Crystal Reports Hangs on .Load event

[Former Member]

Hi ,

We are using CR 2011 on Windows environment (2008 R2) and  run the following workflow.

1. We have created a rpt with 9 sub reports.

2. We would like to print the port to a particular printer and hence have set the flag <NO Printer> on the report

3. The application is a windows based application and not a web based application.

4. We have tested the report by launching the report and printing it on the desired printer.

5. We have a windows service that executes the code of reading the report and printing it out as a pdf / printer.

6. Step 4 is an event based activity that occurs as frequently as every 2 minutes.

7. The database is Oracle 11g

PROBLEM:

1. Generally all runs well, however once / twice a day the report hangs.

2. We have created a dump file and observed that the hang occurs on .LOAD event.

3. We are using the .LOAD with a single parameter that of the report name.

4. We also observed that the spooler service hangs

5. We are disposing the report immediately after printing it.

After the problem occurs we are forced to start the windows service and the printer spooler service.

Solutions tried so far:

1. Changing the No Printer flag did not give any results.

2. We have created a job that restarts the windows service and the spooler service after a period of 30 mins. - This has minimized the occurances but not eliminated the problem.

Pseudo code:

ReportDocument CR = new ReportDocument()

CR.Load(<report file name);

//Set Main data Source

CR.Database.Tables[0].SetDataSource(ADODB.Recordset)

//set sub reports

CR.Subreports[<Index>].Database.Tables[0].SetDataSource(data table)

//here it prints on default printer or the set printer. (Printer s are UNC printers, however we register them - they are visible as local printers on the given machine -  locally before printing)

CR.PrintToPrinter(noOfCopies, false, fromPage, toPage);

CR.Close()

CR.Dispose()

IF required we can also provide the rpt file and any other details.

Our customers are really suffering cause of this and any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Anil

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

I believe your test simply proves that you are runing out of CPLs.

Re CR Server. See the following:

There is also a number of samples here:

I'd also recommend visiting help.sap.com (Analytics Knowledge Center) and search for available resources there.

- Ludek

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the reply.

Can i please ask how many CPL's are currently being consumed.

Reason: The documentation for In Process RAS says that the default comes with 3 CPL's.

Also is it possible that we temporarily increase the CPL's to observe, say for a week whether the problem does not occur and once we are confident then we can convince the customers to pay for the same.

br

-anil

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

one more info..

we do not have multi threading or parallel processing in place.

we load, print and destroy the report instance sequentially.

However this cycle runs every 3 minutes and there are approx 20 reports to be printed - sequentially.

Thus, the question would be ... how are we running out of CPL's

br

Anil

[Former Member]

We are facing the same problem. The hanging does not exist when running the application from the dev environment (visual studio 2013 update 5)

[Former Member]

The eventual solution for us was to optimize the query and use ANSI standard syntax rather than Oracle syntax, e.g. "LEFT OUTER JOIN" rather than "(+)". While the query ran fine from Oracle tools like SQL*Plus or SQL Developer, Crystal seems to interpret the query differently.

Oddly enough, Crystal even seems to concern itself with view definitions since we found that reports based on views using Oracle syntax wouldn't even run in Crystal. One example was a view that included a WHERE clause with an automatic date conversion, like WHERE date_col > '01-JAN-1990' which we had to change to WHERE date_col > TO_DATE ('01-JAN-1990', 'dd-MON-yyyy').

[Former Member]

Thanks for the quick reply Laura! I couldn't understand still on how the hanging on load doesn't appear when running our app from visual studio.

[Former Member]

Was this problem ever resolved? I'm having the same problem: a report hangs occasionally. If I wait for a while and run the same report with the same parameters, it runs to completion. I've also tried setting the printer option to "No printer." Any help would be appreciated.

[former_member183750]

Hi Anil

A few things:

CR 2011, does not ship any SDK, so I am not sure what version SDK you are using. Check the CR assemblies in your project and let me know their version. Also, let me know the version of the crpe32.dll in this folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\Crystal Reports for .NET Framework 4.0\Common\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\win32_x86

Next:

Try a different printer driver as it may just be the printer causing the issue.

If you are reusing the dataset for your reports, is will not be a bad idea to do a .close & .dispose on it (particularly if it is being modified (e.g.; rows added / removed, etc.).

- Ludek

Senior Support Engineer AGS Product Support, Global Support Center Canada

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[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

1. SDK -

craxddrt.dll- 13.0.0.99

CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.dll - 13.0.0.99

CrystalDecisions.ReportSource.dll - 13.0.0.99

CrystalDecisions.Shared.dll - 13.0.0.99

CrystalDecisions.Windows.Forms.dll - 13.0.0.99

2. crpe32.dll - 13.0.5.891

3. Our customer have more than 500 printers, so yes, the printer driver could be causing the problem, but we need a mechanism to identify the faulty drivers.

4. Yes, we are closing and disposing the dataset after usage.

We have tried to simulate the problem at out end, but we do not have UNC printers. We have printers configured on the LAN, where the problem does not occur. We have run more than 30000 cycles of loading and printing, - all works.

Can UNC printers be the cause. As mentioned in the first post, our customers are using UNC printers and we are registering the UNC printer to the server where we fire the print. We register the printer only once, meaning after the print job we do not UN-register the printer - reason, to avoid fragmentation of the registry.

Yesterday we compiled the reports on 2008 (instead on 2011), however the problem still occurs. We are in the process of analyzing the error in this case - reason to know if it still hangs on Load or is there some other reason.

Thanks & Regards,

Anil

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

We could reproduce the hang once again.

The dump file snap shot is below

STACK_COMMAND:  ~0s; .ecxr ; kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:

dtsagent+3344d

4353344d 8b4e0c          mov     ecx,dword ptr [esi+0Ch]

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX:  5

SYMBOL_NAME:  dtsagent+3344d

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: dtsagent

IMAGE_NAME:  dtsagent.dll

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  50e96cbb

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  WRONG_SYMBOLS_80000003_dtsagent.dll!Unknown

BUCKET_ID:  APPLICATION_FAULT_WRONG_SYMBOLS_dtsagent+3344d

WATSON_STAGEONE_URL:  http://watson.microsoft.com/StageOne/LoadReport_exe/1_0_0_0/531edd41/unknown/0_0_0_0/bbbbbbb4/800000...

Followup: MachineOwner

---------

0:000> lmvm dtsagent

start    end        module name

43500000 4369b000   dtsagent   (export symbols)       dtsagent.dll

    Loaded symbol image file: dtsagent.dll

    Image path: C:\Program Files\SAP BusinessObjects\Crystal Reports for .NET Framework 4.0\Common\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\win32_x86\dtsagent.dll

    Image name: dtsagent.dll

    Timestamp:        Sun Jan 06 17:53:23 2013 (50E96CBB)

    CheckSum:         0019BA04

    ImageSize:        0019B000

    File version:     13.0.5.891

    Product version:  13.0.5.891

    File flags:       8 (Mask 3F) Private

    File OS:          4 Unknown Win32

    File type:        2.0 Dll

    File date:        00000000.00000000

    Translations:     0409.04b0

    CompanyName:      SAP BusinessObjects

    ProductName:      SBOP Report Application Server

    InternalName:     SBOP Report Application Server

    OriginalFilename: SBOP Report Application Server

    ProductVersion:   13.0.5.891

    FileVersion:      13.0.5.891

    PrivateBuild:     4

    FileDescription:  Report Application Server Design-Time Server Agent

    LegalCopyright:   Copyright 2012 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

    LegalTrademarks:  Report Application Server (tm) is a trademark of Business Objects.

There seems to be some issue in dtsagent.dll. The hang took place when we loaded the report the first time, so the question of dispose / close should not come into picture.

In between we have solved the spooler hang, by changing the code to not access the API's for winspool. What this means is that the printer issue is now taken care off, and now we have this hang at the customer end, say twice a day.

So we are better off in terms of not restarting the spooler but here we need some assistance.

Regards,

Anil

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

In continuation, please find the stack for the hang.

As we can see there is a OutOfMemory exception followed by a Stack Overflow exception and then we have the CrstalReports function calls.

005b99b4	2	64 CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ClientDoc._ISCDClientDocumentEvents_OnPropertyChangedEventHandler
005b98f8	2	64 CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ClientDoc._ISCDClientDocumentEvents_OnPropertyChangingEventHandler
005b983c	2	64 CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ClientDoc._ISCDClientDocumentEvents_OnSavedEventHandler
005b9780	2	64 CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ClientDoc._ISCDClientDocumentEvents_OnSavingEventHandler
005b96c4	2	64 CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ClientDoc._ISCDClientDocumentEvents_PreSavingEventHandler
005b9608	2	64 CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ClientDoc._ISCDClientDocumentEvents_OnClosedEventHandler
005b954c	2	64 CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ClientDoc._ISCDClientDocumentEvents_OnClosingEventHandler
005b9490	2	64 CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ClientDoc._ISCDClientDocumentEvents_PreClosingEventHandler
79ad78cc	1	68 System.Diagnostics.Tracing.EventSource+OverideEventProvider
77eb9860	1	68 System.Drawing.BufferedGraphicsContext
5fb97d40	1	68 System.Configuration.AppSettingsSection
04028214	1	68 System.Text.RegularExpressions.Match
79ae71b8	2	72 System.Globalization.CompareInfo
79ae0b30	2	72 System.Threading.ExecutionContext
79ae0014	3	72 System.Guid
79ad7804	1	72 System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2+Entry[[System.String, mscorlib],[System.Resources.ResourceLocator, mscorlib]][]
5fb97254	3	72 System.Configuration.ConfigurationElementCollection+Enumerator
5fb9715c	6	72 System.Configuration.ConfigurationValues+ConfigurationElementsCollection
049d8ff4	3	72 System.Windows.Forms.Layout.DefaultLayout+AnchorInfo
049d71dc	6	72 System.Windows.Forms.ControlEventArgs
049d70b4	3	72 System.Windows.Forms.Layout.LayoutUtils+MeasureTextCache
04059b30	1	72 System.Diagnostics.FilterElement
03e04348	3	72 System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[Microsoft.Win32.SystemEvents+SystemEventInvokeInfo, System]]
79ae9250	1	76 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.WriteObjectInfo
049d7208	1	76 System.Windows.Forms.NativeMethods+STARTUPINFO_I
79ae4468	5	80 System.Text.DecoderReplacementFallback
79ae4418	5	80 System.Text.EncoderReplacementFallback
79ae01b4	5	80 System.DateTime
79ada500	2	80 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter
79ad9728	1	80 System.Resources.ResourceManager
79ad7268	1	80 System.Resources.ResourceReader
79ad5374	2	80 System.IO.BinaryReader
77eb942c	2	80 System.Drawing.SafeNativeMethods+LOGFONT
77eb8c74	2	80 System.Drawing.Icon
0403c604	4	80 System.Text.RegularExpressions.ExclusiveReference
040285b4	4	80 System.Collections.Specialized.HybridDictionary
040284e0	4	80 System.Collections.Specialized.ListDictionary+DictionaryNode
79ae2570	1	84 System.ExecutionEngineException
79ae252c	1	84 System.StackOverflowException
79ae24e8	1	84 System.OutOfMemoryException
79ae2394	1	84 System.Exception
79ad7460	3	84 System.Resources.ResourceFallbackManager+<GetEnumerator>d__0
051abba4	1	84 System.Windows.Forms.SaveFileDialog
049d8aa8	7	84 System.Windows.Forms.UICuesEventArgs
049d611c	3	84 System.Windows.Forms.PropertyStore+PaddingWrapper
049d53c4	3	84 System.Windows.Forms.Padding
04059a1c	1	84 System.Diagnostics.ListenerElement
04026734	2	88 System.Diagnostics.TraceSwitch
049d643c	1	92 System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair`2[[System.Drawing.Font, System.Drawing],[System.Windows.Forms.Internal.WindowsFont, System.Windows.Forms]][]
79ae68c8	3	96 System.Reflection.MemberFilter
79ad7f34	3	96 System.Text.UTF8Encoding+UTF8Decoder
7971adc8	4	96 System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[System.Reflection.MethodInfo, mscorlib]]
7971a530	2	96 System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[[System.Type, mscorlib],[System.Byte[], mscorlib]]
7971941c	4	96 System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[System.String, mscorlib]]
5fb97e10	1	96 System.Configuration.KeyValueConfigurationCollection
5fb95c3c	2	96 System.Configuration.ClientConfigPaths
05199e20	6	96 System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs
049d18fc	4	96 System.Windows.Forms.NativeMethods+TRACKMOUSEEVENT
04059794	1	96 System.Diagnostics.SwitchElementsCollection
04059710	1	96 System.Diagnostics.SharedListenerElementsCollection
04059588	1	96 System.Diagnostics.SourceElementsCollection
0403c1dc	4	96 System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions, System]]
03e0411c	2	96 System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[[System.String, mscorlib],[System.UriParser, System]]
79ae9154	1	100 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.__BinaryWriter
79ae6af8	5	100 System.Security.PermissionToken
79ad7848	1	100 System.Diagnostics.Tracing.FrameworkEventSource
04029fd0	1	100 System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo
049d5984	1	104 System.Windows.Forms.Application+MarshalingControl
79ae90dc	1	108 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.ObjectWriter
5fb969ac	9	108 System.Configuration.ConfigurationPropertyCollection
79ae26bc	1	112 System.AppDomain
5fb96bb8	4	112 System.Configuration.StreamInfo
0403c55c	4	112 System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexFCD
04028518	4	112 System.Collections.Specialized.ListDictionary
04025bec	7	112 System.Collections.Specialized.NameObjectCollectionBase+NameObjectEntry
79ae2d3c	3	120 System.Security.Policy.Evidence
797183c0	5	120 System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[System.Type, mscorlib]]
049d7190	6	120 System.Windows.Forms.Control+ControlCollection
04059890	2	120 System.Diagnostics.TraceSection
040593d4	2	120 System.Diagnostics.AssertSection
79aed4a4	4	128 System.Text.UTF8Encoding+UTF8Encoder
79adec44	8	128 System.Runtime.InteropServices.HandleRef
79adb030	8	128 System.Security.Permissions.UIPermission
049d54a4	8	128 System.Windows.Forms.PropertyStore+SizeWrapper
049d4ecc	8	128 System.Windows.Forms.PropertyStore
0403c5cc	8	128 System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexPrefix
0403c594	8	128 System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexFC
0402c194	8	128 Microsoft.Win32.SystemEvents+SystemEventInvokeInfo
0402aab4	4	128 Microsoft.Win32.UserPreferenceChangingEventHandler
79ad0adc	3	132 System.Reflection.RtFieldInfo
77eb82ac	3	132 System.Drawing.Font
049d5618	1	132 System.Windows.Forms.Application+ThreadContext
005ba0e4	2	136 CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ReportClientDocumentWrapper

Regards,

Anil

[former_member183750]

Let's get you to SP 8 as you are now on SP 5 (crpe32.dll - 13.0.5.891). Links to the SP are here:

Make sure you run the install exe on your dev computer - not the msm or msi...

Any messages in the event viewer?

What is the printer driver you are using and what is it's version?

As a by the by. I understand your point re dtsagent. However, it needs to be understood that as far as I know, you are the only one reporting this issue. So. Either you are doing something different than anyone else. Or there is something going on with the printer driver. Or there is something else in the environment. Or....(?).  Going to SP 8 will be required in any case as R&D will not look at issues with old SPs in play.

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

Thanks for the reply.

The hang as we have observed occurs on load of report.

So will the printer driver play a role.

As mentioned earlier we have solved the spooler hang issue by not using the API's of winsppol.

I will download the latest version and  test and let you know asap.

Thanks

Anil

[former_member183750]

Yes, it could play a role. CR uses printer drivers to render the reports, not to just print it. For example, if you have a web app that prints to a pint server and and the app server does not have a printer driver installed, CR will not work.

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

The Printer driver is Kyocera Classic  Universaldriver (A4 models)

We have downloaded the latest version of SP8 and are testing. Will let you know the results.

Do you need any other info.

br

Anil

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

As per the post <> you have mentioned that if we set the "No Printer" flag then the printer drivers would not be consumed to load the report. It would use its own algorithm to load the report.

However you have also mentioned that this is applicable for CR XI R2. Since we are on SP5 I believe the "No Printer" settings should have a same behavior where the printer drivers will not be involved in the load process.

We have set the "No Printer" flag and are still facing the issue of the report hanging on .LOAD.

Or do the drivers get consumed in any case?

Regards,

Anil

[Former Member]

hi... we have used 14.0.4 7383.rtm to rebuild the repot and check the "No Printer" flag.

This I believe is higher than the R2 version.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Regards,

Anil

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

Hope you are doing well.

We see the following the stack trace when a hang occurs

Locked critical section report

Critical Section	crpe32!CRPEConnectionInit+32c978
Lock State	Locked
Lock Count	1
Recursion Count	1
Entry Count	0
Contention Count	1
Spin Count	0

The way we could reproduce this is to call load (100 times) and then call the same load simultaneously.

The application hangs.

Does this give us any clue.

The hang at the customer occurs 3-4 times a day where we have to re-start the process. Obviously in a mission critical app as ours (hospitals) this is simply not acceptable.

Regards,

Anil

[former_member183750]

I wonder how to square this statement:

The hang took place when we loaded the report the first time, so the question of dispose / close should not come into picture.

with

The way we could reproduce this is to call load (100 times)

I really think the best thing to do i this case is to create a phone incident and get this looked at there. You can create a phone incident here:

Crystal Single Case Technical Support - SAP Business Objects US Online Store | SAP Online Store

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

It just goes to show there is no particular pattern for the hang.

Yes we have purchased the Single Case Technical Support.

Hopefully we can get more details.

Thanks

Anil

[former_member183750]

Can you pls let me know the case number? I'd like to follow it a bit.

- Ludek

[Former Member]

The case no is 261617 2014.

Anil

[former_member183750]

Hi Anil

I looked at the phone incident and it has been assigned to Bhushan. You're in  good hands there - one of the best. Please give Bhushan the info her asked for.

In addition I am going back to this statement from earlier communication:

Our customer have more than 500 printers, so yes, the printer driver could be causing the problem, but we need a mechanism to identify the faulty drivers.

Unfortunately, the mechanism will have to be; it works, good, it does not - make sure it is a driver and either update it or don't use it... Further, it may be a good idea to let Bhushan know the driver you are working with when the issue occurs. E.g.; pick one as this is not a generic printer driver. Looking at this one printer driver at a time will be the way to go.

I will let Bhushan know about this forum thread also.

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

In our communication with Bhushan it seems that the problem cannot be solved due to the inherent structure of CR, where the number of print jobs that are being created are not one per report but in-fact many.

As per the suggestions we have increased the registry count from the default 75 to 150 and also modified the report where the sub reports have been moved from the detail section to the header / footer section. This has been done to reduce the number of print jobs.

However the problem still exits.

Bhushan also recommends that for this type of application usage it would be better to use the Crystal Reports Server / Business Objects Enterprise.

Can you please give us some details as to how the problem can be solved using either of the above products.

I can share with you the mail from Bhushan, if required.

br

Anil

[former_member183750]

Hi Anil

See if increasing the print job number to 500 helps. If not, it may be the CPL limitation. We used to be able to get an idea on this by looking at the Event Viewer for messages like:

A Crystal Reports job was delayed x second waiting for a free license to become available.

It would be interesting to see if you get these messages in the Event Viewer. I was working with another customer and they could never see these messages. I have sent an email to Program Management asking if they removed this ability, but can you pls check?

Now, one thing that bothers me in all of this is that in one of the posts you mentioned that you can get the issue after just one print. It is critical that this information is correct as that would eliminate loading and thus the need for more costly solutions such as CRS or BI. I'd also then concentrate on the printer driver (kyocera?), making sure the latest patches for it are being used. And that it is the correct driver for the OS. If that checks, using a different printer driver would then be suggested. Please note that this may apply in high load cases also, but I am being more specific here if the issue indeed occurs after only one print out.

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

Thanks for the reply. We will change the value to 500 and check.

1. We have not been able to reproduce the problem at our end. Even after running the cycle 10,000 times.

2. However to try and simulate we have created a sample program that loads and prints.

3. To avoid wastage of paper we have configured a printer with a NUL driver. Where the print job is created, spooler is invoked, we can see the print job in the printer window, but no actual print.

4. In one of the runs the application hung in the first iteration itself. The dump details were posted in this mail chain, where crpe was in locked mode.

If required we can post the dump details again.

br

Anil

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

Talking about reproducing the problem in the first instance this should be possible if we have a report with a sub report. The data in the sub report is more than 75, thus leading to 75+1 print jobs.

If the print job number is kept at the default value of 75, then the limit would be hit and we can get the problem.

So as per my understanding it is not the first occurrence that is important it is way the report has been designed - reports with sub reports - and also the data set.

Or am i missing something.

How have print jobs been handled in CRS / BI.

Will let you know the printer driver and the patches for the same.

br

Anil

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

1. We changed the print job limit to 500, however the problem still exists

2. We observed the event logs however could not see the message of the delay and waiting for a free license.

However in the event logs we do see this message

The timeout (30000 milliseconds) was reached while waiting for a transaction response from Spooler service.

Another point, Bhushan does not reply to our mails. So i am not sure what am i supposed to do now. Call up the hotline number?

br

Anil

[former_member183750]

The message you are seeing in the event viewer:

The timeout (30000 milliseconds) was reached while waiting for a transaction response from Spooler service.

may be a clue that this is more of a printer issue than a CR issue. Like I mentioned in one of my previous posts. Some printers may be better to use than others. Also printer updates are very important.

As for Bhushan, I suppose checking with customer service will be a good idea.

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

Yes that's right we are exploring the printer angle also.

Have just checked the configuration for the printer drivers. All the relevant drivers are running in shared mode. This would mean that just in case a printer driver is corrupt, and it crashes, then it would not crash the spooler process.

I am not sure whether we should change this to isolated mode.

br

Anil

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

We observed that

1. The problem is occurring at many of our customer installations now.

2. We have discussed one of the reasons where the print job count limit is hit.

3. So we have increased the limit to 500

Further, since the error is occurring only intermittently what we did was observe the context for which the problem occurs.

Then we try and load the report for the same context and fire a print. ( stand alone)

All Works.

So the question would be that if the same report hangs for a given context it seems to work when we try and load and print it later. We have requested the customers to update the printer drivers with the latest patches. What could be the reasons for this behavior.

We have downloaded the trial version of CR 2011 server. A very basic question how do i log into the BI launch pad. Wanted to test and see if all the reports that we have can be run from the  server installation.

br

Anil