McZee's message, "I've finished printing your document. That was fun!"

  • The card may begin printing and hang midway through printing.

CAUSE

This problem occurs because the Canon driver consumes a large amount of memory each time you open the card. This contributes to the insufficiency of memory when you then try to print the card. The Epson LQ drivers, on the other hand, do not consume memory in this fashion.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, use the following steps:

Windows 95

  1. Set the driver to print directly to the printer using the following steps:

    1. Click Start, point to Settings and click Printers.
    2. Use your right mouse button to click your printer. Click Properties.
    3. Click the Details tab. Click Spool Settings.
    4. Click Print Directly To The Printer.
  2. Set the printing resolution using the following steps:

    1. Click Start, point to Settings and then click Printers.
    2. Use your right mouse button to click your printer. Click Properties.
    3. Click the Graphics tab. Set the Resolution to 180 x 180.
  3. Switch the Display Adapter Type (display driver) to VGA using the following steps:

    1. Click Start, then point to settings and then click Control Panel.
    2. Click Display. Click the Settings tab.
    3. Click Change Display Type.
    4. In the Adapter Type section, click Change, click Show All Devices.
    5. In the Manufacturers column click Standard Display Types. From the Models column, click Standard Display Adapter (VGA).
    6. Click OK. In the next two windows, click Close. Restart your computer.
    NOTE: The VGA driver is a 16 color driver. If you need to use a 256 color driver (some applications require 256 colors), contact your video card manufacturer to receive the latest version of their 256 color video driver for Windows 95.
  4. If you are using a printer driver which was NOT included with Windows 95, use a printer emulation.

    • For the Canon BubbleJet 600C, use the Epson LQ 2550 or Epson LQ 860 printer driver.
    • For the Canon BubbleJet 4000, use the Epson LQ2550, LQ 2500, LQ 1500 or the IBM ProPrinter X24E printer driver.

Windows 3.1

  1. From the Control Panel, usually located in the Main program group, double-click Printers. Clear the Use Print Manager check box.
  2. Choose the Printers option in Control Panel. Choose the Connect button. Set the printer port to LPT1.DOS.
  3. For the Canon BubbleJet 600C, use the Epson LQ 2550 or Epson LQ 860 printer driver instead of the Canon BJC600 driver.

    For the Canon BubbleJet 4000 do the following:

    1. In Control Panel, click Printers.
    2. Click Setup.
    3. Set print quality to 180x180.You can also use the Epson LQ 2550, LQ 2500, LQ 1500, or the IBM ProPrinter X24E printer driver instead of the Canon BJ4000 driver.
    When you are using emulation on the Canon BJC4000, set Dip Switch 11 to ON for Epson emulation and OFF for Canon emulation. Refer to the printer manual for further information on dip switches.
  4. Choose the 386 Enhanced option in Control Panel. Choose Virtual Memory, and verify that there is a swapfile, or set up a large swap file.
  5. In Windows Setup, change the display driver to Windows VGA. (Prior to making this change, Copy your SYSTEM.INI file, located in the Windows directory.)

    NOTE: The VGA driver is a 16 color driver. If you need to use a 256 color driver (some applications require 256 colors), contact your video card manufacturer to receive the latest version of their 256 color video driver.
  6. Verify that the SET TEMP statement points to a valid drive and directory, and that there is free disk space available on that drive.

    NOTE: Check your user manual for your printer to see if there are any dip switches which need to be set when using emulation.
For more information about how to perform the preceding tasks in Windows, see your Windows printed documentation or online Help.

Making these changes should allow you to print the card successfully. Cards print more slowly than newspapers or banners, so allow more time for a card to print.

MORE INFORMATION

NOTE: You may get these error messages even if you don't print. When you choose the Cardvark or Banneroceros, the wizard queries the printer driver and the driver allocates memory for the page. In the case of the BubbleJet C600 printer, the printer driver allocates far too much memory. This memory stays allocated until you restart Windows.

You can see the memory loss if you check available memory before and after you run the wizard. To check memory, switch to Program Manager and choose About Program Manager from the Help menu.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:8/15/2005
Keywords:kbinfo kbprint KB109863
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