Question

This printer won't print from its' queue without the spooler service being restarted for each job.

Asked by: EnclosAdmin

I have multiple printers at this site and I have set up hundreds of printers in the past.

For whatever reason this HP2600n won't print out of the network queue unless I restart the spooling service.  No matter who sends a job.  For instance, Joe sends a job and it gets stuck in the queue.  All jobs sent will stack up behind Joe's.  Restarting Joe's does nothing - if I delete Joe's the next job hangs too.  The only thing that works is to restart the spooling service and then all jobs will print - however if Joe prints while the backed up jobs are running - then when it gets to Joe's new job it will hang again.

I have removed the printer and its port and re added it.  I have the latest drivers and have tried the CD rom drivers too but nothing seems to help - if I don't restart the spooling service it won't print.

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2008-03-19 at 13:51:12ID23255106
Tags

HP

,

Printer

,

2600n Color Printer

,

Spooler problem with this printer only.

Topics

Windows 2003 Server

,

Printers by HP

Participating Experts
2
Points
0
Comments
10

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Print queue
    Is there a VERY FAST way to tell if a printer queue exists, (could be either a dedicated printer server, a shared printer, a nds printer ....). It would also be nice to find the printer status at the end of the print queue (online, offline, out of paper, ....). Don't forget a...
  2. Queues Status on HP1200
    I recently sent our HP1200 for repairs. When it came back it reinstalled it on Jetdirect 500x print server alongwith another 990c. On my 7 user network each time someone sends a print job the printer shows the job status as printed yet at the bottom it shows all listed printe...
  3. Printer queue migration
    There are hundreds of printer queues (HP and Zebra) on a node. I need to migrate all of the printer queues to a new node. What is the easiest/recommended way?

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: swallerPosted on 2008-03-19 at 15:14:14ID: 21166422

A quick fix is to setup Joe print driver with a direct IP address to that printer. That way Joe will use his own print spooler and won't crash the server's.

 

by: EnclosAdminPosted on 2008-03-20 at 08:19:43ID: 21172402

That is true - however if remote users want to print to this printer, and they will, I don't want to have to set it up for 60 engineers.

I love HP hardware but I have hated thier software, drivers etc. for years!

 

by: swallerPosted on 2008-03-20 at 08:25:43ID: 21172471

Well, honestly it's the fragility of the Windows Print Spooler to blame. I set up many offices with direct IP printing simply to avoid this exact issue: a single point of failure.

Joe is probably printing something that has unrecognized fonts or something similar that freaks out the print spooler and then *print spoils* it for everyone. Check his print driver settings for the shared printer to make sure nothing goofy exists.

Also, do you have this printer set up on the server as available in the Active Directory? That will avoid some issues with people installing the printer locally with any *customization*. They simply connect to use it or don't.

 

by: EnclosAdminPosted on 2008-03-20 at 08:47:51ID: 21172716

Actually it is anything sent to that specific printer - including test pages.  The other printers in that office all use the Windows Spooler along with all of my offices.

I used Joe as an example but it is anybody printing to it.  So if Barb prints her job will hang too, no matter what it is until the spooler is restarted.

This problem occurs only for this printer.  I have used two different drivers, the latest one downloaded from the HP website and the 'signature' Microsoft driver off of the CD ROM.

I will also open a case with HP and update this case with whatever they come up with.

On another note, the printer has reset itself to factory defaults 3 times now in the past week.  I can tell when it does that because it takes a DHCP address when it does it and I have to go back in and set it to Manual etc.

 

by: swallerPosted on 2008-03-20 at 08:58:09ID: 21172821

Hmmm. Have you seen this? http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do;HP-FORUMS-S-WPA-IDX=HvLQbJWFn9NLTLW2ZrdFdnYrLv9hqd8pF1kg6wKDYbJp251tpL4f!195540577!-2091147592?threadId=932529&admit=109447627+1206028432272+28353475


Have you upgraded the firmware for the printer?

Are you ONLY installing the print driver instead of the entire software package?

 

by: EnclosAdminPosted on 2008-03-20 at 13:47:39ID: 21175718

Well we got it to work.

The tech on Chat was trying to get me to install it locally on all machines.

Digging deeper I found a technical note stating that there is a known problem printing to this printer from a share.  There were three workarounds.  The first one worked.

What we had to do was uncheck the bi-directional printing support checkbox on the Ports tab of the shared printer on our server.  After that prints were able to go through without any problems.

We still are not sure about the resetting to factory defaults issue.  We'll see if that occurs again in the next day or two.

 

by: swallerPosted on 2008-03-20 at 14:01:00ID: 21175830

great.

you really *should* consider installing locally on at least a machine or too. why? that way if the server print spoiler fails then at least one of your users can still send print jobs in a pinch. ...maybe the department head or admin assistant or something. ...backup ...redundancy ...cya ...

 

by: EnclosAdminPosted on 2008-03-24 at 08:36:28ID: 21194227

Unchecking the box also fixed the problem of the printer resetting itself to factory defaults.

I can get to the printer when it takes a DHCP address via the Web interface.  It is a small jobsite office and they don't have local IT staff onsite.

The printer is used by many not on the local site and needs to be shared off of their server.  It's more critical for the remote users.  Locally they have a different printer that they use as their default printer.

Thank you for your assistance with this question swaller.  Take Care.

 

by: VodorPosted on 2008-07-09 at 03:23:46ID: 21961983

Fantastic, I have hundreds of 2600n's out in the field which now currenlty have this issue.

People use a TS and the printers were moved from direct IP printing to another server then shared, now this issue is plaguing everyone.

I also get the reset to factory settings problem, so if this bi-directional box fixes things i'll buy you all cookies.
Will let you know what happens.

Cheers
Ian

 

by: VodorPosted on 2008-07-09 at 04:08:18ID: 21962252

Have just unchecked the bi-directional option on 20 of my 2600n's and its working 100% now. Many Thanks.

Also may I add that it may be partially down to speed of the lines, as we had 2600n's internally and they did not experience this issue, only the ones the other side of VPN's.

Many Thanks
Ian

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...