programs lost formatting after upgrade to WinXP

[Kiriray]

Hi,

This is what we did:

Cloned hard drives that had Windows 98, Office 2000 to a bigger hard drive. Put the new hard drive to a new system and We then upgraded from 98 to Windows XP pro. Everything worked great, even the old dos programs...

Problem:
This seemed to just started happening after about a week of using the new computers:
It seems like all the formatting in Word and Excel and even other programs (not Microsoft) got messed up in terms of printing. The printed documents now look like it's flushed to the left, instead of centralised, or that the fonts have somehow changed... We're thinking it's the printer driver, but we're using the correct driver and that on Print Preview, you can already tell that it's goin to print the "wrong" format/page setup. What could have caused this and is there a way to correct this? They have office 2000. This is true for all 3 computers.

any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

 

[rvnguy]

Kiriray,

I would look to a outside cause, as from your post I will take it that your are connected and printing to the same printer. Or localize and look at the computer that has the printer connected as this is the end point. you could also try moving the printer to one of the other machines to see if theis is any different.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[linney]

See if removing the drivers and performing a clean up and then re-installing the drivers helps?

http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm

http://www.compphix.com/xpprintprob.html

 

[Kiriray]

Hi,

thanks for the replies.
We've tried reinstalling and changing the print drivers but it's still the same issue.
And it doesnt seem like it's the printer, though, because it prints exactly how we see it from "Print Preview".

Say, we want to print a word document or a spread sheet, we click on File->Print Preview, and the original formatting from window98 has changed a bit (the margins have changed, font size got smaller, etc)even though we haven't done any changes on the document(s). We haven't even sent the document to the printer...If we print it, what we saw on the print preview is exactly what prints out. we're jsut not sure what's happening.

thanks again!

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
The print preview uses the printer information from your chosen printer even though it is not printing..So, if the default setings for the printers have changed due to the upgrade/driver changes, the layout will change..Also be sure the same fonts are installed as were in 98..





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[s0121]

Might check this minor detail.... Drivers were Win 98.. and now your on Win XP.... I had the same problem until I changed the printer drivers... 1. had to totally add/remove the printer and all drivers... 2. SHUT DOWN...not reboot... 3. Re Install the Printer with win XP drivers. many different things were tried... the above is what worked... ( actually found the 98 drivers were not compatible with XP... remove.shutdown.reinstall. All OK now.Hope this helps.

Frank Smith irc.dhcnetwork.com

SomeWhere in Kansas Near Dodge City

 

[Kiriray]

Thank you all for the replies...

I should have mentioned that they are network printers that are connected to and being shared from a windows Server 2003
But I did try to disconnect/uninstall and reinstall the printer, but that did not help.

I will try it on one other printer using Standard TCP/IP and will let you know.

thanks again.

 

[Nelviticus]

Does the server have XP drivers as well as 98 ones installed? It's possible to install several different versions on the server so that machines with different OSes can connect to it and print. When a PC connects to the server it will get its printer drivers from there (depending on how it's all set up).

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[Kiriray]

Well, it's a Server 2003, so by default it would be XP/2000 drivers that are installed on it. Why would I need a windows 98 driver installed on the server when they are not using Windows 98 anymore? At least not on the network.

thanks.

 

[Nelviticus]

The drivers on the server aren't for the server, they're for the client PCs that connect to it. When I share a printer on my XP machine (on a small home network), I have the option to install Windows 98 drivers as well as XP ones so that if a 98 machine connects to my network, it can obtain the right drivers direct from the XP machine. I don't know too much about Server 2003 but I guess that it has the same capability - i.e. it can host various driver versions.

At work, if I add a new network printer, the drivers are installed automatically from the server. I don't have to install any manually. My machine (Windows 2000) asks the server for Win2k drivers and if they're available it gets given them. If a Win98 machine connected to the server - and if it had been set up to hold Win98 drivers as well as Win2k ones - it would supply Win98 drivers.

It's possible that your server, even though it runs 2003 as its OS, has been set up to supply Win98 drivers to client machines but not XP ones. OK, so it's a long shot, but you never know!

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[Kiriray]

I know what you meant about adding drivers on the server so you dont have to worry about installing them on the client... anf fyi, Server 2003 has that capability. If you know 2000 has it, it better have the same (or better) in 2003, right?
2003's client is XP, so the drivers are for XP. 9x, ME are optional. I did not bother to install the drivers for the older OS because they dont have any 98 in their network...