Why it is good to let the Automatic Error Report to Microsoft work.

I was working with a customer the other day who had problems printing from the Spread for Windows Forms product. He stated it was crashing his computer (blue screen). I have not heard of any blue screens since working with Windows 98, so this took me aback. I did not see anything special in his print code or the code to format the Spread control, so I asked him for the printer driver he was printing to, so I could try to reproduce the problem. He told me it was the HP LaserJet 4250 PCL 6 driver, so I downloaded this from HP website and tried printing to my printer using this driver and sure enough blue screen.

When the computer rebooted, I got the "There has been an error ..." message, so I decided to go ahead and report this ( a lot of the times, I do not report the errors). During the reporting process, it checked for solutions and there happened to be a solution. I checked out the following KBase article and read what looked to be exactly what was my issue. I was printing from GDI+ to one of the printers on the list.

When working with the customer, it printed to another printer he had correctly and it printed to the 4250 correctly when printing from Excel or Word. So, this KBASE article looked to fit the bill for my fix.

I downloaded the hotfix and retested the printout and it worked. I notified the customer and now he is able to redistribute the application using our Spread for Windows Forms without worrying about the printing issue.

Scott Shorter

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