Printers in GP 9

[LyleU]

One of my clients is attempting to bring a 64 bit workstation, running Vista, into the mix with all other workstations and servers being 32 bit (WinXP and Server 2003). Once we were able to set up a 32 bit ODBC connection, we were able to get the new workstation to access GP successfully. They now advise that they cannot access the printer setup area found under the File menu items.

Could this be due to having 64 bit printer drivers installed? Will GP recognize 64 bit printer drivers or do we need to install 32 bit drivers just as we had to set up a 32 bit ODBC connection?

All of our work is being done piecemeal via remote access and we are trying to pick up the process after their problematic attempt.


Lyle
----
I reject your reality and substitute my own. (Adam Savage)

 

[VicRosenberg]

Lyle

I ran into the same issue last year and it had almost nothing to do with 64 bits. It had to do with the way GP handles (or fails to handle) a bad printer situation.

In my case the client had a citrix server based on 2003 64 and the system worked for 1/2 a year, then started losing priter connections in the way you state - printing went into neverland and print setup would not open.

Reinstalling the printer worked, but only for a while and there was some question over whether the resinstalls were profile or global (Client IT would not cooperate). Making sure that the Citrix connectionwas set to open app after default printer helped, but again client IT would not cooperate (in their test it did not help because they did this AFTER the issues was in place).

I dialogued with GP over how to change printers in dexterity and the answer was that it is VERY difficult. What eventualy worked fine was a short BAT and/or VBS that deleted and rebuilt the defaul printer. Later I downgraded this to one that simply moved the default printer elswhere and back. Very occasionaly the client also needed to log out and in, but only very occasionaly.

The underlying issues is that 1) GP cannot open the printer setup if it thinks there is a problem with the printer, 2) resetting the default printer at the sysem level also resets it in GP most of the time, and 3) GP references the printer by a large object - not by name, and thatobject may not perfectly match any specific installed printer.

Vic

 

[smcpartlin]

So we have been running GP 8 on a 2003 x64 server for years.

Have x64 PS bit drivers loaded on a 2003 32bit print server.

Had 2003 x64 system use those networked PS shared printers.

*note I personally only like PS drivers and do no like PCL drivers. I also hate using any install programm to add a printer to a server. Dowload netowrk drivers and extract driver to add printer*

now we plan to uprade to 10 in June. May move SQL to new server 2008 R2 (this is x64 only) and print server should become 2008 R2 as well.

So I have never seen printer issues on any x64 server.

Have seen some wierd things in windows 7 x64.

 

[smcpartlin]

soory i typed in 8 but should have put in 9.