Approach 97 Printing Crash from XP to network printer HP4050N 2

[mrscary]

The title I guess says it all.

Before I begin - I am not familier at all with Approach - I am a C++ programmer and WinNT/2000 network admin kinda guy.

I am on a customer site and was supposed to be doing some network maintenance - but have been presented with this problem instead. They have just upgraded a bunch of PCs to XP, and on the XP machines Approach crashes when printing to the network printer.

I have tried some of the suggestions mentioned earlier - such as installing a LaserJet Series II printer on the server, using the same port, and then printing to that - however this made no difference. I have tried printing to file - nope, Approach crashes leaving a 0byte print file behind.

I have also tried printing to any other printer on the network - all to no avail.

I have also installed the printer as being on this machine - creating an IP Port to print to - but nope. Changed the driver to LJII - nope.

I then installed it as on LPT1, and printed to file (no printer cable), but no - it still crashed.

So....I got myself a printer cable and installed it locally, using both LJII and the correct drivers. Nope - still crashes.

Any suggestions please?

M.

 

[paulbent]

You should upgrade to a more recent version of Approach, 9.7 or 9.8 for XP. If 9.8, an important patch has just been released:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24004062

There was a series of cumulative patches for 97. If the latest one is installed then Approach.exe will be dated Oct 97. It's named apfixpak.exe is available from the Free Downloads section at

http://www.xpertss.com.

It's a zip file, copy it into the Approach program folder and run it with the -o parameter to overwrite existing files; I don't think it fixed any printer problems though.

Paul Bent
Northwind IT Systems

http://www.northwindit.co.uk

 

[tonyA1DL]

We had a similar problem with thick clients printing from Approach 97 to a HP8500 Color Laserjet on an NT4 Server running SBS4.5.

The instances of crashing appeared totally random - sometimes you could print 3 or 4 separate spooled requests without a problem, other times it would bomb out first time & every time.

The problem was solved when we moved to a thin client solution with Approach 97 running on a W2K Terminal Server. The data files and HP8500 drivers still reside on the NT4 server, however the print problem has gone away.

 

[DeMann]

same thing happened to us when we went to XP using Lotus Approach 97. It happen with a HP4050, HP2200, etc. Upgrading to Lotus Smartsuite 9.8 did not help. I should mention that previously, our users were using Lotus Approach 97 on NT machines printing to either HP4 or HP5.

What finally fixed the problem was going into each print macro and looking at the printer settings. When I did so, the windows printer dialog box appeared. Sometimes, I would have to change the number of copies printed where necessary, but for the most part, I didn't change a thing, I just looked. My guess is that Lotus needed to see what the default printer setting was.

_______________
conceptNEXT.com
[cN]

 

[GovtRept]

Crashing while printing to HP 5SI Networked and also Saving a Form. I have Approch97 Version 97.0.0.0
It crashes with a Dump on printing Forms or Form Letters. I tried doing what DeMann suggested, but did not work. When printing to a HP OfficeJet G85xi(Local)it will print most of the time but it also has caused a Crash & Dump when it feels like it. Also as info when changing a Form Letter and SAVING it also will cause Crash Dump. However, if I move to a Worksheet and do the save, it will SAVE and NOT crash. Any suggestions?? Thanks, Gary

 

[paulbent]

Which O/S are you running under? If NT/2000/XP, try installing the 5si as a local printer and in the wizard, click Add port and type the name of the 5si share to point it to the network queue. Makes no difference under W9x, all printers are "local" including network ones.

If that fails, install a HP LaserJet Series II from Windows and again point it to the 5si share. You'll lose some of the features but it will solve the stability problems.

I don't know a sub for the OfficeJet but I'd check the HP web site for an updated driver.

Unless you're running W98 or earlier, I'd strongly recommend you upgrade Approach to 9.8. And have you installed the latest service pack for A97? Approach.exe is dated Oct 97 after the latest sp is installed.

Form letters always were and still are prone to corruption. If one causes a crash you need to get to it in design view and delete it. When they get really bad they can prevent the apr being opened at all. It's much better to use a regular form with text boxes to simulate a form letter, or a report view if you need more than one page.

Paul Bent
Northwind IT Systems

http://www.northwindit.co.uk

 

[hoedy]

I used a modification of Demann's suggestion. A macro used to print multiple reports would fill up the spooler with empty files in a series of printers, Dell, Brother and Canon. If the print command in the macro was used with the switch set to open the print dialog box first, the reports would print but the nuisance was to continuously press the OK button. I changed the "print" command with "Send key" ^P ~ this fixed the problem (The space between P and ~ was essential as without it the macro would still crash.) It worked on all three printers.