Hi all,
I am currently having issues with Font Navigator 2006 in Windows XP SP3. Whenever I attempt to install / uninstall a font, the program freezes up for a long period of time. The actual browsing of the fonts works OK, it's just when I try to do anything with the fonts, that it becomes unresponsive. It does, however, perform the action I told it to (install / uninstall), I just need to restart the application to do any further font actions. It seems to be able to unfreeze after a certain amount of time, but it's upwards of a few minutes before responsiveness returns, and even then, it will freeze again if any other font installing / uninstalling is performed.
I think I have determined the cause of the problem, but I have no idea how to fix it. Font Navigator works perfectly and as expected until I install the HP drivers for my printer (Z6100ps). Up until that point, there are no issues, no freezing, no problems. When I do install the drivers, the freezing happens, and I have to restart the application (or wait for a long time).
Now, the interesting thing is that Font Navigator will also work perfectly if I STOP the "Print Spooler" service on the machine. Font Navigator also works perfectly if I go into Safe Mode.
In testing in Windows 7 Beta on this machine (with HP Vista drivers), Font Navigator works perfectly, no hangups. Also, with another machine with Windows XP SP2 and the same HP Drivers, there are no issues with Font Navigator.
I also tested installing Windows XP SP3 in a virtual machine with only CorelDRAW X4 and the HP Z6100ps drivers, and it came up with the same results. Works perfectly until after the HP driver installation.
I have also attached an image to demonstrate what happens when installing a font (and I figured I'd just blur out the names of the fonts). Any font will produce the same results.
My question is whether or not anyone else is experiencing this sort of behaviour, and if so, how one would go about fixing this problem (or if this is even an issue with Font Navigator)?
Any assistance / comments would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
- Jeff
Detailed Information: Windows XP SP3 (x86), CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 SP2, HP DesignJet Z6100ps Driver ver. 61.73.363.41
Just wanted to add my 2 cents worth. Same problem here. Windows XP SP2, Corel Draw X4, SP2. Fonts on 2 machines 300 or less. Uninstalled and reinstalled X4 after a repair didn't fix it, problem continues. Screws up with CorelDraw 9 also which I have to use to do other things X4 screws up (see my other post).
In another thread Gerald says, "might be a little thing that we will sort out shortly ;-)" Hope it's before X5.
John
Just built a new computer. Loaded XP SP3 then all the Microsoft updates. No printers installed. Loaded Corel X4 and all content on the DVD.
Exact same problem with font navigator. Searched for all fonts. Seleted fonts to install. Navigator freezes.
"Be who you are and say what you feel 'cause people who mind don't matter, and people who matter don't mind."
Jeff,
Go to this Microsoft page and follow the directions to view your Event Logs. You should be able to nail down exactly what is causing this issue and why.
I had a similar problem twice. The first time was caused by QuickTime and the second time was ExplorerPlus. In both instances it was the viewer section of the applications that was causing the problem. In the case of QuickTime, I disabled all viewers except QuickTime the specific viewer. ExplorerPlus has a pretty good viewer built-in, it was the font viewing capability that was hanging Font Navigator up. I disabled it and Font Navigator was usable again.
Give it a try and see if you can figure it out.
Frank OlivioAmiGraphics
I have a few programs that have 'frozen', interestingly if I pop up the task manager do nothing and then kill the task manager everything frees up. Typically Avira will do this when it finds a virus. Lock the application, fail to throw a message and pop up the task manager and then just X the task manager... nothing more than that and everything proceeds as it should. I 'think' all these issues are related, some sort of file locking with programs going into either a retry cycle or just a full freeze.
Try this pop up the task manager trick and see if that makes a difference. I'm not sure what you would Google that error as. But I wouldn't be surprised it the root of it is the same in all cases.
Ned's Mother -- You gotta help us, Doc. We've tried nothing and we're fresh out of ideas! ( The Simpsons, Hurricane Neddy -- Season:8 Episode:8 First Aired:12/29/1996 )
This might be a starting point...
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2005/08/28/the-case-of-the-intermittent-and-annoying-explorer-hangs.aspx
Frank and Yani,
Thank you for your responses. They were helpful. I found an offending font G1L S06 Sans Machine Cond Italic. When I would try to view it, Navigator would freeze and shutdown. Deleted the font. Problem gone.
Yani-enjoyed your exchange about differences between Australia and USA.
If an OS was written here the error messages would be very different.
folivio,
Thanks for the reply and suggestion.
I too thought that it was an offending program, which is why I reinstalled my system in the first place (since I figured something may have interfered with Font Navigator). However, it would appear that just installing Windows XP SP3, CorelDRAW X4 and the HP drivers cause this to happen. Since I didn't install any other programs, I can't say that any other applications were interfering with it.
Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier that I know the fonts are not corrupt (I know that freezes / closes Font Navigator right away, but the ones I installed / uninstalled were the default Windows Fonts).
The way it seems to me is:
XPSP3 + CorelDRAW X4 + HP Drivers + Print Spooler Enabled = Font Navigator Freeze on Font Install / Uninstall
XPSP3 + CorelDRAW X4 + HP Drivers + Print Spooler Disabled = Font Navigator works as expected
XPSP2 + CorelDRAW X4 + HP Drivers = Font Navigator works as expected
Windows 7 + CorelDRAW X4 + HP Drivers = Font Navigator works as expected
(Also, sometimes the issue may be seen under other circumstances in XPSP2 as per a post by John William; however, I did not experience it, so I can't comment on that)
So unfortunately the solutions presented so far do not really help my situation, and I hope that I can get a fix before X5 like John William said in another reply.
If anyone else is experiencing freezing / closing issues, please do try following folivio's suggestion by checking out what other programs are running, and also checking to see if any fonts are corrupted (as per Tom Cozzens case). Also, try the "Repair" option for your Graphics Suite; another thread that I found suggested that, and it worked for that user.
Well anyways, I do appreciate all the replies that everyone has made. I just hope someone can figure this out.
Another question though, would it be possible to help out Corel in any way by producing a Crash Dump of the program or giving any other information? And if so, who would I need to contact? I did get the XP SP3 Debugging Symbols / Debugging Tools and Process Explorer when I was trying to figure out what was the main cause. All I'd need to know is what I'd have to do to get them useful information.
Well thanks again everyone. Glad to see someone else in this thread had his problems solved and the help that the community is providing.
Yani,
Thanks for the informative reply and the link. I'll try running Process Explorer + Filemon and see what turns up. I'll also try and post the Thread Stack for Font Navigator and try to take a screenshot of what Font Navigator does in Filemon.
I tried to do what was outlined in the article, but it did not really help me out. I took screenshots of the different configurations of installation, so maybe someone has an idea of what the exact problem is. The only thing that I can see from Filemon is the fact that it's being stalled by some calls to spoolsv.exe, which would make sense because turning off the print spooler makes it run perfectly. Anyhow, here's what I have:
CorelDRAW X4 Only:
Here's what the Stack for Font Navigator looks like before installing a font (ie Boot, log in, load Font Navigator):
Here's what the Stack for Font Navigator looks like after installing a font:
Also, here's the Filemon log for when you install a font:
With CorelDRAW X4 and HP Drivers:
Here's what the Stack for Font Navigator looks like after installing a font (this is where it hangs):
Here's what the Stack for Font Navigator looks like after installing a font (this is where it becomes responsive):
Here's the Filemon log up until the point that it hangs:
Here's the Filemon log up until the point that just before it unfreezes:
Conclusions:
As you can see, just before the program becomes responsive, there are those calls to spoolsv.exe (or the Print Spooler service). When looking at the timestamps, you can see it took 3 minutes just to become responsive again.
Also note, that when the program DOES become responsive, it has the same end-state Stack. It also appears to not have any failures, or anything indicating a failure in the logs.
So I really don't know what to make of this. I don't have any other software installed period, so I can only narrow it down to this combination of software. If you try to print in CorelDRAW or PHOTO-PAINT, then you do not experience any hangs or anything. Also, no other programs hang except Font Navigator.
If anyone has any insights from the screenshots I have above, then I would be very grateful.
Thanks again.