Adobe Reader (and only Adobe Reader) Will Not Print

[G8racingfool]

So apparently this is a month for strange and weird problems for me. I've got 3 systems currently that are driving me nuts but that's another story. This concerns a system for a business client that suddenly will not print PDFs from Adobe Reader. It worked great up till today but will not work now. I can print PDFs from any browser (Edge/Chrome/FF/etc) just fine and I can print documents from Word, Outlook, and just about any place else just fine as well.

When trying to print the document, the printer starts up as if it's going to print, but then just stops and does nothing (doesn't even spit out a blank page). Checking the event viewer, there is an error log entry each time that looks like this:

The document Print Document, owned by XXXX, failed to print on printer XXXX-XXXXXX. Try to print the document again, or restart the print spooler.

Data type: NT EMF 1.008. Size of the spool file in bytes: *size of document*. Number of bytes printed: 0. Total number of pages in the document: 1. Number of pages printed: 0. Client computer: XXXXXXXX. Win32 error code returned by the print processor: 2147500037. Unspecified error

The error code is the same every time, the X's are obviously just censored. Searching the error code has turned up a few people who have had the same issue fairly recently, but no solutions.

So far I've tried:

- Reinstalling Reader
- Ensuring Windows hasn't updated recently (it hasn't)
- Running Reader as both a standard and administrative user (no difference)
- Restarting/rebooting everything
- Removing/re-adding printers
- Printing to PDF via MS PDF Printer (this works)
- Restarting print spooler services manually
- Ensuring the system32\spooler\printer directory is cleared
- Disabling A/V (Emsisoft)


I've not tried:

- Reinstalling printer drivers (waiting until EoD to try this, but from what I've found elsewhere through searching, this won't solve anything).
- Anything 'drastic' (reinstalling Windows, etc).

Any ideas about what else to try here? As far as I know/can tell, nothing changed system-wise between yesterday and today which makes this problem really weird as things just suddenly 'stopped' working.

 

[mraikes]

How about going back to a known good system restore point?

 

[G8racingfool]

Good call. Will attempt that at EoD before the printer drivers.

 

[Markverhyden]

How about going back to a known good system restore point?

Along this line were there any updates in the last day or so?

 

[G8racingfool]

Along this line were there any updates in the last day or so?

Negative. There's been no update to Reader for a while and Windows last updated back during the last week of September (problem was not present after the update). The absolute latest thing that was updated was Chrome back on the 2nd.

 

[Markverhyden]

The closest I've had to something like this was a customer with a new W10 Pro setup. Initially they could print PDF's from QB Pro but then it stopped of a sudden. The solution ended up being replacing some file with another version. If I can remember the details I'll post them later.

 

[trevm999]

The closest I've had to something like this was a customer with a new W10 Pro setup. Initially they could print PDF's from QB Pro but then it stopped of a sudden. The solution ended up being replacing some file with another version. If I can remember the details I'll post them later.

Sounds like one of the classic Quickbooks problems, so I doubt it's related.

 

[G8racingfool]

You might be onto something with Quickbooks there @Markverhyden. I got a message a few minutes ago from the receptionist/accounting gal saying her Quickbooks is crashing on her all of a sudden now and she's lost some bills she was entering. While it isn't the same computer as the one having the Reader problems, the Quickbooks file is hosted on the one having the Reader problem and I know QB is notorious for having PDF problems in Win10. Could be nothing but I'll have to have a look at it.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I wonder if it has something to do with Adobe security, you could try going into Acrobat-> Preferences-> Security (Enhanced) and disable protected view and possibly uncheck Enable Enhanced Security, but I would start with Protected View.

 

[HCHTech]

There is something in my memory about an Adobe printing issue. PCL6-related maybe? This is from an evernote I saved:
--
Go to Printing Preferences... (Go to Printers and Faxes->Right click on Adobe PDF Printer->Printing Preferences...) and uncheck the check box 'Rely on System Fonts only; do not use document fonts". click OK.
--
See if that helps.

 

[G8racingfool]

Alright, so an update on this. Thanks for all your suggestions so far, unfortunately I'm gonna have to ask you to keep 'em coming because none of them worked. :S

I reverted back to a restore points up to 3 days ago but none of them changed anything. Then I went about uninstalling Quickbooks (was planning to do that anyway) and tested and no dice. Then I tried the security settings suggested by
@Slaters Kustum Machines but none of those options changed anything. I checked out @HCHTech's advice but I think that's for printing to a PDF, not printing an already existing PDF file to an actual printer.

So now I'm in the process of redoing the printer driver (oh joy) which I unfortunately don't think is going to make a difference, but I'll edit this post if it does.

 

[Markverhyden]

Ok, found the post that addressed the issue I was having. Not sure if it's be much help but did solve the problem with my customer. But it specifically address the PDF generation, print to PDF file. So not sure if this will help printing from Adobe Reader.

http://www.prolved.com/solved-quickbooks-2012-and-windows-10-pdf-invoices/

 

[G8racingfool]

Ok, found the post that addressed the issue I was having. Not sure if it's be much help but did solve the problem with my customer. But it specifically address the PDF generation, print to PDF file. So not sure if this will help printing from Adobe Reader.

http://www.prolved.com/solved-quickbooks-2012-and-windows-10-pdf-invoices/

Ah, yea I've experienced that issue before. Major PITA when I had customers calling complaining about that. Another one of those "Thanks Windows 10!" moments...


Okay, an update here, I think I've got it working! I won't know for sure until morning so finger's crossed. When preparing to reinstall the printer driver I double checked to see which one was being used. Windows was using the PCL-3 driver for OfficeJet 8710 (which is what the printer is). Just before I uninstalled everything I switched to the Type 3 User-mode driver and tested and lo-and-behold it appears to have printed. I'll update this thread tomorrow if it did indeed work.

Now the burning question is: why did the PCL-3 driver work this entire time and then just randomly stop?

 

[Markverhyden]

My question would be how did PCL3 get on there? I've think I've only ever seen PCL5 and 6 even on OJ's.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yeah something doesn't smell right, HP invented PCL3, but that stuff was mid80s printers, I haven't seen a printer use that language in decades.

 

[Krynn72]

My question would be how did PCL3 get on there? I've think I've only ever seen PCL5 and 6 even on OJ's.

<Halloween spooky voice>
eeEeeEEEEeennnnnnndddd uuUUuusssseeeerrrr

 

[G8racingfool]

Okay so in regards to the PCL-3 driver being present in the first place: Apparently, HP only makes 2 drivers for that particular printer. One being the Type-3 driver and the other being the PCL-3 driver I cannot find any signs of a PCL-6 driver available (unless maybe the universal driver works but I didn't test that and wasn't going to last night). And apparently, Windows in all it's infinite wisdom, must think that the PCL-3 driver is the 'best' one. I had to manually go get and install/force the printer to use the Type-3 driver.

Just about to finish testing so I'll let ya'll know if that really did fix it.

 

[G8racingfool]

Welp! Back to the drawing board! While I didn't receive any errors in the event log last night after testing, nothing actually printed. And after they started systems backup this morning the errors have started returning on both print drivers. I swear I had this one knocked out!

Really wish I knew what the error/exception code actually meant. Something tells me that's the key to figuring this thing out. It's just so strange that literally every other application prints fine (even prints PDFs fine) but Reader errors out.

So, just to update the list of things I've tried:

- Reinstalling Reader
- Ensuring Windows hasn't updated recently (it hasn't)
- Running Reader as both a standard and administrative user (no difference)
- Restarting/rebooting everything
- Removing/re-adding printers
- Printing to PDF via MS PDF Printer (this works)
- Restarting print spooler services manually
- Ensuring the system32\spooler\printer directory is cleared
- Disabling A/V (Emsisoft)
- Reinstalled printer driver
- Switched to different printer driver (Type-3 vs PCL-3)
- Ran system restore to before problem started occurring
- Uninstalled/reinstalled Quickbooks (for an entirely different purpose but it didn't do anything to help)
- Disabled security settings within Reader (Protected mode, etc)

 

[trevm999]

Very rarely have I seen a regular uninstall and reinstall of Adobe Reader fix an Adobe Reader problem. Have you tried removing all the Reader temp files and using the uninstall tool? http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/acrobatcleaner.html

 

[nlinecomputers]

What make and model of printer. PCL3? Can't be anything modern. Spend a $100 on cheap laser that will run rings around old stuff.