V5R2 or V5R1 broke POSTNET bar code printing -- MIDRANGE-L

Greetings,

I just ran into it again. It took me a while to remember, but back in November when we upgraded from V4R5 to V5R1 and then (within 2 weeks) to V5R2, we could no longer print POSTNET bar code to an IBM InfoPrint 20 printer token ring attached as IPDS to our AS/400. The bar code is created using a DDS field: type - number, length - 9 no decimals, signed, with the bar code keyword filled in. Looks like:

A  41        PZIP09         9S 0O    20
A                                      BARCODE(POSTNET 5 *HRZ *NOHRI X'00'-
A                                       (*WIDTH 0.100) (*RATIO 2.50))

With no changes to our programming or DDS, the printer now rejects the spool file with a message and sense data that points to something aboheut the length of the bar code.

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Message ID . . . . . . :   PQT3665
Severity . . . . . . . :   40
Message type . . . . . :   Information
Date sent  . . . . . . :   07/01/03
Time sent  . . . . . . :   15:20:08

Message . . . . : Bar Code Specification Check exception at printer P6.

Cause . . . . . : Printer P6 detected a data value that was either not valid or not supported in bar code data. The print request being processed when the exception occurred was file LSREP13 number 000001 in job 558926/JIM/JIMEB. The corresponding sense data is X'040C'..X'00' X'01'. Processing of the print request ended. The previously listed PQT3630 message contains all of the sense data received from the printer for this condition. The error was caused by the process used to create the bar code data or by the process used to include the bar code data in the spooled file or resource object.

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As I found in the IPDS and SCS Technical Reference on page 164 found at:

http://www-6.ibm.com/jp/printer/manual/pdf/IPDS_Tech_Ref.pdf

the hex value of 040c..00 indicates the length of the bar code field is not right.

Has anyone else run into this problem? Before I start the long (and expensive!) trek thru hourly support, I thought I would try you Know-It-Alls (and I mean that in the nicest way!!!) to see if any of you have had this problem and found a fix or PTF for the problem. We create these letters once each year, with some reprinting when the customer loses the letter. By November, we are done printing them until the next July.

Thanks for your help!!

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Jim Essinger
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Student Loan Fund of Idaho

6905 Highway 95
Fruitland  ID  83619

or

PO Box 730
Fruitland, ID 83619

208-452-4058 Extension 133
esinger@xxxxxxxx

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