Q:

Color tab disappeared from Printing Preferences for Ricoh color laser printer

On a few of our printers, the color tab has disappeared from the Printer Preferences dialog of the print driver (and the printer won't print color from that workstation).
That is, when one issues the print command (Ctrl P -- the print dialog is displayed), then clicks Preferences to view the printer's own preferences dialog... the Color tab has disappeared on three user workstations.
This is a color printer and the printer has tons of toner.
The tabs were there just a few days ago.
This is not happening on all stations, but the same thing is happening on more than one.
I've already tried removing/reinstalling the driver and telling the new driver to replace / overwrite the current one.

A:

I used to work on Ricoh's (and Gestetners, and others).
I'll admit right off that it's been a bit since I've touched one or played with a Windows machine connected to one, so bear with me please.
Quiet often, I found that the color tab went away if the application (or user) chose 'B/W output' vs 'Color Output' in the 'Printing Preferences' tab. (yeah, the OTHER one).  Selecting 'B/W only' causes the driver to drop the color options.  Since this is a per-application setting, it could happen and not be affected by driver reinstalls.
Other things that come to mind, it's a networked printer, so each computer SHOULD be printing directly to the copier, but it's possible someone has connected to a shared printer on someone's computer which had the B/W option set... this would cause the B/W to propagate to their system.   Just something to be aware of, gotta love those helpful users.
Kinda one of those situations where if I could SEE the option panel it might strike a chord, compartmentalized memory and all that.  Too much stuff in my head! :)

