XP SP2 causes slow printing in VFP

[tkershaw]

This problem has persisted from VFP6.0 to VFP7.0 and now that XP SP1 support is going away I need to get this figured out. MS Office products like Word and Excel display the printer prompt without delay. When trying to print a report: "REPORT FORMAT wo_print NEXT 1 NOCONSOLE TO PRINTER PROMPT" there is a 10 second pause before the printer prompt comes up. Our sales people deem this an eternity and clearly something is wrong. This only happens after installing the XP SP2 update. Turning off the SP2 firewall does not help, file & printer sharing are allowed. The latest VFP7.0 SP1 update has been installed. Printers are 1 shared local PRN or several Intel "InBusiness" print servers on an NT4.0 SP6 network. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Tony.

 

[baltman]

Have you tried a different printer driver?

 

[tkershaw]

Yes, driver issues are one of the first things I considered. I have tried generic HP laserjet II PCL5 drivers and the Samsung drivers that came with the printers. All drivers work properly with SP1 and SP2 using Word and Excel, only Foxpro apps have an issue with SP2. With SP1 there is no delay but SP2 takes 10 seconds to display the printer prompt on the average. Once in a while there is no delay at all with SP2 - this occurs randomly. I have considered that it may be related to having an older NT 4.0 file server but I would hate to go out and buy an upgrade on a whim just to try it out to see what happens. The other possible fix I have considered was to upgrade to version 8.0 of Foxpro, however upgrading from 6.0->7.0 did not help and once again I would be guessing.

Tony.

Tony.

 

[dbMark]

Hmm, 10 seconds sounds like a problem with the background handshaking. Communications between the server(s) and computers often means hidden logins at the system level. (Your logon to the network is not the only logging on or "trusted relationship" being done. Maybe search for the phrase "trust relationship"?) Are there any system events logs that mention a reason for the delay?

Be aware that printer drivers had server kernel access up through NT 4.0 which meant you had to reboot the server anything there were changes or print crashes. Starting with Windows 2000 Server it was made into a process that could be stopped and restarted without forcing a server reboot.

By the way, I hope your NT4 file server isn't exposed to the internet. Security fixes are no longer provided for it so it could be at big risk to attack if exposed.

 

[dbMark]

If you upgrade Visual FoxPro (many reasons to do so, especially when you want to deal with potential Vista compatibility issues) then skip 8.0 entirely and jump directly to 9.0. VFP 9.0 SP1 is the best version yet, SP2 is due out soon and is the most stable thus far!

 

[ramani]

HI

I have noticed this problem, if the default printer is set as Network printer. The delay is even more, if the specified printer is off line.

I have found it very successul, if we have a printer installed in each system (though no physical printer is available) and set that as default helps to reduce the time. Obviously, the user will select the default printer one time, and that stays till the application is quit. However, the delay vanishes.

Hope if this solves your issue as well.


____________________________________________
ramani - (Subramanian.G)

http://winnersoft.coolfreepages.com/

 

[tkershaw]

DbMark; Right, I was thinking along the lines of a missing background handshake as well. I am guessing SP2 is assuming it is talking to a newer server version so whatever hook it is looking for is not there and it takes 10 seconds to time out. I have a trial version of SBS 2003 comming to test this theory. The one thing I have to come back to though is that there is no delay with other apps just VFP! Our NT4.0 server is not exposed to the internet, our web site is

http://www.rapid-tech.com

and we pay someone else for hosting it.

DbMark; I was thinking of skipping over 8.0 as well but at least 8.0 does not require MS2003 server like 9.0 does. I don't mind upgrading if there is a good reason to but our needs are minimal. I am old school in that "If it works; Don't fix it!"

Ramani; All our workstations but one have network printers as the default. You suggest an interesting gambit that I will try it out just for fun. I enjoy playing tricks like that even though they treat the symptom not the disease!

Thanks for your replies!

Tony.