Java HotSpot Virtual Machine

Hi everyone,

I support a large application (written by another organisation) that every now and then dies with the following (part of) hotspot error being thrown:

An unexpected exception has been detected in native code outside the VM.
Unexpected Signal : EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION occurred at PC=0x70107284
Function name=Java_sun_awt_font_NativeFontWrapper_registerCompositeFont
Library=D:\jdk1.3.1_11\jre\bin\fontmanager.dll

Current Java thread:
at sun.awt.font.NativeFontWrapper.drawStringIntDiscreteRaster(Native Method)
at sun.java2d.loops.ICRDrawStringRasterContext.invoke(TextRendering.java:321)
at sun.awt.image.BufferedImageGraphics2D.drawString(BufferedImageGraphics2D.java:1120)
at sun.java2d.SunGraphics2D.drawString(SunGraphics2D.java:2253)
at rcis.render.MI002RNDBAnnotation.paint(MI002RNDBAnnotation.java:124)
at rcis.render.MI002BackgroundRenderer.<init>(MI002BackgroundRenderer.java:253)
at rcis.render.MI002Renderer.<init>(MI002Renderer.java:73)
at rcis.map.MA001MemoryModel.getMapImage(MA001MemoryModel.java:249)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef.dispatch(UnicastServerRef.java:236)
at sun.rmi.transport.Transport$1.run(Transport.java:147)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at sun.rmi.transport.Transport.serviceCall(Transport.java:143)
at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport.handleMessages(TCPTransport.java:460)
at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run(TCPTransport.java:701)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:479)

[ then a list of dynamic libraries]

I've been at a loss as to the cause of this, but may have stumbled onto something today. I think the error is occurring when a postscript file is being generated using a Calcomp TechJET 5536r printer driver. There is no driver for this plotter for Windows 2000 (the client's current server), so the NT4 driver is being used instead, with PSCRIPT.DLL being added from the NT i386 directory as directed by the Calcomp site.

Just after the hotspot error gets thrown, the JVM starts logging java.lang.OutOfMemoryError's.

I'm now confident that fontmanager.dll is in the hotspot error because Java is using Java2D to generate the postscipt file of a map image with fonts being used on roads / state boundaries etc.

Has anyone ever:
a) used a Calcomp plotter and had similar issues?
b) ever seen a printer driver cause a hotspot error?

Any feedback would be most helpful.

Thanks,
Paul C.