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Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
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Print Spool Freeze

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    Print Spool Freeze

    Hi,

    We have Alpha 5.5 running on a network with approximately 100 users using Runtime (installed on each individual's pc). Occasionally, when a user sends a print job (to the network shared printer) he/she causes a printer spool freeze. When this happens, all other users are unable to access the database. We receive the following message: "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. ...L:\track5\po_hd.dbf". The way we have been handling the situation is to log off all users and pack the database. Has anyone had this situation and if so have you found a fix? Alpha Tech tells us that this is a server issue, while our IT staff tells us that this is an Alpha issue (since the spool freeze only happens with Alpha print jobs). Desperately seeking some help!!!

    Thanks.
    -Jackie

    #2
    RE: Print Spool Freeze

    Hi Jackie

    You don't tell us what type of network you are using; peer-to-peer, NT4 Server, Win2k Server etc. Also, what Operating System for the PCs in question.
    If It Works First Time, There's Something Wrong!!!

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Print Spool Freeze

      Hi Chris,

      Network = NT4 Domain Structure
      Users = Win2K Professional

      Thanks.
      -Jackie

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Print Spool Freeze

        Jackie,

        What speed is your network running at and how many workstations are on it in addition to the 100 runtime users? Is it switched or are you just using hubs? I think the most likely cause is that your network is overloaded. 100 Alpha users is a large network, and depending on your application, that means there is a lot of data travelling around your network. For starters, network optimize if you have not already. But also consider a network upgrade.

        If I dust off my old IT Manager hat and put it back on for a moment, I'll tell you what my personal experience has been with print spool errors on Windows networks and why I suggest the upgrade.

        About 3-4 years ago Alpha's then much larger accounting department (we were part of an international company at the time) purchased Great Plains accounting software and had it installed and customized by a consulting firm. Everything worked well, except printing. Every time a user tried to print from Great Plains to the network printer, there would be a spool error and everyone had to get out of GP.

        At the time, our IT staff was like your IT staff and blamed GP for the problems. After all, everyone could print to that exact same printer just fine, as long as they were not printing from within GP. The only thing new on any of the workstations was GP and it was only GP that had problems, so this was certainly a reasonable conclusion. But the consultants insisted that it was not GP, which I had trouble believing.

        After many weeks of trouble-shooting, we finally found the problem. While it was precipitated by GP, GP was not where the problem was. GP was set up as a file-server type environment similar to the way your Alpha Five application is. This generated a lot of additional network traffic, more than our 10 megabit network could handle. The result was that data being sent to the printer was becoming corrupt while in transit because of the busy network link between the workstations in printers.

        The solution was for us was a network upgraded. The accounting department was put on their own 100 megabit network, segregated from the rest of the company by a switch. From that day on, nobody ever had a print spool error from GP.

        -Lenny

        Lenny Forziati
        Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
        Alpha Software Corporation

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Print Spool Freeze

          Hi Jackie

          I must agree with Lenny here, and the problem is not just on Alpha products. I use MS Office XP and when I did a mailmerge of say 16000 the spooler gave up. However, when I rebooted the PC and tried again all worked fine. I narrowed the problem down to MS Exchange & Outlook (which were permanently loaded on the PC). When running a lan tester under both scenarios the network traffic was horrendous. After much tweaking with software & hardware I now have a stable system. I hasten to add that this took about 3 weeks to accomplish.
          If It Works First Time, There's Something Wrong!!!

          Comment

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