spoolsv.exe - Application Error ...

I have a reasonably busy drawing 11,600 objects, 30 odd layouts,
All layouts print fine except on just ONE single layout I consistently get
during the spooling process:

spoolsv.exe - Application Error
The instruction at "0x77fcbd4e" referenced memory at "0x50000002". The
memory could not be "written".

This wipes out all printer services until one reboots.
AutoCAD seems unaffected.

It seems to be just a certain set of layers on that layout that causes it
create a new layout make same set of layers active and wham, there it goes
again.

The drawing seems fine and passes audit and recover with no complaint

The printer is HP1220c on Win 2K SP 4

Any ideas?

 

Spoolsv.exe is the "windows printing system". If it crashes, there has been an error in the Windows Driver. Most likely it will have nothing to do with AutoCAD but everything with Windows and HP.
To prove this: plot the layout to a plot file. If htis succeeds, there is no problem with AutoCAD or the drawing.
Then forward the plt file to the printer using freeware "Goplot" . If this fails,
Try uninstalling the printer, Reboot in between (very important) and install it again (download latest version of the driver).

 

The plot thickens:

First as a baseline
I tested with a layout which is not having this problem
It hung as the top progess bar hits the right hand end.
Then after a very long delay of minutes it seemed to finish normally
and the plt file appeared - and goplot printed it ok

Then I tried the problem layout to a plt file.
It hung for a very very much much longer time but did eventually complete
Then I tried to ptint with goplot
you guessed - it printed ok

So what does this mean?
Everything works providing I go via Edinburgh...

Thanks for you help.
What do you suggest now?

been an error in the Windows Driver. Most likely it will have nothing to do
with AutoCAD but everything with Windows and HP.

no problem with AutoCAD or the drawing.

install it again (download latest version of the driver).

 

What it means is that it takes AutoCAD a lot of time to "generate" the plot. This can depend on 2 different things:
The drawing itself and the printer driver used in AuoCAD.
What kind of drawing is this: Pure Lines ?
Or do you have a lot of filled area's or Raster files attached ?

 

Is there setting in the windows printer driver to "print directly" try switching it on/off, maybe just this layout is too much data for the print queue to handle.
I hope there is a Lot of empty space on your C: drive. If not, the windows printing system can fail constantly.
If you have Acad 2000i or higher, try making a PC3 version of the HP1220C in Acad.

 

Try to clean up the drawing.
Obviously there are objects in the drawing that causes Autocad to slow at
the end of the plot.
Use purge or eventually use wblock (for the model and the layouts)

Try plotting than.

Jan

 

Thanks for your help Patrick,
The drawing is not what I would consider particularly complicated.
The single layout that fails is not the most busy
It had 2 viewports but I deleted one as a test.
The remaining viewport on the layout has only 5 layers on (out of
the 100+ )
mostly all content is 2D polylines with just 2 hatch angle line
Many lines have line types mostly hidden and hidden2,
Colours are by layer
50-70 short text annotations
No raster files or anything "unusual"
Gigas of free disk, 392M Mem
Note that drawing has passed Audit & Recover
Is there any other way for checking a drawing for errors that "Audit" does
not see?
Is it reasonable to assume that if there is a problem object that is on one
of the active layers?
(i.e. it I assume it cannot be on one of the non active layers)
Is there any way to tell AutoCAD to used more memory?
(I remember that some Apps on my old Mac needed this trick...)
I have a pc3 defined for the HP1220c which auto selects "best" print mode.
I tried it on a pc3 with no "normal" print mode with same result.
I will look for a print directly switch and test and advise.
Jan suggested "cleaning up" the drawing. Is there any particular processes
recommended?

plot. This can depend on 2 different things:

 

Latest:

The plt to a file now gives error message

"AutoCAD: The data area passed to a system call is too small