Re: Printing Casues Woekstations To Crash

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Thanks for the update - good to hear you've sorted it.

Now that you say it, I remember having an issue where one driver from a major manufacturer caused printing failures on all that brand of printer (pretty sure but not positive it was Xerox). My symptoms weren't as bad as yours, and it was only the Vista workstations, but it was still a lot of work to resolve.


"LindaM" <linda.madding@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:4a1ebab5.65147703@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dave,

Just wanted to let you know what the problem ended up being. Well, at
least to some extent. It appears that it was "a" printer driver,
although I do not know which one. I removed ALL network printers from
the Server and workstations, then installed one printer on the Server
and workstations. Today I installed another printer on the Server and
workstations. So far all seems to be good now.

What made this so difficult, and frankly, made me doubt it was a print
driver issue, was the fact it happened to MOST machines not ALL
machines. So I figured if it was a faulty driver it would have
affected ALL machines.

In any case, it took 3 entire days to finally narrow down the culprit.
But I wanted to let you know how we resolved it just in case you
happen to hear of someone else having the same problem.

Linda


"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" <gwdibble@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Especially if this is just happening on one printer, I'd reinstall the
driver on the server. If there's a newer driver available, use that. Then
reinstall the printer on a workstation to see if that helps. It seems like
you've ruled out most other possibilities - maybe it's a corrupted driver
file. Other than that, upping the logging and hoping for an informative log
entry is all I can think of.


"LindaM" <linda.madding@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4a1595e8.961390@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thank You Dave for the quick response. However, there was nothing in
the spool/printers folder. And there are no jobs in the queues in any
of the printers.

I just can't understand what could have happened, or where else to
look. I have spent literally HOURS on this, from yesterday afternoon
and still. It just doesn't make any sense.

Thanks again. If you think of anything else please let me know.

Thanks You,
Linda

"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" <gwdibble@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'd start by looking on the server in Printers and Faxes, to make sure
there
are no jobs queued. If there are any queued jobs that are not printing,
delete them. Then go to the Spool directory (by default,
c:\windows\system32\spool\printers) and make sure that directory is empty.
If it's not, and there are no jobs queued, delete the files. You may have
to stop the print spooler service to be able to delete the files.

If the problem isn't fixed by the above, you can up the logging for the
spooler service (Printers and Faxes -> File -> Server Properties ->
Advanced). Note the existing settings so you can turn the logging off
when
you've solved the problem. You might also check the spool directories on
the client PCs and delete any files found there, but since this is
happening
on multiple PCs, it's more likely a server problem.


"LindaM" <linda.madding@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4a158644.8894671@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi All,

I have a very weird problem that just arose last night. Users can log
in and access anything on the Server. However, as soon as they try to
print something, whether from Outlook, Word, or Printer Test Page they
crash and must reboot because the whole machine crashes. This is true
whether they have a local printer or not.

Anyone have any ideas what might cause this? The only thing I did
yesterday was reboot the Server (had been running for 25 days) because
we lost internet access. After I rebooted the Server I found out from
our ISP that there was an outage in our area.

Windows 2003
SBS 2003
Exchange Server 2003
2 NICS

Nothing in the event logs on Server or the local machines.

Any ideas are most appreciated.

Thank You,
Linda



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