Guest DSI Admin Posted October 27, 2008 Posted October 27, 2008 Greetings! I have an interesting problem I thought I would share to see if anyone has any suggestions. Please bear with me, I've been banging my head on this for a while. Our printing network consists of a Print Server setup on our SDC running Windows Server 2003, SP2 (don't yell, I didn't set it up and now I'm stuck with it until I can free up another server), different types of laser printers including Konica-Minolta, different models of HP and a couple of odd-ball models, and clients all running Windows XP Pro, mostly SP2, some SP3. A few weeks ago I had to replace a corrupt driver on the print server for the HP LaserJet 1022n, of which we have about a dozen spread throughout the company. Two days later I started getting calls from the primary users of these printers saying their printers aren't working. Their print jobs were being sent to the proper queues and then just sitting there, waiting for me to restart the Print Spooler service to actually print. Examining the queue showed that a job is in Printing status, but it never prints and there is nothing in the Event logs. This occurred with anyone trying to print to a networked 1022n, unless they were a Domain Admin. No other printers were affected, i.e. they can print to any other type of printer on the network. First I made sure everyone had the latest drivers from HP. I went around to each client machine, completely removed the drivers, even the files that sometimes get left behind, then reinstalled the printers. No change. I did it two more times just to be sure. Next I tried completly removing and reinstalling the drivers from the server, including recreating the ports (Standard TCP/IP). I even tried reassigning the printer IP addresses because at this point I was trying anything. Again, no change. At this point (2 full weeks into it) I realize I might be dealing with a permissions issue, not a driver issue. I came to this conclusion after realizing that I (as a Domain Admin) can print to any of the printers in question from my workstation, no problem. If I log in to one of the client workstations, as myself, I can print to any of the printers. The minute any of the regular users tries to print to one of the 1022n's, nothing more prints from it until I restart the spooler on the server. I've double checked the permissions on the 1022n's against those on printers that haven't had any issues and they match. The permissions on the spool directory can't be the issue because they can print to other printers. This is where I'm stuck and I don't know where to go from here. I did figure out a work-around and that was to map the 1022n IP's directly from the client machines, bypassing the Print Server, which seems to be working for now. One possibility I have not yet tried is reinstalling the drivers from the CD, in case the updated drivers from HP's web site ARE the problem. If anyone made it this far in the reading and has any other suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks, DSI (Frustrated) Admin
Guest Thee Chicago Wolf Posted October 27, 2008 Posted October 27, 2008 Re: Windows Server 2003 Print Server Troubleshooting >Greetings! I have an interesting problem I thought I would share to see if >anyone has any suggestions. Please bear with me, I've been banging my head >on this for a while. > >Our printing network consists of a Print Server setup on our SDC running >Windows Server 2003, SP2 (don't yell, I didn't set it up and now I'm stuck >with it until I can free up another server), different types of laser >printers including Konica-Minolta, different models of HP and a couple of >odd-ball models, and clients all running Windows XP Pro, mostly SP2, some SP3. > >A few weeks ago I had to replace a corrupt driver on the print server for >the HP LaserJet 1022n, of which we have about a dozen spread throughout the >company. Two days later I started getting calls from the primary users of >these printers saying their printers aren't working. Their print jobs were >being sent to the proper queues and then just sitting there, waiting for me >to restart the Print Spooler service to actually print. Examining the queue >showed that a job is in Printing status, but it never prints and there is >nothing in the Event logs. This occurred with anyone trying to print to a >networked 1022n, unless they were a Domain Admin. No other printers were >affected, i.e. they can print to any other type of printer on the network. > >First I made sure everyone had the latest drivers from HP. I went around to >each client machine, completely removed the drivers, even the files that >sometimes get left behind, then reinstalled the printers. No change. I did >it two more times just to be sure. > >Next I tried completly removing and reinstalling the drivers from the >server, including recreating the ports (Standard TCP/IP). I even tried >reassigning the printer IP addresses because at this point I was trying >anything. Again, no change. > >At this point (2 full weeks into it) I realize I might be dealing with a >permissions issue, not a driver issue. I came to this conclusion after >realizing that I (as a Domain Admin) can print to any of the printers in >question from my workstation, no problem. If I log in to one of the client >workstations, as myself, I can print to any of the printers. The minute any >of the regular users tries to print to one of the 1022n's, nothing more >prints from it until I restart the spooler on the server. > >I've double checked the permissions on the 1022n's against those on printers >that haven't had any issues and they match. The permissions on the spool >directory can't be the issue because they can print to other printers. This >is where I'm stuck and I don't know where to go from here. > >I did figure out a work-around and that was to map the 1022n IP's directly >from the client machines, bypassing the Print Server, which seems to be >working for now. > >One possibility I have not yet tried is reinstalling the drivers from the >CD, in case the updated drivers from HP's web site ARE the problem. If >anyone made it this far in the reading and has any other suggestions I would >greatly appreciate it. > >Thanks, >DSI (Frustrated) Admin Try this, right click all your printers, do Properties, Advanced tab, click Print Processor. HPs notoriously hijack the default Winprint print processor and put in their own junk processor. Go through and set them all to Winprint, data type is usually RAW. Write down settings before you apply changes as a precaution. SP2 is more robust with the print spooler so I would not downgrade to SP1. However, there's a gamut of patches and hotfixes I would recommend you install. KB934855 is most likely your issue but do note that the localspl.dll from KB934855 has seen some updates since so be aware of the issues from the other KBs. Also, note the registry tweaks in some of the KBs as well. I have installed them all and 99.9% of my issues have gone away for well over a year. Here's the list: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957187 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953155 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953546 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952909 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952206 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946198 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944203 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934885 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932699 - Thee Chicago Wolf
Guest DSI Admin Posted October 27, 2008 Posted October 27, 2008 Re: Windows Server 2003 Print Server Troubleshooting "Thee Chicago Wolf" wrote: > Try this, right click all your printers, do Properties, Advanced tab, > click Print Processor. HPs notoriously hijack the default Winprint > print processor and put in their own junk processor. Go through and > set them all to Winprint, data type is usually RAW. Write down > settings before you apply changes as a precaution. > > SP2 is more robust with the print spooler so I would not downgrade to > SP1. However, there's a gamut of patches and hotfixes I would > recommend you install. KB934855 is most likely your issue but do note > that the localspl.dll from KB934855 has seen some updates since so be > aware of the issues from the other KBs. Also, note the registry tweaks > in some of the KBs as well. > > I have installed them all and 99.9% of my issues have gone away for > well over a year. Here's the list: > > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957187 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953155 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953546 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952909 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952206 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946198 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944203 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934885 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932699 > > - Thee Chicago Wolf > Thanks Wolf, I'll definitely give these a look and let you know how it works out! Thanks again, DSI Admin
Guest DSI Admin Posted October 28, 2008 Posted October 28, 2008 Re: Windows Server 2003 Print Server Troubleshooting Wolf, I looked through all of the KB articles you listed. I forgot to list it in my original post but I actually tried 934885 early on with no change in the behavior of the Print Server. None of the other articles address any problems we're having. Also, when I talked about rolling back I was talking about an earlier version of the 1022n drivers on an HP CD, not the Service Pack. This is going to be my eventual next step. Thanks for the suggestions, DSI Admin "Thee Chicago Wolf" wrote: > Try this, right click all your printers, do Properties, Advanced tab, > click Print Processor. HPs notoriously hijack the default Winprint > print processor and put in their own junk processor. Go through and > set them all to Winprint, data type is usually RAW. Write down > settings before you apply changes as a precaution. > > SP2 is more robust with the print spooler so I would not downgrade to > SP1. However, there's a gamut of patches and hotfixes I would > recommend you install. KB934855 is most likely your issue but do note > that the localspl.dll from KB934855 has seen some updates since so be > aware of the issues from the other KBs. Also, note the registry tweaks > in some of the KBs as well. > > I have installed them all and 99.9% of my issues have gone away for > well over a year. Here's the list: > > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957187 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953155 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953546 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952909 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952206 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946198 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944203 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934885 > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932699 > > - Thee Chicago Wolf >
Guest Thee Chicago Wolf Posted October 28, 2008 Posted October 28, 2008 Re: Windows Server 2003 Print Server Troubleshooting >I looked through all of the KB articles you listed. I forgot to list it in >my original post but I actually tried 934885 early on with no change in the >behavior of the Print Server. None of the other articles address any >problems we're having. Also, when I talked about rolling back I was talking >about an earlier version of the 1022n drivers on an HP CD, not the Service >Pack. This is going to be my eventual next step. > >Thanks for the suggestions, >DSI Admin One other thing, go to your Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Look around for something called PML Driver HPZ12 or some such thing. There may be more than 1. Set it to disabled and stop it. This is another HP related "helper" service that often screws things up. - Thee Chicago Wolf
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