>We have a FoxPro 2.x app that has been running on NT workstations and using Novell print servers. The company is now cascading out the older machines and replacing them with Windows 2000 machines. Some of the applications print just fine, where others are giving a wide range of errors: the most common are
>1) printer not ready (this only happens on a local printer when we are testing)
>2) appears to print but nothing hits the queue or prints
>3) KERNEL_UNTRAPPABLE_MODE_ERROR Blue screen of death
>
>I have tried reinstalling printers, clearing the environment from the reports (which almost always causes the Blue Screen of Death), modifing the reports in Windows 2000, removing the port and reinstalling the port and the printers for local printers).
>

This is a SWAG, but it's likely that you're seeing problems due to the Windows printer drivers; unlike Novell, where queues did not administer the GDI interface, Windows Printers shared to the network have a print driver associated with them, and may cause the problems you outline. The best chance to resolve this is going to involve a careful selection of printer drivers for the stations sharing their printers to the net, especially Win printers like the HP 1100/2200 series, which use the GDI of the server to service the printer graphics rendition directly.

You can try deploying the printers using the Generic/Text Only driver at the server station to share the printer, and then associating that share on the client stations with the correct printer driver, getting the print driver out of the loop on the server side of things. This is likely to break WinPrinters being shared to the net unless they have their own internal PCL rendition engine in addition to the GDI of the server.

I'd also try a stab at installing the printers on network appliances or with their own network printer cards like the HP JetDirect to see if the server problems go away. The server can still administer the queues, but the netowrk device doesn't eat up hardware resources on the server other than spool space.

>When I switch the port property from 'Do Not Use an Interrupt' to 'Use any IRQ assigned to port' I got it to work on local and Network printers. Until I rebooted. I then tried a ipconfig /release and a ipconfig /renew and it all worked again until I rebooted. When I tried to release and renew my IP I simply lost all network connections, upon logging into Novell client. I couldn't print.
>
>So there is my dilemna, with a summary of my findings, Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions that I may try...