Plot Dialogue Box Slow to Load

I've removed redundant plotters and pc3 files. It's still taking over 20 seconds to load the print screen, and even longer on some other machines in our office.

I have downloaded Filemon, (which is a fascinating piece of software, thanks RKMcSwain) and have isolated one thing that keeps happening during the loading of the plot screen:

C:\WINDOWS\hpmnwun.ini NOT FOUND

This happens MANY times in the space of 22 seconds. Using Filemon I can see that it is not finding something, but from there I do not know how to correct it.

Any ideas?

See this thread

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=33921

See this thread

 

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=33921

I have seen this thread. That's the one I springboarded to this one from. The solution to that seemed to be redundant plotters, which I have fixed and my problem remains. So I started this thread to ask about the hpwmwun.ini

(In truth I am getting mixed up and thought that thread ws from 2006 and so it would be annoying if I kept it going. Turns out it's recent. Must have been thinking of another one I had trawled through!)

Are you sure you don't have any invalid system printers also?

Could there be a slow connection to a certain network printer?

Change the "Printer Configuration Search Path" in OPTIONS to an empty directory, then try again. Now you should only see system printers listed when you run ._PLOT, and this will rule out any pc3 file problems.

If it's still slow, do the same for the CTB/STB files path.

Remove all your network system printers.

Basically, just start taking items out of the equation, one at a time, until the performance is acceptable - then you should know what it is.

Could there be a slow connection to a certain network printer?

Thanks for the methodical troubleshoot. I did all that and isolated, of all things, our main plotter. Anything set with that as the default takes almost 30 seconds to load.

I do not know how to fix a slow connection to a network printer, so my alternative was to create a pc3 file of the plotter and then to "Hide System Plotters" in Options.

This has certainly sped things up. Is that an acceptable solution, or is it just a dodgy patch up?

If you are OK with it, then it's good enough for me.. ;-)

Is this a network printer just a connection to a network print queue, or did you install the local drivers and point to an IP address?

Do other applications stall when this printer is included in the mix?

If you are OK with it, then it's good enough for me.. ;-)

 

Is this a network printer just a connection to a network print queue, or did you install the local drivers and point to an IP address?

Do other applications stall when this printer is included in the mix?

The printer is setup with an ethernet print server and then plugged with Cat 6 straight into the network switch. In saying that, each machine has the print driver loaded on it.

There has always been some issues between AutoCAD and this printer. HP released an "Optimized for AutoCAD" driver, but that seemed to create more turmoil, so I went back to the default.

Other applications are also slower with this printer compared with others, but they do not stall for nearly as long as AutoCAD.