[comp.sys.mac] PrintMonitor woes

dave@etsu.CMI.COM (David Halonen) (09/28/89)

I give up!  One of our users decided that she wanted to use
MultiFinder, but after turning it on, the background print function
doesn't work.  The PrintMonitor icon flashes on the apple menu, and
selecting PM just brings up the notice that 'where=6, why=-37'.

Tremendously useful information.

Now what?  I've (yes I actually did this) READ THE MANUAL!  We do have
the background printing button checked ON.  I did notice that spool
files, ie SpoolFile1, was being created in the system folder.  Double
clicking on that just brings up PM with its informative message.

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but since I don't know how to
access the archives, you all get to see it again.

Thanks,

-- 
David Halonen, Center for Machine Intelligence, Electronic Data Systems
Ann Arbor, MI  (313) 995-0900
AppleLink: N0548   Internet: dave@cmi.com

milbouma@eplrx7.UUCP (milbouma) (09/29/89)

In article <764@etsu.CMI.COM> dave@etsu.cmi.com.UUCP (David Halonen) writes:
>I give up!  One of our users decided that she wanted to use
>MultiFinder, but after turning it on, the background print function
>doesn't work.  The PrintMonitor icon flashes on the apple menu, and
>selecting PM just brings up the notice that 'where=6, why=-37'.
>
>Tremendously useful information.
>
>Now what?  I've (yes I actually did this) READ THE MANUAL!  We do have
>the background printing button checked ON.  I did notice that spool
>files, ie SpoolFile1, was being created in the system folder.  Double
>clicking on that just brings up PM with its informative message.
>
I've seen this exact problem several times.  It is caused by the MacPlot
driver that comes with MacDraw II which has a proven record of nuking
system files.  I can only assume that you have MacPlot since the symptoms
you descibe exactly match my experience with it.  The only way to fix it is
to trash your system file and rebuild it.  Next time you Plot something with
MacPlot it will start doing this again.  So you either have to turn off
background printing, or not use MacPlot!  

1) Use Font/DA Mover to offload fonts and DAs into Suitcase files and then
boot from a clean System Tools disk.

2) Then throw away the System file from the Hard Disk and use the install
script to reinstall the system.  You must throw away the system file, you
can't just reinstall it.  You might also have to throw away the Finder file
- sometimes the install script complains when the System is gone but Finder
is not - I don't know why.

3) Then use Font/DA mover to put your Fonts and DAs back into the fresh
System file.  You also have to reinstall AppleShare and that kind of thing
if you have that.

4) It's good to keep a backup of your system file on a floppy so you don't
have to go through this rigamorole everytime ( I used to trash my system
frequently ).

Hope this helps.

Mark Milbourne
DuPont Experimental Station