Application fails to find printer

[johnsuth]

I have installed my favourite legacy word processor (Describe 5 NT
version) into six XP Home SP1 workstations on a LAN. The boxes are
physically identical, and I have tried to make the setups identical.
They all share one printer.

On only three of the workstations does the application find the printer,
and thus become useable.

I have tried deleting and installing the app and the printer. The
problem is peculiar to this app.

What might I have overlooked?

 

[OShah]

I have installed my favourite legacy word processor (Describe 5 NT
version) into six XP Home SP1 workstations on a LAN. The boxes are
physically identical, and I have tried to make the setups identical.
They all share one printer.

On only three of the workstations does the application find the printer,
and thus become useable.

I have tried deleting and installing the app and the printer. The
problem is peculiar to this app.

What might I have overlooked?

This sounds like the problem where DOS Programs can't print in NT. It's
quite surprising to find this problem with a program designed for NT.

You've already singled the problem to this one application (by trying to
print from Notepad).

It's either a problem with the common dialogs (compatibility issue), or
the classic LPT1 problem (the print troubleshooter fixes this). Does the
program show a Print Dialog Box (like the one you get in Notepad), or can
it only print to LPT1?



--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
oshah
Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Error Reporting -> Choose Programs
-> Do not report errors for these programs:

Acrobat.exe
waol.exe

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[John Smith]

This sounds like the problem where DOS Programs can't print in NT. It's
quite surprising to find this problem with a program designed for NT.

You've already singled the problem to this one application (by trying to
print from Notepad).

It's either a problem with the common dialogs (compatibility issue), or
the classic LPT1 problem (the print troubleshooter fixes this). Does the
program show a Print Dialog Box (like the one you get in Notepad), or can
it only print to LPT1?

The print dialog box has a drop down list box for selecting the printer.
The only selection available is "no printer selected".

 

[OShah]

The print dialog box has a drop down list box for selecting the printer.
The only selection available is "no printer selected".

1.
The first thing to do is to run the program in Win95 Compatibility Mode.
There is a specific fix for printers in this mode (particularly if it's
with printer enumeration).

2.
If that doesn't work, check if the group policies for the computers are
the same (especially "Browse the network to find printers").

3.
Make sure you've set the computers to be in the same domain/workgroup.

4.
A firewall could be blocking RPC/DCOM communications (the SP2 firewall
does), so check into that as well.

5.
Have you actually managed to print anything on the non-working machines?
Sometimes the computer will refuse to print until you've done a test page.
Then it magically fixes itself.

6.
If you want, you may want to provide screenshots of the application from
both a working system and a non-working one, so I can see more of the
problem. (Include screenshots from printer control panel too).
Can you do a search for "winspool.drv" too?




--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
oshah
Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Error Reporting -> Choose Programs
-> Do not report errors for these programs:

Acrobat.exe
waol.exe

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[John Smith]

1.
The first thing to do is to run the program in Win95 Compatibility Mode.
There is a specific fix for printers in this mode (particularly if it's
with printer enumeration).

2.
If that doesn't work, check if the group policies for the computers are
the same (especially "Browse the network to find printers").

3.
Make sure you've set the computers to be in the same domain/workgroup.

4.
A firewall could be blocking RPC/DCOM communications (the SP2 firewall
does), so check into that as well.

5.
Have you actually managed to print anything on the non-working machines?
Sometimes the computer will refuse to print until you've done a test page.
Then it magically fixes itself.

6.
If you want, you may want to provide screenshots of the application from
both a working system and a non-working one, so I can see more of the
problem. (Include screenshots from printer control panel too).
Can you do a search for "winspool.drv" too?

A thousand thanks. Suggestion # 1 fixed it.

 

[OShah]

A thousand thanks. Suggestion # 1 fixed it.

I had a feeling it was the first one. When you enable Windows 98/Me
Compatibility Mode (Win95 mode is a superset of Win98 Mode), there is a
shim called "EmulatePrinter" which becomes active.

"
This compatibility fix corrects a variety of differences that occur
between the printer routines in Windows 9x and Windows XP. Most of the
issues deal with the EnumPrinters API, and the different behavior of this
API between Windows 9x and Windows XP. "

The program was calling EnumPrinters() incorrectly, thus it was having
troubles enumerating your network printer. I just took a look at the
EnumPrinters() function, and can see how easy it is to skip over Network
printers.

If you have the Application Compatibility Toolkit installed (there's an
old version on the Windows XP CD, and a later version at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/list/appcomp.asp ), you can apply just
this specific fix to the program. Therefore, the program can still detect
your printer, and you won't have the side effects of running in Full
Compatibility Mode. Plus, you can enable it for all users.


--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
oshah
Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Error Reporting -> Choose Programs
-> Do not report errors for these programs:

Acrobat.exe
waol.exe

------------------------------------------------------------------------