Troubleshooting

Each entry is the symptom you'll actually see, followed by the cause and the fix.

Save dialog pops up on every print

Symptom: You print to "CCE Printer", and a Windows "Save As" or PDFCreator save dialog appears instead of the print just completing.

Cause: PDFCreator's Save settings aren't set to Automatic, OR the Target directory is blank, OR both.

Fix:

Open PDFCreator

Start menu → search "PDFCreator".

Check Save settings

Click Profiles → look at the Save section on the left. Click the Save action and verify it matches Quickstart Step 2 exactly. The two values that matter: Automatic mode (not Interactive), and Target directory must show C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\CCE\output (not blank).

Save and exit PDFCreator

Click OK / Save in PDFCreator. Right-click the PDFCreator system-tray icon → Exit so the settings flush to disk.

Test again

Print again — the save dialog should not appear.

If you set these values, close PDFCreator, and the next time you open them they've reverted to blank: that's a PDFCreator caching bug. Reboot the machine and re-set them; on reboot PDFCreator starts fresh and the values stick.

Target directory is blank in PDFCreator

Symptom: You open PDFCreator → Profiles → Save → and the Target directory field is empty.

Cause: Either CCE's first-run handler didn't write the registry yet (it runs on first launch of CCE.exe), or PDFCreator was running when the write happened and overwrote our value with its in-memory state.

Fix: Same as Save dialog pops up above — set the Target directory manually to %APPDATA%\CCE\output and click OK. PDFCreator will expand the variable and persist the path.

PDF Architect 9 keeps re-appearing in Apps & Features

Symptom: You uninstall PDF Architect 9, but on the next system reboot (or on a re-install of CCE) it's back.

Cause: PDFCreator bundles a side-installer for PDF Architect that ignores the "skip Architect" instruction in some 6.x builds.

Fix:

Check if PDFCreator is auto-updating and re-installing Architect. In PDFCreator, look under Settings → Updates. Switch to Don't check for updates if you want to freeze the version.
Uninstall PDF Architect 9 again via Apps & Features.
If it returns within a day, contact CCE support — there's a policy registry key that disables Architect installs which we can set for your environment.

CCE doesn't start — no tray icon

Symptom: After installer finishes, no CCE icon appears in the system tray, even after clicking the ^ overflow.

Cause: Could be SmartScreen blocking, antivirus quarantine, or a crash on first launch.

Fix:

Check Task Manager

Press Win → type Task Manager → check the Processes tab for CCE.exe. If it's there, the process is running and the tray icon is hidden — toggle the tray overflow settings (Win → "Tray icon settings") and set CCE to "Show icon and notifications".

Launch manually if not running

If CCE.exe is NOT in Task Manager, launch it: Start menu → CCE. If Windows shows a SmartScreen / antivirus warning, allow it. The installer is signed by College Produce LLC.

Check logs if launch fails

If launching fails immediately, send the log file to support: %APPDATA%\CCE\logs\cce_stdio.log

Report shows $0.00 for every job

Symptom: Tray → View Report → every job's Savings column is $0.00.

Cause: You haven't set your per-page price yet. CCE computes savings as pages_converted × (cost_per_color − cost_per_bw). Until you fill in those numbers, savings stays $0.

Fix:

Tray icon → View Report → click ⚙ Set Cost per Page.
Enter what your print shop charges. Typical values: colored page $0.50, B&W page $0.10.
Click Save.

Pricing applies to new jobs only. Historical rows keep $0.00.

Print job arrives but page colors are wrong

Symptom: You print a structural drawing expecting red callouts to stay color, but the processed PDF has them grayscale (or vice versa).

Cause: The color-pertinence engine made a different call than you'd have made. Engineering drawings with very subtle color signals are the hardest case.

Fix:

If a single page in a job is wrong: there's currently no in-product override (planned for a future release). For now, print the document directly to your physical printer for that one job.
If a pattern of pages is consistently wrong across many jobs: contact support with the PDF (or a redacted sample) and the page numbers. The engine's pertinence rules are tunable per document archetype.

Processed PDF doesn't open in Adobe

Symptom: CCE processes a job, the notification fires, but no viewer window appears.

Cause: Windows doesn't have a default app set for .pdf files, or the default is set to something CCE can't launch.

Fix:

Press Win → Default apps → PDF (.pdf) → set to Adobe Acrobat Reader (or whichever PDF viewer you prefer).
The next CCE job will use that app.

Alternatively switch CCE to Print mode (Tray → Settings → Forwarding mode = Print) so processed jobs go straight to a real printer without opening in a viewer.

Weird colored fringes around text in the processed PDF

Symptom: The processed PDF has thin red/blue lines along edges of black text that weren't in the original.

Cause: JPEG compression artifacts in the source PDF were interpreted as meaningful color by the analyzer. Rare on legal documents; more common on scanned-then-recompressed exhibits.

Fix: Send a sample to support. We can adjust the noise floor for your typical document profile.

Where logs live

If support asks for logs:

File	What it contains
`%APPDATA%\CCE\logs\cce_stdio.log`	Captured stdout/stderr from the last CCE.exe launch. First place to look for crashes.
`%APPDATA%\CCE\logs\cce_YYYY-MM-DD.log`	Per-job processing log (one file per day).
`%APPDATA%\CCE\database\cce_jobs.db`	SQLite job-history database. Send this if support asks; nothing in it leaves your machine otherwise.