Missing text under high system load (pscript5.dll bug ?)

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6 total messages Started by Richard_Davies Mon, 22 Dec 2003 17:43

#359

Author: Richard_Davies
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 17:43

54 lines
2647 bytes

Pscript5.dll bug?

Has anyone seen a bug in Pscript5.dll such that when
running on Windows 2000 SP3 large chunks of text are
not printed, even tho' they are in the .ps file?
This problem occurs only when the host system is running
under heavy load, i.e. several print jobs are being
processed simultaneouly. No text is missing when only
a single print job is being processed.

The producer application is FrameMaker 6.0.

The problem seems to be related to the use of the xshow
PS operator. When Pscript5.dll uses xshow in this form:

3290 1950 M <010203040506070108090A0B09060C01060F0108060905010A0D010E0A1709>[32 72 56 61 33
56 28 32 61 39 61 61 39 55 95 31 56 50 32 61 56 36 33 32 61 33 32 56 61 61 0]xS

(all one line above)

the text referenced between < .... > above is missing. (The
character width data is processed correctly, tho'.)

The text is missing regardless of whether the ps file is
sent to PS 3 printers (Epson and Xerox) or distilled
using Distiller 4.05, 5 or 6.

OTOH when the xshow operator is given a plain text argument
all is OK, viz.

(FDH Access 100)[55 73 72 32 72 50 50 55 50 50 32 50 60 0]xS

i.e. the above works correctly.

The strange thing is that there is no missing text when
the same document is printed to ps when the system is lightly
loaded. And there are similarly no instances of hexadecimal text
references for the xshow operator (i.e. <0102....>) in the .ps
file in this case. Under light load all the text in the .ps
file is produced using plain text arguments to xshow.

As the system load increases Pscript5.dll changes the format
of the PS output to include more and more text in the
(unprintable) <0102....> format. It's as if Pscript5.dll gets
into a confused 'state' when running under heavy load. No error
messages are ever reported by the printing device or by distiller.

Anyone ever encountered this? Any fixes or workarounds?

MTIA for any help, anecdotes or fixes.

Best regards,

Rick

Re: Missing text under high system load (pscript5.dll bug ?)

#360

Author: George_Bilalis
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 18:01

11 lines
902 bytes

Rick,

I suppose you have taken the 'standard' steps :

1. Verify the host system has enough resources.
2. The host system has a fast HDD defraged properly.

What OS is running on the host system?
How much RAM?

George

Re: Missing text under high system load (pscript5.dll bug ?)

#361

Author: Arnis_Gubins
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 18:21

5 lines
1095 bytes

Rick,

By any chance are these MM (multiple master) fonts that are
disappearing? If so, have a look at the posting by Doc Isaacs on this
issue at: http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@@.1de5b45f

Re: Missing text under high system load (pscript5.dll bug ?)

#362

Author: Dov_Isaacs
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 18:27

13 lines
1721 bytes

Rick,

Important questions that we at Adobe need to understand vis-a-vis this problem and your environment. Please contact us off-forum with the data if at all possible (click on my name for e-mail info):

(1) Is the problem ONLY happening with FrameMaker? Can you get it to occur with other applications such as Microsoft Word?

(2) Do you have multiple processors on your PC or do you have a recent Pentium 4 with "hyper-threading technology"? And if so, do you have that enabled? What you need to do is bring up the Windows 2000 Task Manager and look whether there are one or two subwindows under "CPU Usage History?"

(3) Do you see this happening on more than one system or all systems? If NOT all systems, what is different in configuration between the system(s) on which it occurs and those on which it doesn't?

Thanks in advance for any further information you can provide us.

- Dov

Re: Missing text under high system load (pscript5.dll bug ?)

#363

Author: Dov_Isaacs
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 18:46

3 lines
971 bytes

It could NOT be the missing Multiple Master problem. That problem was not intermittent as described here. That bug in Windows blocked ALL Multiple Master PostScript printing, no "ifs", "ands", "buts", or conditions of any type (pun intended).

- Dov

Re: Missing text under high system load (pscript5.dll bug ?)

#364

Author: Richard_Davies
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 11:27

31 lines
1865 bytes

Thank you folks, all-- George, Arnis and Dov-- for your
kind help and suggestions. They are really appreciated.

The missing-text situation I described actually occurs
at a site using our Miramo product in CA. Users of Miramo
habitually impose heavy loads on their host machines,
especially in the area of multiple concurrent print
jobs. Miramo uses FrameMaker to compose documents, so it
could be a FrameMaker problem. But we had got to the stage
of believing it was more likely something to do with
pscript5.dll, or nearby in 'GDI-world'. We never have this
kind of problem on Unix even with twenty or more concurrent
jobs (no printer drivers of course, so that's a no-brainer).

The OS is Windows 2000 SP 3. I believe the host machine
has fairly huge 'resources', i.e. RAM, etc.

I've sent more background info to Dov, as he requested,
along with direct contact details of the real user in CA(who
is much more competent to report the precise experiences
and environmental details vital for tracking the source
of the problem).

Hopefully Dov will be able to make some comments here
later on -- tho' my guess is maybe not for several weeks.

Many thanks again.

Regards,

Rick

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