Rawns Posted August 6, 2013 Posted August 6, 2013 I was shocked when I saw this, but can't decide if it's Capita actually fixing something, or Windows 8 handling printers better! I'm finishing up of a "FMS Installation & FAQ Guide for Windows 8" and was trying to generate a error of the classic "Runtime Error 217" by removing all the printers on my Windows 8 test system. I proceeded to run FMS and it loaded and let me log in!!! If I go to File | Print Settings in FMS, it pops up a sensible message saying "There is no default printer currently selected". Anyone else come across this? Is it a Capita fix in the new Summer release, or is Windows 8 a lot better for printer management?
Ghostgame Posted August 6, 2013 Posted August 6, 2013 I hope this is true. It is one of the most ridiculous errors to fix. You can just hear the customer doubt your sanity as you explain that the error is due to a printer.
synaesthesia Posted August 6, 2013 Posted August 6, 2013 what? FMS, fixing the printer issues? Wow! Next you'll be telling me it won't refuse to print to a printer that works fine for everything else. Or it'll let you print cheques even though it never used to despite all other parts of FMS being able to print fine? Amazing
matt40k Posted August 6, 2013 Posted August 6, 2013 It was hit or miss when they told me it works without a printer - new PC without xps etc worked ok. XP that had printer was still hit or miss - you know how sometimes you have to change the default printer - was more a cope out to my "re-write it in .net" statement. This was... Pre-spring maybe? Or spring. Something else they fixed as well... Oh the pdoxusr thing.
Rawns Posted August 7, 2013 Author Posted August 7, 2013 It was very much broken in Spring! Yep, I had to pick up a few of these calls before summer started where schools were still on the Spring release. I have a Summer Win 7 VM I'll be playing with in a bit. I'll test it there too and feedback...
Edu-IT Posted August 7, 2013 Posted August 7, 2013 I can confirm it was still in Spring for us too. Hope it's finally fixed.
Rawns Posted August 7, 2013 Author Posted August 7, 2013 Look out! Windows 7 with no printers or faxes installed!
Sylv3r Posted August 8, 2013 Posted August 8, 2013 I got a ticket on our helpdesk today - we've got the latest version installed and our Finance user come across the Runtime error. Changing the printers sorted the issue out. I think we've got a colour laser printer here it just refuses to work with if its the default and always has done.
PhilNeal Posted August 8, 2013 Posted August 8, 2013 I'm told that it's Windows that does the printing not SIMS. If one printer functions and another doesn't it suggests that SIMS is instructing Windows correctly. I'm happy to go back to our techs if anyone can guide me as to the flaw in their thinking.
synaesthesia Posted August 8, 2013 Posted August 8, 2013 I think a brief search on "FMS" and "Printing" will make it quite clear what a very large amount of knowledgeable techies think The thinking is quite simple: if a printer is installed and *everything* apart from FMS can print... 1
Rawns Posted August 8, 2013 Author Posted August 8, 2013 I'm told that it's Windows that does the printing not SIMS. If one printer functions and another doesn't it suggests that SIMS is instructing Windows correctly. I'm happy to go back to our techs if anyone can guide me as to the flaw in their thinking. It's not a case of one printer working, another not working. It's a case of one printer working for every single application apart from FMS! I've only know it to occur with network printers, not local printers. Usually as a work around (if changing the default printer does not work), we would add a "local" printer with a TCP port and use the printer IP address to install it. Exact same network printer but it shows on the workstation as a local printer. FMS suddenly is happy with it.
Edu-IT Posted August 9, 2013 Posted August 9, 2013 I got a ticket on our helpdesk today - we've got the latest version installed and our Finance user come across the Runtime error. Changing the printers sorted the issue out. I think we've got a colour laser printer here it just refuses to work with if its the default and always has done. What make / model just out of interest? Seen something similar here.
Sylv3r Posted August 11, 2013 Posted August 11, 2013 What make / model just out of interest? Seen something similar here. Off the top of my head I don't remember the exact model but as @synaesthesia guessed it's a HP ColourLaser Jet
PhilNeal Posted August 15, 2013 Posted August 15, 2013 I have discussed this issue with architects again and can confirm that it is Delphi/Windows that is responsible for printing. It is possible that due to the age of Delphi that it is using legacy calls that are not supported on all printers. There are some things that were down to our programming so for example a long time ago we sent cheque prints out as separate jobs so it was possible to find another print job get into the queue. The checking that a default printer had been assigned came about as on occasions FMS would crash if one had not been assigned. We have never been able to reproduce this error. Generally there are very few reported printer issues compared to the number of active users. We are currently planning the next generation of FMS but it’s a huge task so it won’t appear for a few years yet.
synaesthesia Posted August 15, 2013 Posted August 15, 2013 Cheers for that info. I would suggest speaking to some of your local support teams; my knowledge of FMS's printing buggeration came directly from Capita's mouth when I was an employee
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