No Printers Installed: Mircrosft Windows Server 2000, Windows XP

by: jvuzPosted on 2009-01-22 at 04:07:01ID: 23438536

Have you installed some windows updates maybe at that day?

by: IT-MisfitPosted on 2009-01-22 at 04:10:06ID: 23438556

No I didn't install any updates.

I have just remembered I did install a new printer driver a few days before the problems started. Would that possibly have an effect?

by: jvuzPosted on 2009-01-22 at 04:12:24ID: 23438570

That could be. What happens if you uninstall that driver and the port of the printer for that driver.

by: IT-MisfitPosted on 2009-01-22 at 04:18:13ID: 23438605

Ok Ive just removed that. I'll give it a few hours to and see if anyone else reports a reoccurrence.

by: jvuzPosted on 2009-01-22 at 04:24:04ID: 23438629

Did you also removed the according ports for it?

by: IT-MisfitPosted on 2009-01-22 at 04:29:00ID: 23438662

Sorry I dont quite understand about removing the port? I have used another older driver already on the server for the printer in question.

I have also been advised that a colleague had a simular issue and fixed that by excluded spool files from his Anti-virus. I have done that too to see if that helps

by: jvuzPosted on 2009-01-22 at 04:30:48ID: 23438671

OK, we'll see what gives.

by: IT-MisfitPosted on 2009-01-22 at 06:18:35ID: 23439440

Just had another random user with an error saying no printers installed. A microsoft error box then came up saying " Spooler Subsystem App has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience"
I then manually restarted the spooler service and he can print to printers on other servers but not the server in question. Just wont connect to the printers.

by: activephotoPosted on 2009-01-22 at 13:54:53ID: 23444098

If this issue happens to the same server(s) all the time I would say that the problem is related to the print server and there could be many different reasons why this happens, have you noticed if its related to the same print queues or a specific print driver. I have seen this kind of error or behaviour in our own environment and sometimes it has to do with registry settings on the print server that are transferred to the client becuse the driver has been changed on an existing print queue.

when you get that error message you get you can get a quite good dump file from that if you do not close that box. I dont know if you get the exact same message that I refer to but but if you do you will notice a small blue link with text "click here", if you click on that one and in the next menu click on the "click here" link again. Now you end up with a dialog box with the title "Error report contents", if this one includes two paths pointing to "Documents and settings folders" then copy this path (not the file name) and open it in explorer. you will probably stand in a folder named something like "WERxxxx.dir00", copy all the files to another place (two files with extension .mdmp and .hdmp are important). The larger file of those contains the dump information and can be examined in WinDbg.

I dont know if you are familiar with that tool. If you have those file I could take a quick look at them to see if I see anything familiar with the problems I have encountered.

Long reply but that might get a hint

br

/ Mikael

by: IT-MisfitPosted on 2009-01-27 at 01:03:40ID: 23474581

Thanks activephoto

I have the hdmp dump file so can you please advise as I have never used Windbg, any help would be much appreciated as its driving me and my users mad

I have tried to attach the file so you can look but the site wont let me attach that file extension.. any ideas as im sure it will mean more to you?

by: activephotoPosted on 2009-01-27 at 12:28:50ID: 23480767

try making it as a zip file and try uploading it again (it can be max 5 mb) but it should be less, then I can take a look at it, its worth a try even if I can´t promise you an answer.

/ Mikael

by: IT-MisfitPosted on 2009-01-28 at 00:54:20ID: 23484590

I have tried to zip it already but its says a file in the archive is not in the allowed list, any other ideas?

by: activephotoPosted on 2009-01-29 at 12:51:37ID: 23502364

That is really strange, zip is an ok format according to the upload function. but anyway...you can mail it to me instead mjansson#live.se (replace the # with @) and I will take a look.

hope that works better

/ Mikael

by: activephotoPosted on 2009-02-02 at 02:40:27ID: 23525680

Thanks for the file, I have analyzed it and came up with the conclution that the spooler crashes on a function named
localspl!GetIniDriverAndDirForThisMachine and one of the arguments includes a reference to a file named spool\DRIVERS\W32X86\3\hpcpn083.dll. I dont know what drivers you have installed on the print server but from what I know this file is part of HP Universal Print Driver 4.7. In the dumpfile there are references to \\melt2k1\mtoffcol and I would guess that its a printer name and THE printer that is crashing the clients.

I am pretty sure that the problem scenario is that on the print server, print queue \\melt2k1\mtoffcol has a driver that at some time has been changed from HP Universal driver to something else and that is done under the Advanced tab in printer preferences. The problem is that if changing from HP Universal print driver to anything else in that way it will NOT remove all registry entries from the old driver, and when any computer tries to connect to that printer (remotely) it will crash since that file is not part of the driver. It might exist in the file system but is not a dependant file.

Try this to verify if this is the case (you can find a similar case in another question
(http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Peripherals/Printers_Scanners/Q_24095039.html)

I would start to do the following on the print server
Open Regedit and browse to the following registrykey. KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers\[printer name]\CopyFiles\BIDI
if this key is there and you find a registry value with the hpzpnp.dll filename in it, you need to delete that registry key.
Dont forget to restart the spooler after doing the change in registry
one easier way could of course be to delete the print queue and recreate it with the same driver on the print server
Clients
If there is clients still experiences the same crash you open regedit on those clients and goto the following registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\LanMan Print Services\Servers\[servername]\[printername]
you can safely remove the printer name registry key under the server name and restart the spooler, those values will be added again when someone connects to the printer but you will not have the faulting registry value.

Hope this helps you and if it does, please write back

Good luck!

/ Mikael

by: IT-MisfitPosted on 2009-02-04 at 08:33:49ID: 23549946

Deleteing the printer seems to have resolved the problem, no more faults raised to me

Thanks Mikael

by: IT-MisfitPosted on 2009-02-04 at 08:34:36ID: 31537635

Many Thanks

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No Printers Installed

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Mircrosft Windows Server 2000

Windows XP

Server Applications

Windows 2000 Server

Windows XP Operating System

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