PDF-X + Firefox 3.6 = No Printing

[renman]

I love PDF-XChange Viewer. I can get everything to work fine, except in Firefox 3.6.

Here's what I did:
* I associated all PDFs with PDF-X;
* Enabled the PDF-X plug-in
* Disabled the Adobe Reader plug-in
* Set PDF-X to display PDF in browser
* Set Adobe Reader to not display PDF in browser
* And tried it with "PDF Download" (Add-on) enabled and disabled.

Either one of two things happened: Nothing, or Adobe Reader opens up.

PDF-XChange Viewer does work in IE8.

After the tweak to delete (or rename) the file named nppdf32.dll from the Mozilla Firefox plug-ins folder, still nothing.

Then I disabled the "PDF Download" add-on. Success! Then I re-enabled it. It still worked. Wow!

Then I could not only NOT print PDFs (in or out of the browser), I couldn't print from a text editor, word processor, or any other program. (This is a PDF-X problem, not one with the "PDF Download" add-on)

This happened yesterday, too, and I quickly fixed the problem then by diddling with the printers in Control Panel. I couldn't fix it this time, no matter what I tried. Uninstalling PDF-XChange Viewer did not help. I had to do a System Restore to early yesterday, reverted back to all the Adobe Reader defaults, and I could print again.

Since this no-print problem happened twice in 2 days in conjunction with PDF-X (or at least the FF plug-in) the problem is obviously PDF-X related. Since the ability to print is paramount, PDF-X had to go. PDF-XChange Viewer is really good: lots of features, small footprint, etc. But the fact that it cannot work out-of-the-box with FF 3.6, EVEN with tweaks, work-arounds, and run-arounds is really a deal-breaker.

An exchange of emails with PDF-X support has been considerate and helpful, but there is no solution yet.

Software/hardware: All software are the latest versions except no SP3 on XP, but it does have all the latest patches; Win XP Pro SP2, 2.16GHz Core2 CPU, 2GB RAM.

Searching the forum, I can't find anyone who has posted a similar problem. I find it hard to believe I'm the only one with this problem.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Hi,

when viewing PDF's in a browser and our plugin - the browser print option will print a blank page and you must use the PDF-XChange Viewer print menu or toolbar option - is that what you are doing ?

Thanks

[Lzcat - Tracker Supp]

Can you explain to us how the Viewer can affect your ability to print from other programs?

It is not a print driver that interacts with the spooler, it does not install any drivers that may affect this. I can understood if the Viewer itself may be not able to print, but affect other programs?

Maybe you have installed something else after or just before installing the Viewer?

Also you may need to do a virus check (there is enough free antivirus and/or virus scanners if you do not have one). If this does not help - we may need access to your PC using TeamViewer (of course under your control ).

Thanks

[renman]

The file is sent to the printer, and it just sits in the print queue, and never gets to the printer. PDF-X and/or the PDF-X plug-in screws up the printer settings that makes this happen. NOTHING is printed, and the print file never gets to the printer. Even when I restore the printer settings (i.e., uncheck "use printer offline" and restore its "ready" status,) the documents just pile up in the print queue and usually say "Error."

I NEVER touch the printer settings. Something is changing them and I'm certain PDF-X is the culprit. While there is no connection between PDF-X and my text editor and word processor, PDF-X does use the printer and does somehow manage to to trash printer or spooler settings or something, thereby affecting not only PDF-X's ability to print, but every program on my computer that has a print function.

Lzcat: Did you read and understand the original post? I do check for viruses and malware and do not have any. I have NOT installed something else after or just before installing a Viewer.

The problem goes away when I restore my system to a time prior to to the PDF-X installation. Is that so hard to understand? Do you work for Toyota (i.e., we can't be at fault, it must be the customer)? Well, NO, it's YOU!

This whole process has taken WAY more of my time than I wanted to spend (many hours over 2, going on 3, days and trying to post to a forum that wouldn't accept my posts, and sending and answering emails, and then, when posting was enabled by Paul O'Rorke, trying to write as thorough and concise and kind a description as I could. And the response? "Well, it's probably you."

PDF-X isn't ready for prime time; it's not even beta quality.

I can't continue to play tit-for-tat ad nauseam, but I would like to know when you have ironed out all the bugs. To use the Toyota analogy again, it's a fine car (or program) and it's 99% reliable -- but get it only if you don't mind unpredictable behavior that's beyond the manufacturer's ability to believe and diagnose, much less fix.

[Lzcat - Tracker Supp]

You case is very specific and we never see such behaviour. So again, can you do a virus check and can ve get access to your PC? Otherwise I'm affraid that we will be not able to figure out what is going on and how to fix this.

[renman]

No, you can't have access to my computer.

Let's wait and see if anyone else has this problem. If not, you can pretend it never happened to me and I can pretend I didn't install, uninstall, reinstall, and uninstall again to prove to myself that I wasn't doing anything wrong, and didn't spend so much time trying to resolve this problem.

[ugradedeveloper]

renman,

You seem to have the attitude that Tracker is capable of fixing this bug without further information about your computer configuration, but refuses to do so out of sheer perversity. I wonder how much thought you have given to the likelihood of this.

As someone who has worked for years in software development, I can say for sure that supplying the developers with sarcastic comments is not going to get the bug fixed any faster.

Lewis

[John - Tracker Supp]

Thanks Lewis - I think you nailed that one for us

We'll just 'pretend' with equal comfort he never existed

[renman]

"I can say for sure that supplying the developers with sarcastic comments is not going to get the bug fixed any faster."

That's so true. That's why I said previously, that I was "trying to write as thorough and concise and *kind* a description as I could."

After my first contact, where I laid out all I had done, I was told to do what I had already done.

Then the response was to suggest that I either had a virus or that maybe I "installed something else after or just before installing the Viewer."

The same no-print problem happened 2 days in row with the [re]installation of PDF-X.

No other software maker has *ever* asked to prowl around the bowels of my computer to determine if their software was buggy in order to fix it.

Sarcastic comments are a response accusatory tone, and denial of responsibility.

"We'll just 'pretend' with equal comfort he never existed." That way you can pretend there is no problem with your software.

[John - Tracker Supp]

The fact that no other Software provider has ever asked for access to your system may well be a fairly good indication they were not really interested in the problem you had or fixing it.

Victor (Lazycat) was prepared to spend some serious time to further this by personally intervening and using TeamViewer to login into your system and try and reproduce the issue and see just why it was happening - I think that shows a clear indication that we take support very seriously.

I do understand that this might cause concern, security wise and had you just said - "sorry - I am not comfortable with that, we need to find another way to resolve this.." - we would have gone on from there - but instead you launched into a sarcastic and unjustified tirade that we were not interested, didn't believe you and were just avoiding helping - which was blatantly not the case.

So lets wait and see if others experience the same problem or we can reproduce here and take it from there, then no one is going to be upset or worried about the motives of others.