Microsoft Musings

Recently a customer was having issues printing invoices from Quickbooks. Actually invoices wouldn’t print at all, however they could print everything else from Quickbooks. After trying everything I could think of short of doing a complete reinstall, I discovered this easy fix.

# Open My Computer or Windows Explorer and navigate to the correct directory below for your version or QuickBooks.
# For QuickBooks 2007: Windows XP – C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks 2007
# For QuickBooks 2007: Windows Vista – C:\ProgramData\Intuit\QuickBooks 2007
# For QuickBooks 2006 and earlier: C:\Program Files\Intuit\[QuickBooks Version]

1. Locate the QBPRINT.QBP file and delete it. (Note: this file may be hidden by default.)
2. Open QuickBooks.
3. Click the File menu and select Printer Setup.
4. Click any one of the transactions in the Form Name drop-down and click OK. This will re-create the QBPRINT.QBP file. (This does not have to be done for each transaction.)
5. Open and print the transaction that was having problems.

This worked like a charm for me, hope it works for you as well.

Recently I was working on an HP Photosmart C6280 that was throwing a “Ink system has failed” error message. Fortunately the solution is a simple one, however it involves removing a few screws, taking the right side cover off, and replugging in some cables. In other words, do not attempt this if your printer is under warranty as it will most likely void it.

*** Fix your HP Photosmart Printer (Reset Code/Master Reset) ***

1. Turn off power and unplug from power source.
2. Open right side of printer (looking at the front).
3. Disconnect,by pulling gently, both white (or black, in my case) flat ribbon cables off the main circuit board.
4. Plug in power source and turn printer on. Wait till you get a error message and push “Ok”.
5. Unplug power source.
6. Reconnect the flat ribbon cables by aligning and carefully pushing into the conectors on the main circuit board.
7. Plug in power source and turn printer on (Printer preparing occurred).
8. Voila, the nasty error message 0xc18a0001 “Ink System has Failed” is now gone.

Hopefully this will save you from having to buy a new printer. Let me know in the comments how you made out.

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I keep getting the following annoying error message when trying to print from Adobe Reader 9.

Before you can perform print-related tasks such as page setup or printing a document, you need to install a printer.

Adobe has a knowledgebase article on the exact problem and describes the solution to it. It does fix the issue, however in a couple of days the error message simply reappears. I’ve included the temporary fix below, but I would like know the REAL fix to this frustrating issue. If you know of a method to fix it for good, please let me know.

1. Select Start > Control Panel > Printers and Faxes (Windows XP) or Start > Control Panel > Printers (Windows Vista).
2. Look for a default printer, which is designated by a green check mark.
   * If there is a default printer, right-click on a different printer and select Set As Default Printer.
   * If there is no default printer, right-click on your printer and select Set As Default Printer.

You can also refer to the following screen shots for more help.

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Does the above screenshot look familiar? The problem is quite frustrating, as multiple taskeng.exe processes will start and then never end. This results in a huge number of taskeng.exe processes running simultaneously as the about screenshot shows which over time drastically reduces system performance. You may also get the following error message when you start Task Scheduler.

The task image is corrupt or has been tampered with. User_Feed_Synchronization

Fortunately there is a simple solution for Windows Vista thanks to NickDownUnder:

1. Go to the start menu.
2. Type task scheduler and press enter.
3. Press continue on the UAC popup.
4. In the left pane of task scheduler, underneath Task Scheduler Local, right-click on Task Scheduler Library.
5. In the View submenu, make sure the Show Hidden Tasks option is checked.
6. Widen the Name column in the center pane. The hidden task that is likely at fault has a name that starts with User_Feed_Synchronization, followed by a dash and a bunch of digits inside a curly brace.
7. Select that task in the middle pane by clicking on its name.
8. To verify that this scheduled task is creating all those taskeng.exe processes, select the History tab in the middle pane near the middle of the screen. If you expand out the Level and Date and Time Columns, you should see a bunch of errors and date and times that are 5 minutes apart. If that’s the case, then this task is the problem.
9. On the rightmost pane, select Disable.
10. There may be more than one scheduled task like this, so you’d need to disable any or all that were causing problems.
11. Restart your computer.