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Printing to Adobe PDF Printer freezes computer

Forum Index > General Acrobat Topics > Printing to Adobe PDF Printer freezes computer
2009-09-15 09:09:15
Gibb
Registered: Sep 15 2009
Posts: 12

I'm a web designer, and it just recently came to my attention that on certain pages of my website, when a user goes to print and selects "Adobe PDF Printer", their PC will most likely freeze, and requires resetting.

It doesn't happen on every page of my website, just certain pages that are setup for printing to a normal printer, and it doesn't seem to occur in Firefox, only in IE7 and IE8.

Does anybody know what would cause Acrobat to freeze when trying to perform the Print to PDF functionality?

I can post links on where I see the problem if that would help.

Thanks for any assistance anyone can offer me.

My Product Information:
Acrobat Standard 8.1.3, Windows
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2009-09-15 10:15:08
#1
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
Can you post a URL example of a page that causes this problem?

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

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2009-09-15 11:10:32
#2
Gibb
Registered: Sep 15 2009
Posts: 12
lkassuba wrote:
Can you post a URL example of a page that causes this problem?
The page requires a trip be created before you can get to the "Print" page, but I can tell you how to do that quickly.

Go here:
http://www.neverlost.com/QuickTrips.aspx

Enter in any address you want, for example "plano, tx" then hit the "Plan Now" button. It'll create a trip with some restaurants, hotels, etc, and you'll see a results page. On the results page, there is a little printer icon near the top-right section of the results. If you click this, it'll open the Print page. This print page is the one that will freeze the computer when I try to print using "Adobe PDF Printer".
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2009-09-15 12:55:36
#3
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
I don't have any difficulties printing to the Adobe PDF printer on this page. Can you find any information in the log file? C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Adobe\Acrobat\Distiller 8

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

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2009-09-15 13:04:45
#4
Gibb
Registered: Sep 15 2009
Posts: 12
lkassuba wrote:
I don't have any difficulties printing to the Adobe PDF printer on this page. Can you find any information in the log file? C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Adobe\Acrobat\Distiller 8
I'm sorry to ask you to continue trying things, but could you try doing the same steps again, only overwrite the previously generated PDF file. It seems to crash everytime I do that, but sometimes if I've saving a new PDF it won't crash the first time.

I don't currently have the laptop that has Acrobat installed anymore, so I'll have to get it back later to see if the log files say anything.

Thanks for the assistance so far.
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2009-09-16 06:36:25
#5
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
I overwrote the file without any difficulties. Are you saving to a network location or locally?

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

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2009-09-16 08:56:42
#6
Gibb
Registered: Sep 15 2009
Posts: 12
I'm saving locally, though that does bring up a good point.

If I try to print to PDF on our development server (which is hosted here in my office), my system isn't crashing, but if I do the same thing on the website which is hosted externally, the crash occurs.

Is there possibly a latency issue that causes acrobat to crash?
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2009-09-16 09:02:11
#7
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
I would start by comparing the two different systems (development vs external). Are you using the same browser to print to PDF? Does the crash only occur when printing this specific page? Have you had the chance to look in the log files?

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

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2009-09-16 09:18:13
#8
Gibb
Registered: Sep 15 2009
Posts: 12
Yeah I was using IE8 from the same PC when I tested the development server and the live website.

I managed to get the log, and I'm noticing some weird things in it, tho I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for.

Here are the last two entries in the log:
Start Time: Monday, September 14, 2009 at 17:06:51Source: PMtoDistiller_ID_3:Hertz NeverLost - PrintDestination: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Hertz NeverLost - Print.pdfAdobe PDF Settings: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe PDF\Settings\Standard.joboptionsC:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Hertz NeverLost - Print.log%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%%%[Page: 1]%%%%[Page: 2]%%%%[LastPage]%%Distill Time: 00 Hour(s) : 00 Minute(s) : 01.203 Second(s)**** End of Job ****  Start Time: Monday, September 14, 2009 at 17:08:08Source: PMtoDistiller_ID_4:http://www.neverlost.com/Print.aspx?type=trip&id=1Destination: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\quicktrip.pdfAdobe PDF Settings: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe PDF\Settings\Standard.joboptionsC:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\quicktrip.log%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%%%[Page: 1]%%%%[LastPage]%%Distill Time: 00 Hour(s) : 00 Minute(s) : 01.578 Second(s)**** End of Job ****

In the first block, it looks like the source is just the title of the website, which doesn't seem like it would work. In the second block the source is the URL, which seems more valid. I don't know whether these particular instances resulted in a crash or not, unfortunately.
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2009-09-16 10:26:05
#9
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
I don't see any specific issues with the log file. This issue may be related to IE8 since this isn't a support environment for Acrobat 9 yet. I was using Firefox when I printed to PDF.

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

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2009-09-16 11:47:18
#10
Gibb
Registered: Sep 15 2009
Posts: 12
Yeah IE seems to be the only browser that causes the crash, but similar websites like Mapquest.com do not cause the same problems, so I was wondering if it's something I might have done on my end. Fortunately it's probably a pretty rare occurrence that customers would generate PDFs from the print results page, but I don't like to leave any major issues for our customers to stumble upon.
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