aaronjwood
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IBM AS/400 Printer Output in Operations Navigator
For the past three years I have been using the Operations Navigator inside of Client Access Express to access spool files on my AS/400 printers. I frequently drag and drop reports to my PC for further analysis via Excel. All of the sudden it I am having a major issue with this process. If there is more than one file in the printer queue only the first file shows up correctly in Operations Navigator. The other spool files show as gibrish. It is almost as though the colums have been shifted on the other records. I can see some identifiable data in these records such as user and printer names, but they show up under the wrong columns. I have tried to clear all spool files but this has not seemed to work. I am a novice when it comes to the AS/400 and would appreciate any help.
Regards,
Aaron J. Wood
Regards,
Aaron J. Wood
ASKER
Tom, thank you for the reply. This AS/400 runs our POS (Point of Sale) software. I am using a very old version of Client Access Express 5.1 that was provided by our POS company. I know it is old, but it has always worked and we have not done a version update lately. As I stated, I am an AS/400 novice I will Google how to determine the version/release that my AS/400 runs under.
ASKER
Looks like I am running V5R2M0 L00. I got this by running "go licpgm" and then pressing F11.
ASKER
The Help -> About in Operations Navigator gives "IBM AS/400 Client Access Express for Windows Version 5 Release 1 Modification level 0"
When Navigator gets flaky on me on a workstation, I just uninstall it and reinstall it. Almost always solves the issue.
- Gary Patterson
- Gary Patterson
ASKER
Gary, thank you for the comment. This issue is occuring on all PC's that have Operations Navigator installed. Otherwise I would have tried to do a fresh install.
Aaron:
When you get to the Start-> Programs-> IBM Client Access-> Properties display, please include the "Service level SIxxxxx" value. The newest one possible is SI11806 from April 2004, I think.
This is indeed old software. What Windows version is running? I'm not sure I could expect anything later than Windows 2000.
Understand that Gary's suggestion _might_ be the only choice. With software like this, actual fixes and support are well in the past.
Tom
When you get to the Start-> Programs-> IBM Client Access-> Properties display, please include the "Service level SIxxxxx" value. The newest one possible is SI11806 from April 2004, I think.
This is indeed old software. What Windows version is running? I'm not sure I could expect anything later than Windows 2000.
Understand that Gary's suggestion _might_ be the only choice. With software like this, actual fixes and support are well in the past.
Tom
ASKER
The service level is Sl01907. The the newer software available for download? What is the cost? What troubles me is that I have used it every month for the past 3 years and then poof if doesn't work. Our POS provider did an update to our Library that controls the POS this month, but they claim that is does not change any core AS/400 infrastructure files. I do appreciate your help.
Would have been handy to know that this is happening on multiple machines in that original post ... :-)
Still doesn't change my advice, though.
If it is true that nothing was changed OS-wise by the vendor (no PTFs applied by vendor), then we are just left with the workstations themselves. One guess is that an automatic Windows update (or some other automatic software update) broke it. Are you running Auto Update? If so, check your update history and see if an hit at the time Navigator went wonky on you. If so, you can try going back to a restore point in Windows (I'm assuming WinXP Pro here) before the problem occurred. The only problem with that plan is that backing up to an old restore point like this can cause more harm than good.
Personally, I'd still just remove and reinstall on my workstation (takes like 20 minutes) and see if that resolves the issue, rather than spending a bunch of time with "what happened". Odds are that upgrading, applying PTFs, or reinstalling are going to be what has to happen in the end anyway.
- Gary Patterson
Still doesn't change my advice, though.
If it is true that nothing was changed OS-wise by the vendor (no PTFs applied by vendor), then we are just left with the workstations themselves. One guess is that an automatic Windows update (or some other automatic software update) broke it. Are you running Auto Update? If so, check your update history and see if an hit at the time Navigator went wonky on you. If so, you can try going back to a restore point in Windows (I'm assuming WinXP Pro here) before the problem occurred. The only problem with that plan is that backing up to an old restore point like this can cause more harm than good.
Personally, I'd still just remove and reinstall on my workstation (takes like 20 minutes) and see if that resolves the issue, rather than spending a bunch of time with "what happened". Odds are that upgrading, applying PTFs, or reinstalling are going to be what has to happen in the end anyway.
- Gary Patterson
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1. I like your humor and appreciate the time you are dedicating to help me.
2. I talked with my POS provider about this issue today. The conversation ended with them saying that this was an IBM issue because they did not install any PTFs (whatever they are :o).
3. My next step will be the uninstall/reinstall. I will post the results of this. Our domain controller downloads the Windows updates and then alerts the workstations of the update. I do not recall installing an update this month, but will look into it. The PC that I use most often is running XP Pro, the other machine having the same issue is the domain controller that is running SBS 2003.
4. I did notice that when I looked up the version of the AS/400 OS there was a newer version of Client Access in the list provided in the "go licpgm -> F11" command.
I will keep you posted
2. I talked with my POS provider about this issue today. The conversation ended with them saying that this was an IBM issue because they did not install any PTFs (whatever they are :o).
3. My next step will be the uninstall/reinstall. I will post the results of this. Our domain controller downloads the Windows updates and then alerts the workstations of the update. I do not recall installing an update this month, but will look into it. The PC that I use most often is running XP Pro, the other machine having the same issue is the domain controller that is running SBS 2003.
4. I did notice that when I looked up the version of the AS/400 OS there was a newer version of Client Access in the list provided in the "go licpgm -> F11" command.
I will keep you posted
Tom,
Thanks for the nice words.
Aaron,
I will add a couple of things: Someplace around there you probably have V5R2 media for Client Access and Navigator. Since you are going to go to the trouble of reinstalling, why not go ahead and upgrade to V5R2, and apply the last V5R2 service pack from the site that Tom sent you to above.
If you can't locate media or a network install source, maybe you can find a friendly IBM Business Partner that can help you.
Oh, and PTF = Program Temporary Fix. It is IBM-ese for a patch, a service pack, a program fix, etc.
- Gary Patterson
Thanks for the nice words.
Aaron,
I will add a couple of things: Someplace around there you probably have V5R2 media for Client Access and Navigator. Since you are going to go to the trouble of reinstalling, why not go ahead and upgrade to V5R2, and apply the last V5R2 service pack from the site that Tom sent you to above.
If you can't locate media or a network install source, maybe you can find a friendly IBM Business Partner that can help you.
Oh, and PTF = Program Temporary Fix. It is IBM-ese for a patch, a service pack, a program fix, etc.
- Gary Patterson
ASKER
Gary, I do not have the media for V5R2 Client Access and am not sure how to find a network install. I am quite good with computers, but this AS/400 is an entirely different animal. Is there a cost to doing a network install? Are there free providers? I am so used to so many utilities being free for PC's that I am lost. How would I find a local IBM Partner and what would I ask them? Thank you for all of you help.
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Problem Solved! Thank you two for the excellent help. I was able to map the AS/400 QIBM drive to my PC and install the latest iSeries Access from that location. I am now able to see all spool files correctly and have much more functionality.
Happy to help.
- Gary Patterson
- Gary Patterson
Aaron:
Very glad you got it going.
Keep in mind that a new install of (or upgrade to) CA V5R2 will still be better with the service pack for CA V5R2 from the download site. With a little study of the README and any related docs, you should be able to download that final service pack to a public location on your LAN and get it applied to each PC.
BTW, does your POS app have PC GUI components that get updated by your POS provider? Some .DLLs _might_ get involved if the PC app needed changes.
In any case, discussion with them wouldn't have to be about whether they altered system PTF levels or anything like that. Focus of discussion should be whether or not new service packs would interfere with the POS app.
I'd also like to ask about who does the system maintenance on your AS/400 since the POS people don't seem to, but we probably don't really want to know...
Ummm... you DO have a backup strategy? Right?
No, leave that for a new question...
Tom
Very glad you got it going.
Keep in mind that a new install of (or upgrade to) CA V5R2 will still be better with the service pack for CA V5R2 from the download site. With a little study of the README and any related docs, you should be able to download that final service pack to a public location on your LAN and get it applied to each PC.
BTW, does your POS app have PC GUI components that get updated by your POS provider? Some .DLLs _might_ get involved if the PC app needed changes.
In any case, discussion with them wouldn't have to be about whether they altered system PTF levels or anything like that. Focus of discussion should be whether or not new service packs would interfere with the POS app.
I'd also like to ask about who does the system maintenance on your AS/400 since the POS people don't seem to, but we probably don't really want to know...
Ummm... you DO have a backup strategy? Right?
No, leave that for a new question...
Tom
> ...Operations Navigator inside of Client Access Express...
First things first -- that's either very old software or very old terminology. Can you click Help-> About Navigator... and send us a screen-print of the message window? (Use <Alt-PrtSc> to grab just the message window and paste that into a bitmap or some other format.)
Second, from your desktop Start menu, go into Programs-> IBM iSeries Access for Windows-> iSeries Access for Windows Properties. Capture (sceen-print) the General tab info from the Properties window. (You might have slightly different names for the menu items.)
Finally, can you tell us what version/release your AS/400 runs under?
Thanks.
Tom