Ask A Geek

Q: Spooling System App. On a network of 6 computers (all Microsoft 97 systems and Microsoft 03 Microsoft Office) and 1 printer (Panasonic DP-3000) is causing great problems. We are trying to print legal sized documents but the printer is not communicating with the server or computers. Letter sized documents are sending and printing, and the printer is set for legal sized documents. What can I do? Is there any hope?

Q: I am having color issues with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0, my printer, and my digital camera. The picture on my computer screen is completely different than the one that comes out of the printer and the camera. How can I fix this?

A: Since the Camera and the printer show the correct colors then I would suggest we concentrate on the monitor. The best option would be to get a hardware based calibration system like the ColorVision Spyder2 Express or the Pantone huey. These devices are easy to use and will automatically calibrate your system so that the colors are correct. The Pantone huey stays connected to your system so that it can constantly update your settings based on the change in light in the room.

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Q: I am running windows vista 64 bit and I have a Epson R1900 printer.

How can I run the auto print head cleaning cycle using windows task scheduler?

Q: What are 3 basic components of a laser printer?

Q: My Lexmark E234 printer has stopped working. I get an error that says the printer is not spooling. I uninstalled the printer and tried to reinstall but it still does not work. My printer is approximately 1.5 years old. Do I need to update the driver or just get a new printer?

A: The first thing you should do is download and install the latest driver for your Lexmark E234 printer. If this does not fix your problem then there is a great entry over at the Microsoft Knowledge Base where they have a utility to fix the printer is not spooling error.

Q: My Lexmark E234 printer has stopped working. States that the printer is not spooling. I uninstalled and tried to reinstall and it still does not work. My printer is approximately 1.5 years old. Do I need to update the driver or just get a new printer?

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Q: I have a new laptop and want to use my current printer. The printer software was for Windows XP but the new laptop is Vista. Can I get the printer software be loaded on the new laptop? The printer is an HP deskjet 825 series.

Q: Why does my printer print a blank page after every printed page?

Q: I have a Dell Insperion laptop computer. For some time now, the response time for internet applications has been getting slower. Sometimes, it even ignores closing an application when I click on the X. It is freezing up sometimes and this weekend it did not show the printer I have installed and gave an error message about the printer spooler not running. I talked with someone that I know and he walked me through a few things trying to fix the printer spooler message and finally said the computer needed to be stripped and the software reinstalled. Does this sound right? Also, what does it mean to be stripped?