A couple initial thoughts.

(1) Try resetting your printer preferences as described in this article: Problems printing web pages - MozillaZine Knowledge Base

(2) If you have the HP Smart Web Printing add-on, disable it

orange Firefox button or Tools menu > Add-ons > Extensions category

Any luck?

I could not find the printer-printer section the knowledge base talks about. I want to know how to go back to version 4. I do not like 5 besides the printing problem. Why do they keep insisting necessary to upgrade?

Regarding the printer reset, you use the about:config preferences page to make that change. For future reference:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the filter box, type or paste printer and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Right-click print.print_printer and choose Reset. You can reset your other printer settings as well, which may take many clicks.

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Firefox 5 is a security (and features) update for Firefox 4. Due to security vulnerabilities, rolling back to Firefox 4.0.1 is not recommended. Firefox 3.6.18 would be the safer choice.

Here's the process to roll back:

First, I recommend backing up your Firefox settings in case something goes wrong. See Backing up your information. (You can copy your entire Firefox profile folder somewhere outside of the Mozilla folder.)

Next, download and save Firefox 3.6 to your desktop for future installation. http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all-older

Close Firefox 5.

You could install Firefox 3.6 over it (many have reported success) or you could uninstall Firefox first. If you uninstall, do not remove your personal data and settings, just the program.

Unless you have installed an incompatible add-on, Firefox 3.6 should pick up where you left off. If there are serious issues, please post back with details.

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One other thought: if you don't already have a print-to-PDF program, you may want to get one for those times where you have problems printing to a physical printer. Free ones include: PrimoPDF, CutePDF Writer (requires two downloads), and PDFCreator (uncheck the bonus toolbar box during installation to avoid extra add-ons).

Thanks for the helpful advice. Unfortunately nothing works. The printer reset did not work. I un-installed version 5 and reinstalled version 3.6. I still cannot print from Firefox. Have no problem printing from any other application including internet explorer. Guess I will have to use it even though I hate it. The new Firefox installation worked fine including all my bookmarks and menu tabs were all still there, but still no printing. I get one error message saying printer has not been activated, then another message saying an unknown printer error occur ed. Had no problem printing from Firefox until I installed version 5, then no print.

Can you test in a new Firefox profile? That would work around any problem settings or add-ons.

First, I recommend backing up your Firefox settings in case something goes wrong. See Backing up your information. (You can copy your entire Firefox profile folder somewhere outside of the Mozilla folder.)

Next, close Firefox and fire up the Profile Manager to create a new profile as described in this article: Managing profiles.

Can you print from there? If so, you can move key settings like bookmarks from your damaged profile to the new profile. See: Recovering important data from an old profile.

Jscher2000: thanks a million. I had 2 printers listed on my computer and they were both listed under about:config with approximately 30 entries each. I right clicked on each entry and clicked reset about 60 times. Result it worked. I can now print from firefox version 3.6 again. Everything works just like always. I really appreciate your help, you have saved my sanity and my hair. I had already tried this with my canon (defaiult printer) and it did not work but clicking reset on everyone of the entries worked. Thanks again.