Bizarre printing problems

[Catherine]

I'm having all -kinds- of trouble this year with the program.

I've given up on the "Client Copy" watermark as it shows up all over creation and use the watermarking on my printer settings.

But the prior-year comparison wants to print in landscape mode from the Print Manager -- I've only been able to get it correctly from the "print page" in the return.

The Federal return cover does NOT line up with the ATX-compatible covers I have (although it lined up perfectly with those exact same covers last year -- I"m working off the same batch).

And the state return cover comes out TOO BIG and overspills onto a second page.

Anyone else had these problems? And, preferably, fixed them? Or am I fated to spend an entire morning on the phone with tech support sometime in the very near future?

[kcjenkins]

Sounds like tech support is the right option.

[Randall]

My print menu is slow to come up. Very slow. I don't know if my system is just old or it's the ATX program. I know ATX is a spreadsheet type program but it just seems extra slow. Especially the bigger the return.

[TAXBILLY]

Have you defragged recently? That can speed up things sometimes.

taxbilly

[Randall]

Yes, did that type of thing before tax season began. Thanks.

[TAXBILLY]

You need to defrag more often. I defrag every day.

taxbilly

[elfling]

Yes, did that type of thing before tax season began. Thanks.

Randall,

Before 'tax season began' may not be nearly enough. Our local computer specialist recommends that we use the defrag analysis every week and run the defrag program whenever the analysis deems it necessary, or sooner if it seems warranted. He also advised that we run disk clean up at least twice a week during peak operating times. For us, peak runs from mid-January to early May.

We also installed additional memory sticks/chips this year. Each of our computers are running on 2GB of memory (still considered low by some) which has improved printer speed and reaction time of the ATX programs.

Elfling

[Catherine]

I have a program called DiskKeeper (maybe it's one "k") that defrags constantly in the background. It seems to take almost no CPU or memory but I never have a fragmented disk.

But maybe going from 1GB up to 2GB RAM (after 4/15!!) might be a good idea for me. My daughter's machine still has a half-gig of RAM and the thing is incredibly slow -- she's first on the memory upgrade list!

And Elfling -- I love the Douglas Adams quote in your sig.

[Randall]

Thanks for the tips on cleanup and defragging more often. My computer is getting old, XP, plenty of HD space, upgraded to 4gb RAM a year ago. Will be getting a new system later in the year, with all the latest, W7 64 bit, etc.