http://www.sleeter.com/blog/2013/04/digging-in-to-quickbooks-pdf-issues/

Fixing PDF Problems

Here’s a quick rundown on how to fix PDF problems in QuickBooks:

1. Make sure you have the most current revision of your year of QuickBooks, as earlier revisions are more likely to have problems. For example, QuickBooks 2013 R6 has at least 7 fixes that directly relate to correcting PDF problems in various circumstances
2. Try the the PDF Repair Utility from Intuit, which works through a number of different issues with the various drivers and Windows settings. This works for MOST cases.
3. Make sure you have proper access permissions to the “temp” folder in Windows (details for how to do this are in my article on QuickBooks/Windows 8 PDF problems, which has a few additional tips).
4. If this is QuickBooks 2011 or older, check the outline below.
5. If all else fails, try the Intuit support site for PDF problems, which has some other things to try.

The PDF Repair Utility is updated from time to time, and it runs through a number of common fixes that you may have seen listed in other articles.

Here is an outline that explains what it does for QuickBooks 2011 and later installations, more or less in sequence, as far as I’m aware (no promises that this is entirely accurate, as the tool evolves over time).

1. It ends the QB related process running in the background.
2. It will rename the QBPrint files (so that QB can create new ones, which gets away from many printing-related issues).
3. MSXML4 & MSXML6 DLL’s are un-registered, then re-registered (MSXML is Microsoft XML Core Services, a collection of tools used in programming with Microsoft tools).
4. The Windows Print Spooler is stopped.
5. Temporary print spooler files are deleted. This clears out any files that got stuck in the print queue.
6. The Windows Print Spooler is restarted.
7. Reboot.bat is run (re-registers a long list of QuickBooks components)
   From this point on, the steps depend on the version of QuickBooks you are using.
8. For Windows XP , Vista and 7: Adds the XPS printer driver with the XPSPort.
9. For Windows 8: Adds the XPS printer driver with the PORTPROMPT port.

For pre-2011 versions the utility will do the first seven steps above, plus:

• Rename (thereby removing from use) the Amyuni 300 and 400 DLL’s.
• Remove the Amyuni registry values.
• Remove the QuickBooks PDF Converter printer drivers and reinstall them.
• Looks to see if this is a 64 bit version of Windows, and if so it fixes an issue that relates to Microsoft Office OneNote and how it interferes with the PDF system.

Amyuni’s Check List

Although they don’t have to, the Amyuni technical support staff have been trying to provide support to QuickBooks customers who contact them with problems. The company has pride in their product and they want to see that it works for people, even though QuickBooks customers don’t buy it directly from them. Here is a slightly modified version of the checklist that Amyuni support uses (with thanks to Dany Amiouny). These apply to QuickBooks versions older than 2012.

1. Check the version number of Quickbooks:
   • Quickbooks 2010 -> “Quickbooks PDF Printer” or “Quickbooks PDF Printer v2”. This is version 3.0 of Amyuni Document Converter
   • Quickbooks 2011 -> “Quickbooks PDF Printer v3”. This is version 4.0.0.7 of Amyuni Document Converter
   • Quickbooks 2012 -> No PDF printer installed. The Amyuni library is hidden behind the Microsoft XPS Printer driver. Redirect user to Intuit customer support.
   • Quickbooks 2013 -> ABS PDF Printer installed. Not used for sending emails or converting invoices to PDF. Our library is hidden behind the Microsoft XPS Printer driver. Redirect user to Intuit customer support.
2. Check the Operating System version, determine if it is 32 or 64-bit.
3. Open the printers’ panel, check that the printer is installed. Check the port to which the printer is attached.

Symptom 1: Quickbooks hangs when saving an invoice to PDF

• 64-bit Operating System: The printer should be attached to a port named “NUL:”, in general this is done automatically upon installation. Microsoft Office 2007 and later create a lower-case “nul:” port which prevents our installer from creating a NUL: port.
  1. Attach the Quickbooks PDF printer to the nul: port created by Office
  2. Remove any pending print jobs from all printers
  3. Delete any 0KB PDF file that might be found in the output folder
  4. If the 0KB file cannot be deleted, the spooler has to be restarted (“net stop spooler”, “net start spooler”) or the system rebooted
• 32-bit Operating system or the 64-bit resolution doesn’t work: We need to check where the output file is going. Open Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\Software\Quickbooks PDF Printer. Check the registry values for “File Name” and “GeneratedFile”.
  1. Make sure the user has access to the file indicated by “File Name”
  2. If the file already exists, delete it
  3. If the file cannot be deleted, the spooler has to be restarted (“net stop spooler”, “net start spooler”) or the system rebooted
  4. Remove any pending print jobs from all printers

Symptom 2: Error code -20 when saving an invoice to PDF

• Problem started to occur after the user upgraded their version of Windows or Quickbooks (shouldn’t happen on a clean installation.)
  1. You need to fix the security settings on the registry. Follow the instructions outlined in this Amyuni Support Document

Symptom 3: Error code -30 when saving an invoice to PDF

• User might not have full access to the registry
  1. You need to fix the security settings on the registry. Follow the instructions outlined in this Amyuni Support Document
• Quickbooks 2011 using version 4.0.0.7 of Amyuni Document Converter. Problem occurs if user has other applications installed that also use the Amyuni Document Converter.
  1. Remove any pending print jobs from all printers
  2. Close Quickbooks and reboot the system to make sure printer driver is cleared from memory (this is optional by recommended)
  3. Update the Quickbooks PDF printer to 4.0.1.2 through Windows update
  4. Check that the right printer driver version shows in the About box of the printer
  5. Copy the CDintf400.dll from c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\x86\3 to the Intuit Quickbooks folder under Program Files

Symptom 3: Error code -41 when saving an invoice to PDF

• This is an indication that the version of Quickbooks does not match the version of the PDF printer driver
  1. Close Quickbooks and reboot the system to make sure printer driver is cleared from memory (this is optional by recommended)
  2. Quickbooks 2010: Update the Quickbooks PDF printer to version 3.0.x.x through Windows update
  3. Quickbooks 2011: Update the Quickbooks PDF printer to version 4.0.1.2 through Windows update