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brian.hart
Known Participant
February 14, 2011
Question

Acrobat Reader X crash when printing

  • February 14, 2011
  • 24 replies
  • 199176 views

I just stayed up half the night to updated 40 computers from Reader 9.4 to

X (10.0.1) in a Windows 2003 SBS domain. All of them now crash when attempting to print to network

printers (i.e. those installed on a server and shared to the workstations), so I just had to remove X and revert back to 9.4 to get them to print. The problem occurs whether I use the direct download method (via adobe.com) or my distributable copy.

Does anyone know what is happening here?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    24 replies

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    Anonymous
    February 21, 2012

    workaround isn't a solution, what about all the people who faced the problem but think it is the printer driver the cause ?
    why nobody from Adobe can't reply, or then .. release the new version ?

    for sure, the easiest way is to suggest another pdf reader for now.

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    Anonymous
    February 21, 2012

    You are right a work around is not the solution! At first I thought it was the printer driver but the printer was relatively new. I will take your advice and stick with Adobe Reader 9.4 and wait for someone at Adobe headquarters on King Street in San Francisco to wake up and fix the problem with their reader X software.

    D
    darynv
    New Participant
    February 21, 2012

    ManishPali actually put me on the right path, I had this error now too (even tried creating a text only pdf as my pdf's had a jpeg embedded) and I resolved by changing the "Enable Protected Mode at Startup", then under Security(enhanced) I unchecked "Enable Enhanced Security" as well and this resolved my issue, hope it helps people going forward.

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    Anonymous
    February 21, 2012

    Thanks very much for taking the time to research and reply to my pdf printing problem with Adobe X. I will reload X and give your suggestion a try, tonight.

    A
    Anonymous
    February 18, 2012

    I can't provide a solution but I can describe another Adobe X printing issue. When I loaded Reader X on a PC with Windows 7 and a Lexmark printer purchased in 2011, I could not print any PDF files. I had to remove and reload Reader 9.4 and now it works great. I just can't get rid of the "push file" from Adobe asking me to download Reader X. Firefox will not allow it to be downloaded but I am trying to figure out how to remove the "push" film from my PC, it shows up every time I restart my computer. Any ideas how to remove the file before it is installed automatically?

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    Anonymous
    February 12, 2012

    Actually, I don't have the problem myself, but a lot of our customers report it. We are providing a virtual printer to save paper and ink. and actually in some computers, it seems to contribute to this crash. The problem is we don't have any other way to know what is going on.
    We have contacted Adobe support team, and we didn't get any reply.

    I can't install the patch myself.

    Our product is http://www.greencloudprinter.com and for now, it is causing really a lot of issues then we can't solve. it is hard to contact a guy which just download a product, to explain the safe mode is a solution. the patch is there. so it means Adobe is aware of the problem.

    Of course, installing FoxIt Reader and it works like a charm. I hope we will not have to wait 3 months for the quarterly update to fix the problem with our GreenCloud Printer software. anyone from Adobe Support can contact us to help to see what is the incompatibility ?

    Fabrice Meuwissen
    CEO ObviousIdea

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    kpapalia
    New Participant
    February 6, 2012

    What about this patch:  http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/928/cpsid_92870.html.    It seems to have worked for me today.

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    brian.hartAuthor
    Known Participant
    February 6, 2012

    Thank you for the link. I will try the fix.

    Side note: I also see that this link includes instructions on how to disable the auto-duplex printing setting; however, this is next to useless in a multi-user managed system, as it requires every user to make the change on every computer they use.I had hoped that I would find some way to disable this by default for all users of the computer, but it is a per-user setting--again something in which Adobe has decided how things work and provided only a per-user configuration tool. These things are a little frustrating for adminstrators of mid-size networks: small networks are easy to manage one computer at a time; large networks are easy to manage using Group Policies, but midsize networks are not easy either way.

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    kpapalia
    New Participant
    February 6, 2012

    We are trying to get everyone to duplex where possible to save on paper costs. That option being ‘on” by default helps us in this endeavor. I plan to leave it in the “on” position and will wait for someone to complain. If there are a lot of complaints, I might send a preemptive note to everyone explaining the option and how to turn it off. But right now, I plan to leave the option on. I don’t anticipate there being a lot of complaints because we have a pretty good “green” mentality building here lately.

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    WiRealtors
    New Participant
    February 3, 2012

    I would like to add to this thread also, maybe Adobe can get us a fix with it:
    The problem does indeed seem to be with the "Enabled Protected Mode at startup", as unchecking this box makes the problem corrected immediately.   However, I am not thrilled about leaving an unprotected software in this state.  My device is a windows 7 64 bit, and I am printing to an HP Laserjet 4250.  I only mention it because another user on this thread has the exact same printer.  The part that I do find strange though, is that we are using the "HP universal" print drivers, so the printer on the other end of the driver should not hold relevance (except that it's a newer HP).  I will run in the degraded state for now, but not happy that Adobe hasn't fixed this yet (my current version is 10.1.2).

    W
    WindowsViaBooks
    New Participant
    January 27, 2012

    Temp Fix

    I think the driver that some of these fancy printers in combination of the Windows systems (for me Win7) are not compatible.

    My story, I have a multifunction OfficeJet.  I had days of trouble installing it, actually finding the correct driver that would allow the printer to offer all it's functions.  I have a network with all wireless communications. Before I found the correct driver..from HP actually, Adobe worked.  After I updated the driver Adobe didn't work...crashed like others have been experiencing.   What I've done, and you could do for your 40 or so Adobe users.  I added another printer, either on the network or individual PCs,  but this time I choose the most generic  driver for that printer that was available.  For sure don't choose the driver the PC finds but pick off the product/driver list you are offered.   When Windows offered I choose NOT to make it the default printer.  After it was installed I went to the new installed Printer Properties and renamed it "Adobe Printer"...   Back to Default Printer...if the user doesn't use the fancy stuff..faxing,scanning, you could change/make the default printer to the Adobe Printer (you might choose a different name)...for everyone else  Show the User that when they want to print a document from Adobe, the first document they will need to use the menu item  "FILE"  down to "PRINT" and change the printer to the Adobe Printer they should see in the list. As long as they keep the Adobe Window open  it will remain and they can just choose the printer icon.   If you did make the Adobe printer the default printer then they can just click on the Printer Icon.

    I know it's not the perfect solution, I suspect this isn't an Adobe problem but a Print Drive problem.  At least this will give you time to start questioning whoever/what ever company made your printer for a driver that resolves this problem.

    B
    brian.hartAuthor
    Known Participant
    January 28, 2012

    Nope. I manage multiple corporate networks, all of which have the same problem, and none have printers requiring multifunction drivers. These are industrial-strength copier/scanner/printers, but th eonly thing installed on the workstations is a PCL5 or PCL6 printer driver; the scanner components all use SMB and/or e-mail push technology to push scans out via e-mail or to shared folders on the Small Business Server domain controller / file server.

    It happens regardless of which of our five or six printers is used--it is 100% related to the new Reader security options in relation to shared network resources. If I install the printers locally (i.e. add the IP port, then install the driver to print there instead of using a server-based share), there is no problem with the Adobe Reader printer. It  is simply not practical to plan deployment of printer drivers to a hundred computers individually because one program's fancy security settings choke on it.

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    brian.hartAuthor
    Known Participant
    November 4, 2011

    Here is the latest: I upgraded a computer to Adobe Reader 10.1.1. Now, it no longer crashes when attempting to print to network printers--it simply does nothing...whether or not Enhanced Security is enabled or disabled.

    As per my original diagnostics, I can be more specific: it fails only when printing via a shared printer. I have many IP-based printers on my networks but prefer to install the driver to my Windows 2003 SBS server and share the printer with my XP Pro workstations. In this case (the only recent upgrade), I can resolve the problem by adding the IP port and printer driver directly to my workstation. Upon doing this, Adobe Reader prints just fine to the printer. However, when I print to the printer on the workstation that points to the shared printer on the server, nothing happens.

    All other programs (Outlook, Word, Excel, IE, accounting software, etc) have no problem printing to the printer either way. I would guess that this is a continuation of the problem that first appeared in Adobe Reader X, but without the crash.

    It gets very time-consuming troubleshooting these things, and my clients' entire world relies heavily on Adobe Reader working correctly. I want my Reader 9 back! I may have to resort to just reinstalling that. It is hardly practical to change my printer installation and management methods on behalf of one application.

    This is really frustrating.

    D
    dtrettin1
    New Participant
    November 10, 2011

    Same problem...also everytime I try to click on preferences the program freezes.

    B
    brian.hartAuthor
    Known Participant
    November 10, 2011

    Try reverting to Adobe Reader 9.4. As far as I know, this is the latest version that does not have this problem. In my most recent case, I solved the non-printing issue by doing two things:

    1. Disabling protected mode.

    2. Installing the printer driver directly on the affected PC (i.e. instead of connecting the PC to the printer as shared from the server).

    All seemed fine until the user attempted to delete a PDF file after printing. Then (and consistently), Adobe Reader crashed every time the user attempted to delete a PDF after printing it and closing Adobe Reader.

    My clients pay me to manage their systems, not to run beta tests for software providers such as Adobe. I finally just removed 10.1.1 and reverted to Reader 9.4 for this PC, which has apparently resolved these issues. Version X has had these unresolved issues at least since it hit me in February--nine months ago. I had hoped that version 10.1.1 would fix the problem that first appeared in version 10.0, but that is apparently not so.

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    Anonymous
    August 16, 2011

    Protected mode has been a source of a lot of issues and problems throughout the company for which I work as well. We opted to disable it for over 10000 computers.

    A
    Anonymous
    August 16, 2011

    We just started having a similar problem after doing Windows updates and Adobe Flash player updates over the weekend.  Acrobat was already up-to-date. Acrobat Reader will either not open a .pdf on a network share, or if the .pdf opens, it will not print:  instead of bringing up the "Print" window, the application closes.

    We are running Windows XP SP3 on a Win 2008 R2 domain, with a Win 2003 file server.

    I've traced it to a permissions problem.  If we log in as an admin, everything works fine.  If we add "everyone" to the permissions for the acrobat exe, and give it read/write permissions, it works as well.  However, adding those permissions for the domain user changed nothing.

    We've returned the permissions to normal, and have disabled "Protected Mode" for now on a limited number of machines.  Hopefully the restricted user rights will prevent any problems.

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