Prime 3.0 Started Printing Blank Pages

[JeffH1]

My installation of Mathcad Prime 3.0 on Windows 7 just started printing blank pages whenever I try to print a document.  I printed several documents just a month or so ago with no problem.  It doesn't matter what printer I use or if I print to PDF; I get the same result.  I'm wondering if there was some update to Windows 7 that clobbered Prime's ability to print.  Mathcad 15.0 M045 is printing just fine.  I even re-installed Prime 3.0 and it didn't fix the problem.  Any thoughts would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[RichardJ]

Can you post the offending document? Then we can also try, and see if it's the document that's the problem.

[dcalamas]

I'm actually having the exact same issue. The problem arose unexpectedly about two days ago. I tried reinstalling printer drivers and also printing to a separate printer to no avail. In addition, I tried printing to a PDF but this also resulted in a blank file.

[VladimirN]

What Windows OS are you using?

[dcalamas]

Windows 7 Enterprise Service Pack 1.

[VladimirN]

David Calamas wrote:

... The problem arose unexpectedly about two days ago...

Maybe that in this period of time have been installed some Windows updates.

[MartinHanak]

Hi,

do you use Mathcad Prime 3.0 with commercial license -OR- do you use Mathcad Prime 3.0 Express ?

MH

[dcalamas]

I don't know about the OP but I'm using Mathcad Prime 3.1 with an academic site/volume license.

[VladimirN]

In this case you can submit a support request here:

PTC Academic Program | Academic Technical Support | PTC

Academic Case Logger

[dcalamas]

Jeff,

Any update on this? Just wondering if you happened to have resolved the problem.

[JeffH1]

Still no luck.  Tried printing today.

To address some of the items above:

1. Vlad - Windows 7 Enterprise SP1

2. Martin - Mathcad Prime 3.0 (Commercial license - not that that should matter)

3. Richard Jackson - Document doesn't matter.  If I open a clean sheet and just put some random text on it, it prints as a blank page.

4. We have patches from Microsoft installed weekly.  It's entirely possible that one of these broke it, but I can't go back.

Dave, misery loves company, but not in this case, I think.

I've put in a trouble ticket with PTC,   I'll keep y'all posted.

[JeffH1]

I saw this note on a different post from Vlad:

1. Mathcad Prime 3.0 requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 or later. On Windows 7 client computers, Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 is enabled by default. On Windows 7 servers, this feature is disabled and you must enable it through "Control Panel" --> "Programs" --> "Turn Windows features on or off".

Indeed, I am running only Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.  Could this be a problem?

[RichardJ]

That may be the problem. .NET versions are not backwards compatible, but you can run more than one at once.

[JeffH1]

OK. Here is what I have discovered.  It's not definitive yet, but looks pretty convincing.

In November 2015, I updated manually to .NET 4.6.1 in an attempt to solve the Broken Vertical Lines Issue.   It did not fix that issue on Win7, but I wasn't having printing issues either.  The last good PDF printed from Prime 3.0 was on 2/22/2016 (I have the file and it is date stamped).   Checking the program updates installed on the machine, there was a Microsoft security update (KB3136000) installed on 3/17/2016.  I suspect (but can't prove) that this update broke the printing in Prime 3.0.

Today, I completely uninstalled .NET 4.6.1 and went back to .NET 4.5.2.  Printing now works!

We also updated another machine to .NET 4.6.1 and it is not having problems yet.  However, KB3136000 has not yet been installed.  This will happen later in the week and we'll see if it breaks the printing.

It isn't conclusive yet, but it's pretty compelling that KB3136000 to .NET 4.6 and 4.6.1 is causing the problem.  I'll be interested to see what you are running on your machine, David.

[JeffH1 · Accepted solution]

PTC support has confirmed that they can reproduce the problem by installing KB3136000.

[VladimirN]

And how about Prime 3.1 version in this case (what they can say on this subject)?

[dcalamas]

Jeff,

I also had "Security Update for Microsoft .NET FrameWork 4.6.1 (KB3136000)" installed on March 21st, 2016. I uninstalled the update and printing resumed. It appears this temporary solution works.

I would imagine that PTC will have to update Mathcad on their end to permanently fix the problem. Is this correct?

Vladimir, I am running Prime 3.1.

[VladimirN]

David,

I use Prime 3.1 with this KB3136000 update and there is no problem with printing the worksheets.

[VladimirN]

Hi Jeff,

1. I checked out the following configuration: Windows 7 SP1 Basic and Mathcad Prime 3.1 (I think that next week I can give an answer on the Win7 SP1 Basic and Prime 3.0 configuration). Here I have activated additional components (through "Control Panel" --> "Programs" --> "Turn Windows features on or off") for .NET Framework 3.5.1 and also installed 4.5 and 4.6.1 version of .NET Framework on same PC. Update KB3136000 applies to .NET 4.6.1 (this update is called "Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1") and in this case I have found installed as three updates for this version of .NET Framework:

• KB3122661 (installed February 10th of 2016);
• KB3127233 (installed February 10th of 2016);
• KB3136000 (installed March 10th of 2016).

So, in the end with all of the above are installed I have the normal printing for Prime 3.1 worksheets by using two different PDF printer (Adobe PDF and CutePDF).

2. Also try to reinstall "Mathcad PDSi viewable support" component (by Adobe Systems). This component is installed during the installation of Mathcad 15 or Mathcad Prime 3.0/3.1 version. You can find it this component in "adobe" folder in Mathcad Prime 3.0 F000 installation pack archive:

[JeffH1]

Vlad,

You make good points.  However, in some of our corporate environments we simply don't have the access to do the things you suggest.  Software and patches are installed for us by our corporate IT department; we don't have access to do this directly, or to turn Windows features on and off.  Getting new software installs is difficult at best, which is why we haven't created an installation script here for Prime 3.1 - it's just not worth the effort for the enhancements offered.

The basic point is that the problem is definitely coming from KB3136000 alone (I too have the two Feb 10 KB updates installed), PTC support knows about it, and it can be fixed by removing KB3136000 or downgrading to .NET 4.5.2 altogether.  It looks like we have mixed results on if Prime 3.1 does not suffer from these problems,  I also did a complete re-install of the software, including the PDSi driver, to no avail.

Anyway, it looks like we have a solution.  Hopefully Prime 4.0 will not be susceptible to these patch updates.

[VladimirN]

Ok.

[VladimirN]

Hi Jeff,

How about this tip: Re: Printing Problem with MathCAD Express 3.0

[JeffH1]

Unfortunately, we're not allowed to run Acrobat Pro here because of the cost and the continual security issues from Adobe.

The solution above worked for us as long as we uninstall all versions of .NET and then install only the latest .NET (4.6.1).  KB3136000 has not been automatically installed since making the change and printing problems have disappeared.

[VladimirN]

Ok. I understand. Thanks for the tip.

P.S. When I installed the Adobe Acrobat Pro version on Win 8.1 x64, it asked me to uninstall "Mathcad PDSi viewable support".