Question and Answers

HP Printer-Please help!? - Cassie D I have an HP OfficeJet J4500 All-in-One Series Printer. It normally works just fine. I plug and unplug it from my laptop often, and there has never been a problem when needing to print. I plugged the printer in today and anything I attempt to print goes straight to "Print to File". I tried restarting both the computer and the printer, and checking to make sure all ports are plugged in correctely and securely. I also opened my control panel, deleted the printer, and reinstalled it; at which point, it didn't even print the test page...I run on Windows Vista. I really don't want to call tech support, because it's next to impossible to understand them... If anyone has any idea what to do, please let me know! Thanks!

Best Answer: Well, here's some ideas to try since you're still not working. It sounds like a Print To File printer (like Microsoft XPS Document Writer, PDF creator, etc.) is set as your default printer in Windows instead of the printer you want to print to or a “print to file” port is configured for your printer, so that whenever you print you are actually trying to create files with the print information in them on your computer's hard drive. First, make sure that your printer is set as default: Vista: 1. Open Printers by clicking the "Start" button , click on "Control Panel" then click on "Hardware and Sound" then click on "Printers". 2. A window will open with an icon for each "printer" that your computer has recognized & installed on your system. Right-click the icon, or line, for the printer that you want to use as the default printer, then click "Set as Default Printer", a check mark should now be displayed on the printer icon to mark it as your default printer. Then close the window. If you still have the "Save As" problem then the problem is your printer is setup for the wrong port in the properties section of the printer setup, a “print to file” port instead of a standard communication port to your printer and you'll need to change it. For Vista: Click the Start button, then Control Panel, now Hardware and Sound, and then click on Printers. Right click on your printer and select "Properties" Click on your "Ports" tab The problem is your current port setting for your installed printer is set to "FILE: Print to File" and as such is printing the document to a file on your hard drive instead of to the port that your printer is actually connected to. Scroll through the list of available ports to find the port that your printer is connected to (probably USB {may be named like DOTsomething} or LPT1 or whatever you have) and check the box next to it and click the OK button at the bottom of the window - that hopefully should fix your problem. Best of luck. - Denver Al

When you go to print (from the File menu), there is a little check box that says "Print to File." Make sure it's not checked. Otherwise, check your default printer and make sure it's not set to Adobe or something. Click on >Start >Printers and Faxes; right click on your printer and choose "Set as Default Printer." - nowperson36

If you are printing a document using the HP director, it will print to file unless you change the settings Open up HP Director and on the top, above the icons you will see settings. Here is where you can make changes to your liking - Richard J

Report Abuse

Best Answers are selected by the person who asked the question or other Yahoo! users. Find out more at Yahoo! Answers.