Re: Desperate for help - XP Client corruption (?) on LAN after swing

Hi Dave, many thanks for taking the time to reply.

I'd pursue this by picking the worst acting workstation and troubleshooting
there. If you find solutions, you can then roll them out to the rest.

Well, I thought I'd done this by blitzing the PC and doing a brand new
install of XP Pro SP2. But within days the problem was back.

I would start by taking Outlook out of Cached Exchange Mode and see if that
makes any difference with the problems there. If so, rename the existing
OST files and go back into cached mode. Next time you start Outlook, it
will create a new OST and hopefully the problem will be solved. Depending
on mailbox size, creating a new OST will be time consuming, so please plan
accordingly.

Is this also true if we're using Outlook XP? I though Cached mode was
specific to Outlook 2003? Most of our computers are desktops so we're
never bothered setting up offline files (OST).

If recreating the OST does not work, the next step would be to create a new
mail profile.

Yeah, we've done this too.

We rolled out Outlook 2003, then backtracked and removed it and Office
XP before reinstalling Office XP again, and we ended up with several
backups. I removed them all and recreated them.




For the printing, the first thing to check is if there are any stuck jobs in
the print queues, either on the client PCs or on the server. Unless jobs
are queued up waiting to print, all the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SPOOL\PRINTERS
directories should be completely empty (server and client PCs). If you try
to delete files unsuccessfully, stop the Print Spooler service, delete them,
and restart the service.

Are the printer drivers current? I wonder if you could be using Windows
2000 drivers instead WS03 drivers?

All the queues are empty, and we're actually using a Windows 2000
Professional computer as the printserver (long story, we have an
application which uses printing functionality in IE5.5 which no longer
exists in IE6 or later). All the printers are installed to our "print
server" machine (Windows 2000 Pro) and then shared to AD for clients
to use.

What is weird is that I've removed a couple of defunct printers but
they sometimes reappear...

If you are comfortable that all the drivers are correct and there are no
jobs in the \Printers directory, you could try logging into a client PC with
local admin rights. Delete all the network printers. Then go to the SBS
Server Mgmt Console and reinstall all the printers on that workstation by
running the wizard in Client Computers -> Assign Applications. Clear all
the check boxes it'll let you clear and click Advanced. Again clear
everything except Printers. Log back into the client PC and let it
reinstall the printers.

Ok good plan, I hadn't thought of that. I'll try that.

The last option for printing is to up the logging level for the spooler.
Make sure you note the current settings for undo purposes. Start ->
Printers and Faxes -> File -> Server Properties -> Advanced. You'll have to
do it on the server and client PCs until you narrow down the problem.

Excellent, I didn't even know I could do that! If we could pin it down
to a printer then that would be a start. But when we can't even get
"Printers and Faxes" to open, it's quite frustrating.

Thanks again, I shall see what I can find.



Jim



"Jim" <jim@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:mcav635d1puseeskievj5v22jl7pgc73ni@xxxxxxxxxx
Hello,

About a month ago I did a swing migration from SBS 2000 to SBS 2003 R2
Premium. The swing went fine, with no server-side issues.

For the entire month since then we have experienced two major issues:

1) Outlook clients freezing when the user clicks send

and

2) Computer freezing when printing, and sometimes clicking Start,
Printers and Faxes does nothing (no window opens).


I am truly desparate. We have a LAN of 23 XP clients, and every
computer has exhibited this problem at some stage. Some computers have
been wiped clean and reinstalled but the problem returns.

As part of the swing I rolled out Outlook 2003 SP1, but that has been
backtracked and Office XP has been reinstalled.

Can anyone suggest a way forward?


Many thanks,



Jim


.

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