Unexpected Crystal Reports Error: Invalid Printer Specified & The handle is invalid

[Russell2]

Hi,

We keep receiving intermittent "Unexpected Crystal Reports Errors" which either comprise of "Invalid Printer Specified" or "The handle is invalid". Despite reinstalling the label printer drivers with newer version, trying an IP connected label printer or USB it makes no difference. We are using a x32 bit ODBC driver and SAP Crystal Reports runtime engine for .NET Framework x32 13.0.37.5230.

[DonWilliams]

Hi Russell,

Need more details about what your app is doing at the time you get these errors?

What version of Windows are you using and does this happen on all PC's?

What Printer are you using?

Is your app a Server app or Desktop?

Do you know how many print jobs are currently being processed?

If you open the Printer task on the Task bar it should show you how many job's it's processing, maybe....

The first error is likely due to the communication layer from Windows to the Printer.

The second error is more likely the cause, the OS is having issues on the Printer Process thread.

Thinking out loud I suspect it could be the Printers print job Buffer is getting full, so when the next print job is sent it's being rejected, most errors coming from the OS are not very useful and generic...

Note the dump info there are no CR dll's being referenced, they are all Windows...

[Russell2]

Hi Don,

Firstly, thank you for replying to my thread. Here are some of your answers belows:

We have tried two different Zebra Printers.

1) Zebra ZT410-203dpi ZPL (Seagull Drivers and Zebra Original Drivers Tested - Networked TCP/IP)

2) Zebra ZD420-203dpi ZPL (Seagull Drivers and Zebra Original Drivers Tested - USB Connection)

3) The A4 worksheet printer is a HP LaserJet Enterprise E50145 but the CR runtime is as far as I am aware required for the labels printing part of it.

The application we are using is CMM (Careflow Medicines Management from SystemC) on a Windows desktop not server.

We have tested on 3 different Dell OptiPlex machines all producing the same Crystal Reports errors, 2 were Windows 11 24H2 and 1 Windows 10 22H2.

The printer job status shows no jobs in the queues.

[DonWilliams]

Hi Russell, see this blog I wrote around Label printers. 

See if using custom paper size names resolves the issue: https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blogs-by-sap/printing-crystal-reports-custom-paper-sizes/ba-...

As I noted I don't see any CR errors in the dump file so it suggests these errors are coming from the Seagull/Zebra print drivers.

I worked a lot with Seagull Developers and they are very smart in dealing with their drivers. I suggest posting on their Forum or talk to their support team to see how to enable logging.

The errors are suggesting Windows is having issue communicating with the Printer.

NOTE: CR is simply passing the error to you from their dll's. Possibly suggesting a buffer overflow or something like that.