Why does Lookout fail (freeze) when a print job fails?

[JTJams]

I've experienced this only a few times for several years now, but it is repeatable. Basically, if Lookout sends a print job (panel or alarm/every) to the default printer and the printer is not online for whatever reason, the Lookout.exe consumes 100% CPU according to task manager and when commanded to close or exit, a popup indicating "x number of print jobs in progress" displays repeatedly and I must "end program" and restart Lookout to continue operations. Shouldn't Lookout offer the option to abort the print job and resume service within a couple of mins or when commanded rather than stubbornly lock-up if a printout fails?

[Remzi]

Hi,
Which version of Lookout are you using? Make sure that you installed the latest build for the version you have (the latest build of the version 4.0.1 is 61, and and the version 4.5.1 is 18) I couldn't reproduce the problem with version 5.0 and 5.1.

Best Regards,
Remzi A.
Applications Engineering
National Instruments

[JTJams]

I'm using Lookout version 5.1 with the latest fixes applied as well. Unfortunately, I'm unable to reproduce the problem on my system as well, so I'll have to get back with you as it happens again.

Thanks

[Khalid]

What OS are you on? I just stumbled onto this Microsoft KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;134796

Older versions of Lookout did have this problem.. versions older than 3.8 I believe.

Anyways, I like Microsoft's suggested "resolution" 🙂

Regards,

Khalid

[JTJams]

I'm runnning the latest build of Lookout 5.1 on a Windows 2000 PC. I have experienced this on several other of the same systems as well. For example, I have a report panel configured to print automatically at 0700 and typically there's no problem, but if the default printer fails for some reason and is not able to complete the print job, Lookout's app consumes 100% CPU and will not shutdown when commanded - instead it reports a "print job in progress." It would ne nice if Lookout would let the print job timeout and resume normal operations. Instead, I must "end task" Lookout and restart it to resume.

Any other thoughts? Can we configure a timeout on the print job?

Thanks again for your comments, JTS

[Rkdomer]

Is your printer configured to spool print jobs? If not, spooling the print jobs might be your answer. That way Lookout does not care if the printer is on-line or not. Check out the advanced tab of the printers properties for the spooling settings.