LP01 Incorrect (Error Sending Data)

[Former Member]

Hi All.

We have some issues on our sp01 with regards to LP01 printer.

In SP01, it is throwing status Incorrect (Error Sending Data) and job status "completed" with message "Processing by spool work process compl".

Problem is that it is causing thousands of errors in SP01 and we´re unable to sort which errors are true. Is there a way we can eliminate the false errors from Lp01?

The errors are coming from background job. When checking the Print Specification of the background job it is set to NULL printer not until a spool lists are created then it will set to LP01 printer and there comes the error.

Please suggests on how we can eliminate this issue.

Thank you in advance.

regards,

Florence

[Laszlo_B · Accepted solution]

Dear Florence,

could you please help if I understood correctly what is happening:

• a background job is running in SM37
• this background job is set to use the Output Device NULL for printing
• however, the spool created by this background job will be sent to the LP01 Output Device
• these spools will have Status "Incorrect (Error Sending Data)".

Do I understand correctly?

If yes, it seems the first problem is that Output Device LP01 will be selected instead of NULL. Usually this happens when there is some kind of problem in the program logic, and LP01 will be selected as an error-handling Output Device. The report needs to be checked why this happens.

Anyway: is there a "Log" associated with these incorrect spools? If yes, what does the error message show in this Log?

Best regards,

Laszlo

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Laszlo.

Yes, that´s totally correct.

Problem is that there are lot of background jobs that causes this error in LP01 output device so i think it will used a lot of time to check each reports. Are there any other way to correct it?

Here´s the sample log:

      SAP spool error log

      =====================

Print request processing log

----------------------------------------------

The host spool is reporting errors

------------------------------------------------------

Windows/NT error 1801 [\\serverxx\marked]: "The printer name is invalid."

Errors occurred processing this print request

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Error during print request output. l_rc = 1

There may be no printout

Most important attributes of spool request

-------------------------------------------

Request number 239800

Request name LIST1S LP01 ZEWM_DEMO_CI

Client 300

Owner SAP_BGD

Request attributes

Time created   2015060206173200

Remaining life  +00007235946

Dispo 1 (Go/Hold) G

Dispo 2 (Keep/Delete)     K

Dispo 3 (Indirect/Direct) D

Default output device LP01

Default no. copies  1

Format X_65_80

Main print request characteristics

------------------------------------------------

Spool request number 239800

Print request number 1

Print request attributes

Time created   2015060206173200

Output device LP01

Format X_65_80

Character converter active when first problem occurred

-----------------------------------------------------------------

No information available

[peng_wen · Accepted solution]

Hello Florence,

You can goto SPAD, open the LP01 and click the button "Output requests" to see all the printing
requests created by LP01, and use the author name and the time stamp to do a search in SM37.

Regards,
Wen Peng

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Peng,

Thank you for the tips. I have already sorted out how to check which background jobs have been using LP01.

I have just changed the printer LP01 in SPAD and change the host printer to __DEFAULT and Access Method to F.

Now the status in SP01 is giving "-"

Please let me know if we could use access method F for Lp01.

Thank you very much in advance.

Regards,

Florence

[Laszlo_B · Accepted solution]

Hello Florence,

and thanks for the screenshots and excerpt. The problem here is that Windows has reported a "The printer name is invalid." error message. This means that R/3 tried to print on the physical printer named \\serverxx\marked, but Windows reported that a printer with such a name is not known.

This means that currently the possible solutions are:

• based on the physical printer name ("\\serverxx\marked") I assume it is just a placeholder. You can change this physical printer name in transaction SPAD to a real printer's name (so: which is physically installed on the Windows).
• it has been mentioned previously that Output Device NULL was originally set for printing. I assume this means that the spools by the background jobs are not required at all. In this case the printer name "\\serverxx\marked" doesn't need to be changed: although the Status of the spools will be red in SP01, actual printout still won't happen.
• right now I can't think of a reason why several background jobs will "fall back" to Output Device LP01 instead of a previously set Output Device... Without an analysis in the system a possible reason could be the unavailability of NULL. Please check whether there is no typo in the name, it is not locked, etc.

Best regards,

Laszlo

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your detailed explanation Laszlo.

On your point 2, how can i make it not to have "error" or red in SP01?

As it is creating thousands for red status in SP01, it is very difficult for us to sort out which one is the real error.

Can we use access method "F" for LP01?

I have currently changed the host printer to __DEFAULT and access method to F in our development system. Now I am getting status "-" in SP01.

Regards,

Florence

[Laszlo_B · Accepted solution]

Hello Florence,

yes, this solution might work - and if you have several systems with different Basis Releases, in some of the older releases this solution might not work.

The reason is SAP Note #1908487 - "No Immediate Print to Front-End Printer from Bckgd. Work Pr.": after the kernel patch listed in this Note is implemented, spools created in background jobs which should be printed immediately on the frontend will be reset. This means that the Status will be "-" in SP01.

This means the following:

• if all of your systems have at least the kernel version shown in Note #1908487, the Access Method F can be used for LP01, so this solution will work. (One small remark: it would be better if Access Method G would be used instead of Access Method F. The reason is that 'F' is not developed/supported since several years, and although in this specific case it shouldn't cause trouble, for future purposes it would be better if 'G' was selected.)
• if some of the systems do not reach this kernel version, it might be considered to upgrade the kernel in those systems.
• in all other cases a possible workaround would be to use a printer on Windows level which does not actually print, but deletes the spools on Windows level. As the configuration of such a printer on Windows level might be different between OS versions, the OS administrator can tell how this can be defined.

Best regards,

Laszlo

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Laszlo.

Thank you very much all of your inputs in this discussion.

I looked back on your previous reply regarding the checking of NULL output device.

It turns out that there are also some error coming in this output device.

So might be the root cause of the error from LP01 is from NULL output device ? and this should be fixed first?

      SAP spool error log

      =====================

Print request processing log

----------------------------------------------

Character converter active when first problem occurred

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Data was saved with character set 4103

Data will be converted to character set 1116 (synt = 1116)

Errors occurred processing this print request

--------------------------------------------------------------------

OTF module: Unknown print control ZZFWN should be output

The host spool is reporting errors

------------------------------------------------------

Message from host spool:

  Unable to initialize device NULL

End of message

Command used: print /d:NULL S:\usr\sap\SID\DVEBMGS00\data\000024056700001.U01

Errors occurred processing this print request

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Error during print request output. l_rc = 1

There may be no printout

Most important attributes of spool request

-------------------------------------------

Request number 240567

Request name SMART  NULL EWMREMOTE

Client 300

Owner EWMREMOTE

Request attributes

Time created   2015060211303600

Remaining life  +00008000000

Dispo 1 (Go/Hold) G

Dispo 2 (Keep/Delete)     K

Dispo 3 (Indirect/Direct) D

Default output device NULL

Default no. copies  1

Format DINA4

Main print request characteristics

------------------------------------------------

Spool request number 240567

Print request number 1

Print request attributes

Time created   2015060211303600

Output device NULL

Format DINA4

Character converter active when first problem occurred

-----------------------------------------------------------------

No information available

[Laszlo_B · Accepted solution]

Hello Florence,

thanks for the new excerpt too - as I can see a SmartForm would be printed here.

The problem is that Output Device NULL processes SmartForm spools as regular spools, so it will not delete them as it does with ABAP lists / SAPScripts.

SAP Note #181571 - "Output device NULL" describes:

"Note that this applies only to printing lists and SAPscript. When you use Smart Forms and SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe, spool data is created.

<...>

If you do not want to output text from Smart Forms und SAP Interactive Forms by Adobe or keep the print data, create the spool request without immediate output and execute report RSPO1041 daily."

This means that the problem flow is the following:

• background job creates a SmartForm spool
• this SmartForm spool will be sent to Output Device NULL
• as Note #181571 describes, NULL handles SmartForms as regular spools, so it immediately forwards this spool to the physical printer
• the Operating System reports that a physical printer named "NULL" is not known (assuming the error message "Unable to initialize device NULL" means this).

The solution to this problem is to create such a printer on OS level which can accept these spools, and will delete them instead of printing - then the name of this OS printer can be entered in transaction SPAD as the host printer name.

Also, there is another error message in the excerpt: "OTF module: Unknown print control ZZFWN should be output".

This usually means that a printer command meant for a different Device Type should be used with the "current" Device Type, which does not know this printer command.

The developer of the used SmartForm form needs to check why this difference between the Device Types appears.

Currently these problems doesn't seem to be "enough" for the system to switch to Output Device LP01 from NULL - for this reason the developer of the ABAP report needs to check why this Output Device change happens.

Best regards,

Laszlo