CR 2008 SP2 - Slow to open Print Dialog or Page Setup Dialog (And SP3+)

[Former Member]

When I am designing my report in CR 2008 SP2 and select either Page Setup or Print from the File menu, Crystal Reports stops responding for about 5 minutes and then the dialog box will open. I created a blank report and did not add anything to it and this continues to happen. The program operates at normal speed otherwise. It is quick to startup and load reports. Any ideas on why this is so slow?

Update: I have also tried checking the box in page setup that says No Printer but the problem persists.

Update 2: I have updated from SP2 -> SP3 -> FP 3.1 -> FP 3.2 -> FP 3.3, and after each upgrade I tried both Print and Page Setup and it continued to exhibit the same slowness as in SP2.

Thanks,

Paul

[AKHUMBI · Accepted solution]

Hi

Try after updating your OS.

Regards

Ashwini

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ashwini,

I just completed updating my OS and I am still experiencing the behavior. I have applied every update available through Windows Update. I just reformatted my computer two days ago so this is a pretty fresh install.

This problem existed before my reformat as well however. A few months ago, Crystal did not have this slow issue when opening either Print or Page Setup dialogs. About a month ago these two dialog boxes just became very slow. I hoped reformatting would get rid of this issue but it persists. I also experience this slowness on a different computer that I am using.

One idea I just tried is to shutdown the Print Spooler service in Windows. The print dialog won't open at all but it does quickly tell me Warning: No Printer is installed on this system. The Page Setup dialog on the other hand opens immediately, however, the Printer Options group box is totally greyed out. This "fix" is of course no good to me since I cannot print, but perhaps it narrows down the issue to something regarding printing and/or printers?

[AKHUMBI · Accepted solution]

Hi

Looks like issue is releated to printer setup on your machine, so reconfigure your printer & try.

Also try to print something from any other aplication like office tools

Regards

Ashwini

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

HI Ashwini,

Your suggestion took care of the issue. I have many printers installed, however, 2 of them are hosted by a print server out of a remote location connected over a slow WAN link. I removed both printers from my printer list and the slowness I was experiencing is gone.

The issue is somewhat strange since neither of the two printers are set as my default printer and the report doesn't use either printer. My other applications, such as office, don't experience any slowdown unless I happen to select one of those two printers to print to. Nevertheless, removing them entirely did fix the issue so I will leave those two printers off my list until I finish with all my Crystal Reports work.

Thanks again for all your help! This problem has been immensely frustrating and I"m very happy we were able to fix it!

Thanks again,

Paul