Re: !!HELP!! Pulling my hair on this one. Printer problems. Really need some help on this.

OK Dave now you're leaning towards the direction I was leaning too. Disk
space? Yes it is becoming a concerning issue with my SBS server. Here's what
I got......

C: drive = 2 x 36GB SCSI 15K rpm (mirrored RAID1) Approx 33.4 GB Total with
7.26 GB or 21% free space
D: drive = 5 x 36GB SCSI 15k rpm (Striped RAID 5) w/hot spare Approx. 135.59
Total with 22.81 GB or16 % free space.

When the printers were connecte they did show as being offline. that's when
I could send a print job and it was just sit in the queue. If I restarted
the spooler service the jobs wouuld go through. I deleted the printer from
my workstation and reconnected by \\servername\sharename it would connect
and show being online until I sent a print job. So if I'm thinking hardware
then I'm not sure where. They all are different pieces of machinery. They
all plug into wall jacks and plug into the same patch panel in my server
room. It can't be my hub because other wall jacks that have workstations
connected are plugged into the same. So I think I can rule out hardware.

Now my only concern is this disk space. I'm old school so I always use the
25% free space available rule of thumb. As you can see I'm well below that
measure. Eventually this SBS 2003 server I will rebuild but for now I'm just
trying to free up space on my own. I've already moved Exchange DB's, ISA
logs, IIS and have deleted all Windows updates and their associated KB log
files in the Windows directory.


"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" <gwdibble@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:umZNvFglJHA.504@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It seems like you've ruled out the usual suspects. You're not having any
network issues at all, right - no other symptoms? If the server tried to
contact a printer and could not, say because of a sporadic hardware issue,
it might report the printer(s) as offline.

I'd up the logging level, and verify that you have plenty of free space on
the C drive.

I have not run into what you're seeing, and I'm not sure what to recommend
other than the responses you've already gotten on this thread. I think
that what I would do next would be to delete all the printers (again),
then go into Server Properties and delete all the drivers. Reinstall
everything from scratch, using newly downloaded, current driver files.

You said all the tcp/ip ports are configured with IP addresses rather than
netbios names, right? And when the printers show offline, that's on the
server rather than a workstation?


"AllenM" <NoReply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u3fOGuflJHA.4448@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Dave,
Please see inline comments.


"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" <gwdibble@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:efWGTkflJHA.4404@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It sounds like you've ruled out everything except the SBS and maybe your
network switch. For that matter, pinging the printers almost surely
rules out the switch.

I can ping all printers.


Did you check that spool directory as I mentioned in my earlier reply?
Coincidentally, an hour or two after I wrote that, I ran into the issue
on an XP workstation with a locally attached printer. User could not
print, I deleted the files from the spool directory, all is well. I did
have to stop the spooler service prior to deleting the files.

Yes. I checked the said directory on the server and saw no files other
than the one spooled filed. Completely cleared out the directory,
restarted the spooler service. No change.

If the spool directory is empty and the problem persists, on the SBS,
I'd go to Printers and Faxes -> File -> Server Properties. On the
Advanced tab, check off all the logging options, after noting the
existing settings for "undo" purposes. Do you get any useful
information in the logs?

I did not do this. No useful information. I was however able to manually
remove the printers in the registry.
HKCU\Printers\Settings

I agree about drivers since you have both HP and Canon. I once ran into
an issue where I installed a driver for a new Xerox printer and it not
only didn't work, it stopped the other Xerox printers from working. But
it did not effect other brands that used their own drivers.


"AllenM" <NoReply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uVTvMTdlJHA.4028@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
OK Let me first start off by thanking everyone for their time and
valuable input. I had no idea this thread would reach the point it has.
There seems to be a bit of misunderstanding here as far as my issues
and what we could most probably rule out. Let me state for the record
here that all of my printers were fine and what had happened was an
overnight thing and the symptons relate to all printers. that said
let's rule out print drivers.
To answer Larry's suggestion as to why I don't have my clients print
directly to the IP is that there really isn't an answer other than we
are a small company and SBS was designed to be and act as a print
server. So having my clients set up to print to a direct IP printer
will work but it doesn't resolve the issues as to why all of my
problems exist. It's just alternative solution.

Here are the symptons.

What I can't do.
1. Obviously is print to any printer.
2. Cannot remove the printers from the print server. My SBS 2003 SP2
server. When I try to delete the print queues from AD within the Server
Management Console I get this error........
"Printer cannot be removed. Either the printer name was typed
incorrectly, or the specified printer has lost it's connection to the
server."

What I can do.
1. I can delete the printer from the Control Panel/Printers and Faxes.
2. I can attach to the shared printer using \\servername\sharename
3. I can send a print job the the printer but it will not print. If I
restart the Print Spooler service the jobs will go through but the
print queue will go offline immediately there after.

I have since set these printers up on my Windows 2008 Server for now.
these all work fine. So I think for now if I can resolve the issue as
to why I cannot remove and delete the print queues from my SBS server
then I can try to reinstall from scratch without the existing print
queues still in place. And yes I have already tried deleting the
Standard TCPIP ports.





"Larry Struckmeyer [SBS-MVP]" <lstruckmeyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:%23ojMZFdlJHA.1388@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Cliff:

I have no issues with what you have said.... but in a 5 to 25 user
network of complete armatures there maybe no one who is interested or
capable of being trained, or turnover may be frequent, or, or,
or...... Departmental/Building/Campus/ issues in an SBS environment?
Not usually or often.

YMMV.

As I said, given enough stations and enough printers, and the rest of
what you said, this would be a very nice perk. Not sure I would
implement it on the one and only server however, given 50 to ?
workstations and 5 to ? printers the server could get pretty busy.

--
Larry
Please post the resolution to your
issue so that others may benefit.


"Cliff Galiher" <cgaliher@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e$THZ7YlJHA.504@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Heh....well...let me throw my hat in the right then, as I tend to be
the "other" guy. I *like* having the print queues centrally managed
on the server. If you use and set up ACLs properly then you don't
need a domain admin to flush the queue...just a person who is a
member of the appropriate security group and you make sure several
people are and are trained to do this task. By centralizing the
spooler you can control access, do "grouped" deployments, such as
department/building/remote printer locations using group policy,
upgrade a driver on the server and have all workstations get the new
driver automatically (better driver deployment),
and...ultimately...usually a better troubleshooting experience when
problems arise because you know the driver, the port, and don't have
several workstations with different configurations floating out
there. Basically I use the same argument I would for folder
redirection, roaming profiles, and a stable desktop image when I
justify OS deployments. The same logic applies.

-Cliff


"Jim Behning SBS MVP" <jimbehning@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote in message news:sn00q4pfju7qrre0bnvhre3251gop43c94@xxxxxxxxxx
I have one account with about 100 workstations scattered over 8
suites
and 3 physical addresses. I do not own the domain. This causes dram
when workstations die. When that account was set up the domain owner
set up print queues for their printers. As we added printers we did
not tell the domain owner. We just set up tcpip printing to printers
on the workstations. New workstations sometimes printed to the
existing domain printer. Sometimes set up as a local printer. Often
enough a print job got jammed up in the domain print queue. It takes
an act of congress to get the domain administrators to answer the
phone and flush out the queue. The help desk often has no clue who
it's customers are. They had sold their SQL services to at least a
dozen practices associated with the hospital but the help desk
always
seems to have no clue about that fact.

I am saying I agree with Larry sort of. But I usually share network
printers from the server and it works almost all the time except at
one account who keeps getting stuck print jobs to an HP color laser
when they try to print 50 copies of a 30 page workbook.

On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 07:25:34 -0500, "Larry Struckmeyer [SBS-MVP]"
<lstruckmeyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Allen, (and everyone else who reads/contributes to this thread)

If my assumption is correct that you installed the printers on the
SBS and
then shared them, allowing workstations to print to the shared
printers I
wonder why you would do this? I prefer that each workstation print
directly
to the ip of the printer as this takes the load off the server and
has the
additional benefit of *probably* not messing up every users ability
to print
because one device (the server) has a hosed print queue.

Yes, I realize that this means auto discovery won't find the
printer, but
imo allowing each station to print directly to the ip printers is
cleaner.

Open to any positive feedback as to why it should not be done as
described
above in a smallish network. Otoh, if I had a network of dozens or
scores
or more of stations I could easily be convinced to install a
dedicated
printer sharing server computer rather than visit every desktop to
install
the printers.

--
Larry
Please post the resolution to your
issue so that others may benefit.


"Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]" <mwport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message
news:O0IYYH8kJHA.5112@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Is Windows 2003 SP2 installed? If so, maybe try:

+ Click Start, and then click Printers and Faxes.
+ Right-click the affected print queue, and then click
Properties.
+ Click the Ports tab, click Standard TCP/IP Port in the list of
ports,
and then click Configure Port.
+ Click to clear the SNMP Status Enabled check box, click OK, and
then
click Close.

Best practices and known issues when you install Windows Server
2003
Service Pack 2 on a Windows Small Business Server 2003-based
computer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939421

--
Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
============================

"AllenM" <NoReply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uPSAba6kJHA.4912@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
All of a sudden my printers are having some major issues. All my
printers
are available however they all show as being "offline". If I send
a test
page it will just hang in the queque and any job sent after it
hangs
behind it. If I restart the printer spooler the jobs goes through
but the
printer goes offline again and same problems. I've even went as
far as
removing and deleting the printers and restarting the system.
Reinstalled
the printers and of course created "new" tcpip ports. Same thing.
I need
to restart the print spooler service and the jobs go through then
printer
goes offline again. What is happening? I've never had this happen
before.
Any ideas? Thanks.



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