A few problems with: installation of 1.7.2; re-installation of 0.9.8; PDFArchitect; Search Forum

PDFCreator PDFCreator English
1
Installing  version 1.7.2 on a Windows XP PRO SP3 machine with 1.21 GB RAM didn't work for me - after choosing PDFCreator as the printer and clicking Print, nothing visible happened; the dialogue box at which one clicks Save did not appear. Neither re-installing, rebooting, or turning Auto-Save on helped. My Administrator password is blank, which may be a problem, though it hasn't been with any other software.

Uninstalling 1.7.2 and then attempting to re-install my old version 0.9.8 (which had worked perfectly fine until I attempted to upgrade it), then failed. It got a bit further - but when I click "Save", instead of getting the dialogue window to choose a filename and save path, I get an Error message 75 (Path/File access error) Modul: modPDF,  Procedure: AppendPDFDocInfo,  Line: 50100. Changing the file save path doesn't help. Also, the Print Monitor is acting strange, relisting any document for printing immediately when I try to delete it from the list.

I did check first to make sure the newest version 1.7.2 was still described as working on Win98, WinXP, and later versions of Windows.

Clearly, I was foolish to agree to a pop-up invitation to update to the newer version on this older machine.

Also, PDFArchitect, which installed the first time without being asked, rather than taking up 3 MB of RAM as a background service as expected, took up over 100MB of RAM for HelperService.exe, which is too big a hit on a 1.2 GB machine. Uninstalling it did not help with the above problem re-installing 0.9.8.

I searched the forum for help with this problem but didn't find any. There may be some, but as the Search function unfortunately seems to function as term OR term, and treats "term term" as term OR term, it seemed impossible to search effectively for reports of the problem in the forum; I gave up searching after the first few hundred irrelevant items.

A few hours lost, nevertheless I do appreciate the efforts of the people behind PDFCreator which served well, with only a few poorly rendered pages, for many years.
2

Hi,


it is possible there was a problem during the update from 0.9.8 to 1.7.2 which caused the errors afterwards. Version 1.7.2 is compatible with Windows XP SP3, the most likely thing to have happend is the pdfcmon.dll couldn’t get replaced properly during the update.
Please try the folowing procedure:
1. Uninstall PDFCreator
2. Reboot your computer
3. Check if the PDFCreator printer got deleted from your list of printers and devices, if it is still there delete it manually.
4.Go to your windows\system32 folder and look for the pdfcmon.dll (you might need to change your windows folder options to show hidden files). If it is still there, delete it.
If you get an access denied error while trying to delete it, run CMD as admin and type net stop spooler into the command prompt.
Now installing version 1.7.2  should work. PDF Architect can be deselected from the list of components,then it won’t get installed,
If the PDFCreator still isn’t working as expected afterwards, please send us a copy of the setuplog.txt which gets created in the PDFCreator mail folder during setup.

regards,

Robin
3

Thanks Robin,

  1. following your steps 1,2,3,4 there was no pdfcmon.dll in windows\system32

  2. after re-installing version 1.7.2 and running PDFCreator (the installation wizard did NOT instruct to reboot first) there was no “4. Another window will appear asking you to fill in some information to create your PDF. Click on the Save button to pick the location where you want to save the PDF or click the Waiting button to create the PDF at a later time.”

  3. After rebooting, printing to PDFCreator leads to…nothing

  4. Launching PDFCreator by right-clicking a file in Windows Explorer then “Create PDF…” brings up the “It is necessary to temporarily set PDFCreator as defaultprinter” but then clicking “OK” leads to something flashing onscreen, then nothing.

  5. Start > PDFCreator gives the Print Monitor; then Document > Add gives an endless hourglass.

  6. There doesn’t seem to be a facility to attach SetupLog.txt so I’ll paste it in here:
    ----- Setup - Start: 2014-04-19 11:50:00 -----
    Install PDFCreator: 1.7.2
    InstallerDirectory: C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\Downloads
    X64: no

Start AnalyzeCommandlineParameters
Parameter /VERYSILENT: false
Parameter /SILENT: false
Parameter /FORCEINSTALL: false
Parameter /REMOVEOPTIONS: false
Parameter /DONTINSTALLPRINTERS: false
Parameter /EXPERT: false
No Parameter /LoadInf
No Parameter /SaveInf
No Parameter /REGFile
No Parameter /PPDFile
No Parameter /Printername
End AnalyzeCommandlineParameters

WindowsVersionNumber: 5.1.2600
Silent installation: false
GUITS (7000, 50): 33
Update: 0
Installed PDFCreator version: 0.0.0
Installed PDFCreator version is lower 1.5.1 = true
nationCode: 39
InstallPDFCreatorPrinter = true
OS: 2
IMC:
AppPath: C:\Program Files\PDFCreator
InstalledPDFCreatorVersion: Not installed
DontInstallPrinters: false
SPT: false

Printerstatus before installing:
Spooler service: is running
Printermonitors [3]:
Standard TCP/IP Port
Local Port
EPSON Printer Port

Printerports [32]:
USB004
USB003
USB002
USB001
COM1:
COM2:
COM3:
COM4:
FILE:
LPT1:
LPT2:
LPT3:
\\COMPAQ\Printer2
\\ROSEMARYCOMPAQ\EpsonSty
\\ROSEMARYCOMPAQ\Printer3
\\ROSEMARYCOMPAQ\Printer2
\\ROSEMARYCOMPAQ\Printer
COM5:
\\BACKDESK\PDFCreator
COM6:
\\DELL\Printer4
XPSPort:
\\XP1700\PDFCreator
\\XP1700\Printer7
\\XP1700\Printer4
\\TOSHIBA\PDFCreator
Nuance Image Printer Writer Port
COM7:
C:\Program Files\PDF Architect\print\curprint.pdp
IR
\\RICOH5001\MP5001
\\RNP01BEF5\MPC6501

Printerdrivers (Windows 4.0) [0]:

Printerdrivers (Windows NT x86) [11]:
Samsung ML-1640 Series
PDF Architect Driver
Nuance Image Printer Driver
Microsoft XPS Document Writer
HP LaserJet 1100 (MS)
HP LaserJet 1020
EPSON Stylus CX4200 Series
Epson Stylus COLOR 860 ESC/P 2
Brother PC-FAX v.3
Brother MFC-J4510DW Printer
HotSend Email Attacher

Printerdrivers (Windows x64) [0]:

Printerdrivers (Windows IA64) [0]:

Printerdrivers (Windows NT Alpha_AXP) [0]:

Printers [7]:
Samsung ML-1640 Series
PaperPort Image Printer
HP LaserJet 1020
EPSON Stylus CX4200 Series
Brother PC-FAX v.3
Brother MFC-J4510DW Printer
Auto HP LaserJet 1020 on DELL

Printerdriver-Directory (Environment: Windows 4.0):
Result: Success = C:\WINDOWS\System32\spool\DRIVERS\WIN40

Printerdriver-Directory (Environment: Windows NT x86):
Result: Success = C:\WINDOWS\System32\spool\DRIVERS\W32X86

Install printerport:
Portname : pdfcmon
Result: Success

InstallMonitor:
Monitorname : pdfcmon
Environment : Windows NT x86
Result: Success

Install printerdriver for Win2kXP2k3 (32bit):
Drivername : PDFCreator
Environment : Windows NT x86
Result: Success

InstallPrinter:
Printername: PDFCreator
Drivername : PDFCreator
Portname : pdfcmon
Result: Success

Printerstatus after installing:
Spooler service: is running
Printermonitors [4]:
pdfcmon
Standard TCP/IP Port
Local Port
EPSON Printer Port

Printerports [33]:
pdfcmon
USB004
USB003
USB002
USB001
COM1:
COM2:
COM3:
COM4:
FILE:
LPT1:
LPT2:
LPT3:
\\COMPAQ\Printer2
\\ROSEMARYCOMPAQ\EpsonSty
\\ROSEMARYCOMPAQ\Printer3
\\ROSEMARYCOMPAQ\Printer2
\\ROSEMARYCOMPAQ\Printer
COM5:
\\BACKDESK\PDFCreator
COM6:
\\DELL\Printer4
XPSPort:
\\XP1700\PDFCreator
\\XP1700\Printer7
\\XP1700\Printer4
\\TOSHIBA\PDFCreator
Nuance Image Printer Writer Port
COM7:
C:\Program Files\PDF Architect\print\curprint.pdp
IR
\\RICOH5001\MP5001
\\RNP01BEF5\MPC6501

Printerdrivers (Windows 4.0) [0]:

Printerdrivers (Windows NT x86) [12]:
PDFCreator
Samsung ML-1640 Series
PDF Architect Driver
Nuance Image Printer Driver
Microsoft XPS Document Writer
HP LaserJet 1100 (MS)
HP LaserJet 1020
EPSON Stylus CX4200 Series
Epson Stylus COLOR 860 ESC/P 2
Brother PC-FAX v.3
Brother MFC-J4510DW Printer
HotSend Email Attacher

Printerdrivers (Windows x64) [0]:

Printerdrivers (Windows IA64) [0]:

Printerdrivers (Windows NT Alpha_AXP) [0]:

Printers [8]:
PDFCreator
Samsung ML-1640 Series
PaperPort Image Printer
HP LaserJet 1020
EPSON Stylus CX4200 Series
Brother PC-FAX v.3
Brother MFC-J4510DW Printer
Auto HP LaserJet 1020 on DELL

IC:1|1.7.2|0|en|b4|d0

— Systeminformation - Start —
Windowsversion: 5.01.2600
WinDir: C:\WINDOWS
Win64: false
ProcessorArchitecture: X86
.Net 2.0: true
.Net 2.0 regasm.exe:C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\RegAsm.exe
SystemDir: C:\WINDOWS\system32
TempDir: C:\DOCUME~1\Rosemary\LOCALS~1\Temp\
CurrentDir: C:\WINDOWS\system32
Computername: MAINOFFICE
Username: Rosemary
UILanguage: 1033
Internet Explorer version: 8.0.6001.18702
Path: C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\system32\WBEM;c:\ols;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\VirusBuster\Bin;C:\PROGRA~1\TOPPRO;C:\PROGRA~1\TOPPRO;C:\PROGRA~1\TOPPRO;
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Wbem\framedyn.dll: found
framedyn.dll: found in path
— Systeminformation - End —

— Environment - Start —
=::=::\
=C:=C:\Documents and Settings\Rosemary
ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users
APPDATA=C:\Documents and Settings\Rosemary\Application Data
CLIENTNAME=Console
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME=MAINOFFICE
ComSpec=C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Documents and Settings\Rosemary
LOGONSERVER=\\MAINOFFICE
LOGSCRIPT=C:\Program Files\UniPrint\Log Files
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=1
OPENSSL_CONF=C:\OpenSSL\bin\openssl.cnf
OS=Windows_NT
Path=C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\system32\WBEM;c:\ols;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\VirusBuster\Bin;C:\PROGRA~1\TOPPRO;C:\PROGRA~1\TOPPRO;C:\PROGRA~1\TOPPRO;
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=x86
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=x86 Family 15 Model 44 Stepping 2, AuthenticAMD
PROCESSOR_LEVEL=15
PROCESSOR_REVISION=2c02
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
SESSIONNAME=Console
SystemDrive=C:
SystemRoot=C:\WINDOWS
TEMP=C:\DOCUME~1\Rosemary\LOCALS~1\Temp
TMP=C:\DOCUME~1\Rosemary\LOCALS~1\Temp
USERDOMAIN=MAINOFFICE
USERNAME=Rosemary
USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\Rosemary
windir=C:\WINDOWS
— Environment - End —

----- Setup - End: 2014-04-19 12:03:54 -----

4

Hi,

it is a bit puzzling, I can’t really see an error in your setuplog.
Only idea I currently have is it could be insufficient rights to the spool folder, but then you should get an error 75. But it can’t hurt to make sure the folder C:\DOCUME~1\Rosemary\LOCALS~1\Temp\PDFCreator and its subfolder are fully accessable by the user running PDFCreator.
Please enable logging on the PDF Print Monitor and try to print a test page from the options and post the resulting log here. (it is only possible to post as text)

regards,