HP 4000 series print driver issues with FoxPro

[Ross Fordyce]

I use inhouse software written in FoxPro 2.6a that uses the default printer(HP 4000) print driver to print. The FoxPro freezes up when trying to print, I also use a HP 4050 with the same problem. I downloaded the latest driver for the 4050 but now get this error: Pure virtual function call.. HPFFB1.drv

[Mike McKinlay]

Ross -- has this ever worked on this system? What OS is this on?

FoxPro 2.6a is a 16-bit application environment. It is likely you're running into a problem with the OS virtualizing (the technical term truly is "thunking") the 16-bit app.

[Jon Sonntag]

We have the same "pure virtual function called:" issue with FoxPro 2.6a running under Windows 98 (non-SE) on three machines. Three other machines (same OS) run the exact same application without errors. All of the machines in our case use the HP 8100 PCL 5e printer driver as the PCL6 driver in Win98 prints slower than molasses. So, I don't think the problem is FoxPro related but rather a common function that is used by both the 4100 and 8100 drivers. However, I can't explain why it does not happen consistently. All six PCs have the same print drivers loaded.
Why is it the error never shows up except when printing? Why is it that this app worked 100% on all machines under Windows 95? Maybe it's a MS problem, but it would be nice to know for sure....

[Charles Bainbridge]

We get the same problem (or sometimes just an illegal op error) from our application written using Delphi 3. We seem to have similar problem with most later HP drivers. We only see it when Novell's Client 32 is installed. This does cause us a lot of problems as most of our customers have modern, HP printers.

[james walklin]

Try the PCL 5e driver,
also maybe change the print processor to
NT EMF, instead of raw.

[Charles Bainbridge · Accepted solution]

I've just had a reply from HP (an e-mail auto responder I think) on this matter following my filling of a web form on the support site. Seems like there's a bug in the driver 'when the file being worked with is 5 or more sub-directories below the root' though the message also implies it may happen in other circumstances. The suggested work round is to move the file (whatever that is?) nearer the root or use the PS driver. Moving the app did not stop the error but the using PS driver did! The 8000 and 4050 (on which we get similar probs) both support PS emulation as standard.

[Pierre Legace]

I have the same problem here but with an HP 8000 printing from Word.

I have tried the newest drivers in here, but nothing works yet.

[Christian Einfalt]

It's not the best but a working version, how your 4000 Series Printer will come into play.
Map the printer over a pc in your network, where no FoxPro 2.6a Database is hosted.