fP executables

[Don Coleman]

Win2000 & WinXP clients, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, fP v5.0.13, 

My pharmacy client this week has experienced a significant slowdown in the
process where they scan their orders via bar-code.  Up until Wednesday there
was <1 second delay waiting for my input popup command to return to scan the
next order.  Beginning Wednesday this time delay has lengthened to 3-5
seconds between each input popup, a huge increase.  There have been no
changes made to fP since that time.  I did make some Rx label changes Monday
morning (cosmetic) but the operators insist the scanning speed did not
degrade until Wednesday.  I don't feel this is an fP issue but possibly
hardware related but I did notice one thing that has me puzzled.  Their
executable .BAT (found on the mapped drive to the server) file contains:

ECHO OFF
SET PFTMP=C:\TEMP
SET FILES=100
SET PFFILES=100
SET PFDSK=E
SET PFDATA=E:
SET PFPROG=E:\FP_SETUP_FILES\FP5.0.13
SET PFDIR=\QS1\TODO
SET PFCONFIG=E:\FP_SETUP_FILES\FP5.0.13\CONFIGURATION\4308
SET PATH=C:\PRINTWIZ
SET PFSHOWWINERROR=ON
%PFPROG%\FP\P.EXE SCRIPT

For most orders a form (Rx label) is called and printed via a print server.
fP prints to a file and Bob Rasmussen's Print Wizard then prints the label.
I noticed that on the scanning work stations the CPU usage spikes to 100%
during each scan (& subsequent print request) then immediately returns to a
normal usage (3-6%).  With the above configuration I thought this was being
run on the server, IOW the server processor was doing all the heavy lifting.
But when I saw the CPU usage spike to 100% now I'm confused.  With the above
environmental variables being set (E drive is the mapped drive to the
server) who is doing the heavy lifting, the client or the server?

Can anyone clear the fog regarding my configuration and make any
suggestions.  At this time Windows is my only option.

Don Coleman
Donald G. Coleman, Consultant
402 Andrew Circle
Indiana, PA 15701
dcoleman at dgcreact.com
(724) 349-6302