Windows 2003 Print Server Problems

December 6, 2007

I have a Windows 2003 R2 Print Server setup. There are approximately

300 networked printers configured on this server. The printers range

from dell, HP, Sharp, and others. The print spooler is on its own

harddrive for performance reasons. The problem I am having is the

server tends to just stop printing print jobs. You have to restart

the printer spooler in order to have the server function. There isn't

anything that I see in the event logs that would point me in the right

direction. Things are pretty normal in the event logs. I am not sure

what is causing this and it tends to happen pretty randomly.

Thank you for any help you may offer.

December 6, 2007

Re: Windows 2003 Print Server Problems

On Dec 6, 10:58 am, TuxEdu <rsta...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I have a Windows 2003 R2 Print Server setup. There are approximately

> 300 networked printers configured on this server. The printers range

> from dell, HP, Sharp, and others. The print spooler is on its own

> harddrive for performance reasons. The problem I am having is the

> server tends to just stop printing print jobs. You have to restart

> the printer spooler in order to have the server function. There isn't

> anything that I see in the event logs that would point me in the right

> direction. Things are pretty normal in the event logs. I am not sure

> what is causing this and it tends to happen pretty randomly.

>

> Thank you for any help you may offer.

Sorry forgot it is a Power Edge 1750, dual 2.4ghz processors and 3

gigs of RAM

December 6, 2007

Re: Windows 2003 Print Server Problems

TuxEdu <rstamps@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Dec 6, 10:58 am, TuxEdu <rsta...@gmail.com> wrote:

>> I have a Windows 2003 R2 Print Server setup. There are approximately

>> 300 networked printers configured on this server. The printers range

>> from dell, HP, Sharp, and others. The print spooler is on its own

>> harddrive for performance reasons. The problem I am having is the

>> server tends to just stop printing print jobs. You have to restart

>> the printer spooler in order to have the server function. There

>> isn't anything that I see in the event logs that would point me in

>> the right direction. Things are pretty normal in the event logs. I

>> am not sure what is causing this and it tends to happen pretty

>> randomly.

>>

>> Thank you for any help you may offer.

>

> Sorry forgot it is a Power Edge 1750, dual 2.4ghz processors and 3

> gigs of RAM

This is usually due to a bad / buggy print driver. Other than downloading

the latest "known good" W2003 drivers from each mfr., and reloading them in

one at a time - I'm not sure how easy it will be to fix this. Finding the

bad one isn't easy, esp. when you have so many.

Personally, I think that's a huge # of printers to have on one print server,

even with 3GB RAM. I'd rather split the load between several lower-end

servers, if it were me. But it isn't. :-)

December 6, 2007

Re: Windows 2003 Print Server Problems

>I have a Windows 2003 R2 Print Server setup. There are approximately

>300 networked printers configured on this server. The printers range

>from dell, HP, Sharp, and others. The print spooler is on its own

>harddrive for performance reasons. The problem I am having is the

>server tends to just stop printing print jobs. You have to restart

>the printer spooler in order to have the server function. There isn't

>anything that I see in the event logs that would point me in the right

>direction. Things are pretty normal in the event logs. I am not sure

>what is causing this and it tends to happen pretty randomly.

>

>Thank you for any help you may offer.

See if the fix from this KB article helps out:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934885

- Thee Chicago Wolf

December 7, 2007

Re: Windows 2003 Print Server Problems

Make sure the print processor is WinPrnt and using the RAW format for all

printers. I know this was a major issue with print clusters and it may hold

true for stand-alone installations.

Alan

"TuxEdu" <rstamps@gmail.com> wrote in message

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