AutoCAD printing problem

[Tea]

Jim has a small office with two computers. His old machine is a P-III 733 (or something similar), his new one a Duron 900 DDR. Epox main board, Gforce II MX 200, 512MB DDR, internal modem, Win98SE, nothing else. I mean nothing else. Printer is an HP Deskjet 1120 A3 unit.

When he prints a drawing, the CPU utilisation shoots up to 100% until the drawing is all spooled off to the printer, and the system becomes unusable - jerky mouse, slow response, the whole bit.

If I set the spool file to RAW instead of EMF, it is heaps better, but AutoCRUD insists on putting up an unmovable "now sending to system printer" notice right in the middle of the screen. AutoCAD is unusable still, though you get decent response from any other open windows (Control Panel or whatever). Not an option. Switch off spooling and it's still the same - better response again but the notice makes the system unusable until the print job is finished.

First thing we tried was a clean install, complete with format. No dice.

Tonight he brought his system back and we tried it with my Xerox P8EX - no problem at all. Worked fine. (That was with the Xerox running in PCL mode. Kristi installed it as an HP Laserjet 3 or some such.) So he went back and brought in his entire system: keyboard, mouse, printer, the lot.

With the Deskjet, nothing I could do would make the problem go away. I changed:

Video card
CPU (tried an XP 1800 underclocked to 1150MHz)
Removed internal Lucent modem
Switched off everything not needed: serial ports, USB, sound card, the lot.
Motherboard (tried a Gigabyte AMD 760 chipset board)
Tried a non-VIA parallel port - a PCI port add-in LPT2

Then I changed the entire system - plugged his hard drive into a SiS 735 based Leadtek with an XP 1800, different brand of CD-ROM, the lot.

No dice.

Is it just AutoCAD? No! His P-733 doesn't suffer from the problem, never has. So far as we know, we have latest HP drivers, latest Video drivers, no conflicts at all. It's a recent clean install, with no other software running. We even disabled te VET anti-virus. (And he rund VET on the other machine anyway.)

The only thing we can thing of is that it is running AutoCRUD 98 now, but he originally installed AC2002, which insists on loading IE 5.5 as part of the install process.After he ran into this problem, he uninstalled AC2002 and put AC98 on in the hope that it would fix it. Nope. The other machine has never run AC2002, only 98, so maybe it's something that AC2002 does?

A chipset issue? Doubtful, as I've tried three different chipsets - four if you count the AMD as a different one from the KT266A and the PCI P/port card as a different one.

My posible next steps are:

1) Install IE 6.0 on it and see what happens.

2) Try it on a Celeron 800 & i815EP I have lying around.

3) Format, clean install on a different board - the SiS perhaps, then try again. This is difficult as he is a licenced AutoCAD owner and feels that he is oath-of-death sworn to keep his installation keys a complete secret, even from me . (I don't blame him actually - you know what AC costs, even the Lite version.) (But trust me - if I actually wanted a slightly warm-to-the-touch copy of AC, I'd already have it. No thanks, not my thing)

4) As (3) but don't let AC2002 anywhere near it - AC98 works on the other machine, which has never had a 2002 on it.

5) Try having a nervous breakdown.

6) Tell him that if he installs this neat little screen saver I have on both machnes, all his problems will go away.It has a little red icon and it puts up pictures of proteins folding.

Any clues?

Failing clues, I'll accept sympathy, seeing as it is now 11:15PM and I'm still at the office.

Failing sympathy, I rather like gin.




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[time]

The only thing we can thing of is that it is running AutoCRUD 98 now, but he originally installed AC2002, which insists on loading IE 5.5 as part of the install process.After he ran into this problem, he uninstalled AC2002 and put AC98 on in the hope that it would fix it. Nope. The other machine has never run AC2002, only 98, so maybe it's something that AC2002 does?

Tea, this appears to be incompatible with this:

First thing we tried was a clean install, complete with format. No dice.

It doesn't sound like a hardware fault. I suspect you've felt pressured into checking the hardware to this extent?

Try selecting "Start printing after last page has spooled".

I know you've tried a different parallel port, but have you tried setting the onboard port to Standard rather than EPP/ECP in the BIOS setup?

He hasn't installed some sort of AutoCad patch or update on the P733? Was it always Win98SE? Are you sure the individual printer driver files on it are actually the same version? Is the printer resolution, quality and Color/B&W the same?

I'm assuming the printer doesn't have an HP-GL option that the P733 is using (wild longshot)?

I just stumbled across this thread.

 

[Tea]

Thanks Time. We did the clean install, he installed AC2002, had the same problem, then uninstalled 2002 and replaced it with AC98. I agree that it doesn't sound like hardware, but there is no convincing people of that untill you have proved it. Over the years I have gradually come to believe that it is more cost effective to spend time swapping the hardware over than it is to waste time explaining why you don't plan to swap the hardware over.

Try selecting "Start printing after last page has spooled".

Did I do that already? I'll check.

I know you've tried a different parallel port, but have you tried setting the onboard port to Standard rather than EPP/ECP in the BIOS setup?

HP say the printer won't work if I do that. So I better try it! I don't think it has HP-GL, but I'll check that.

No patches that I know of. but I'll check that too. I'll check on the driver versions also. Today I'm going to his office so that I can see the worlking one for myself. I plan to go over the printer settings with a fine-tooth comb.

Handy link. Thanks again.

 

[Mercutio]

Is this, by chance, a "cracked" copy of Autocad we're talking about? IIRC, lots of similar programs like to hang dongles off the printer ports as a hardware copy protection.

 

[Cliptin]

Remember that one of the printers you have tried is a laser and the other is an inkjet. I'd place bets that only one of them has any buffer of its own in its wee little brain.

When you are doing comparisons try to use equivalent printers. Not much help I know but its all I got.

 

[Tea]

Most assuredly the 100% genuine article, Mercutio. He owns two of them, I gather: the 98 he bought for the old machine and the 02 for this newer one.

The HP Deskjet, although an injet, does have a fairly substantial amount of its own RAM. At least it can go on printing graphics for quite a while after the PC stops sending data. I think it is the crappy GDI driver - AC prints just fine to my Xerox laser if we install it as a plain vanilla PCL thing.

 

[Sol]

If he's still running both PCs why is it he can't just print from the old one? Autocad spools to files fine, so why not try printing remotely.

 

[The JoJo]

Have you managed to solve this problem Tea? Please inform us how it goes...

 

[Tea]

Got it. My customer finally got a response from Hewlett-Packard.

It was, of course, a Hewlett-Packard driver problem. There are various performance-related settings in the advanced section of the printer properties (as with most any printer). It turns out that one of them (I forget which one already) switches a particular mode on when you tick it (and reduces performance), but when you un-tick it, it does nothing at all! The setting remains set, no matter how many times you un-tick it. To return your printer to normal (i.e., fast) operation, you have to manually edit an ini file hidden away in some obscure location. The printer doesn't seem to have a consistent default for this setting, which is why the other machine was fine all along.

Hewlett-Packard don't seem to regard this as a bug, and don't have any plans to fiix it - which is beyond belief, or would be if we were not talking about HP.

Just one more reason not to sell Hewlett-Packard products (as if we didn't have enough reasons already).

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys.

 

[time]

As you say, beyond belief except where it's HP. :roll:

Pretty amazing stuff, Tea. Now we know why you didn't finish the thread!

I'm tempted to submit this one to The Inquirer. What do you think?

 

[Handruin]

As you say, beyond belief except where it's HP. :roll:

Pretty amazing stuff, Tea. Now we know why you didn't finish the thread!

I'm tempted to submit this one to The Inquirer. What do you think?

If you do submit it (assuming you send a link to SF), can you wait a couple more days until the begining of the next month. This way if a surge of people come in, I won't get killed with bandwidth overage charges. :lol:

 

[Tea]

If I get a chance, I'll call Jim (my customer) and refresh my memory of the details, then post them here, Time.


You can't beat HP, can you?