The_Master_Chief
asked on
Win2K TS Print jobs error/restart
I have 5 Windows 2000 Terminal Servers. Each has about 40 printers installed for offices throughout the country. From time to time a print job will get an error and keep restarting. On the printer side of the problem, they say that the printer keeps printing the first page of whatever document over and over again. I have tried to isolate the problem to one Terminal Server but it happens on any of them and with any printer. I have checked the event logs and cannot find any errors that have anything to do with this problem. The only band aide I have is to kill the job with errors and restart the spooler service. I need to know how I can keep these jobs from getting these types of errors. The document types that are being printed are PDF's, Web Pages, Docs etc.
ASKER
These printers are installed by IP, they are not client connected printers. What do you mean by spool jobs on the server. I have checked the drivers and changed some drivers that were wrong and that seemed to clear up those problems for that printer but we had been using those drivers for over two years without problem. Why would it act up all of a sudden? What do you mean by spool files on the server?
It only takes on bad print driver to annoy all the printing on a terminal server. I do not know why printing issues crop up all of a sudden, but it happens. What print drivers are installed? LJ4, LJ5, etc etc.
As for spooling - the question is - do the jobs immediately go to the ip of the printer (presumably a jet direct etc.) or do the jobs get "spooled" on the server first, and then sent to the ip of the printer?
-gsgi
As for spooling - the question is - do the jobs immediately go to the ip of the printer (presumably a jet direct etc.) or do the jobs get "spooled" on the server first, and then sent to the ip of the printer?
-gsgi
ASKER
The jobs are sent directly to either a third party print server (Linkcomm Express) or the onboard print server. The printers range from LaserJet 1300 to 4000. For the most part, they are all HP LaserJet printers with the exception of of a few cannons.
ASKER
I try to use the PCL5e drivers when available for all of my laserjet printers if that helps.
hmmm. i believe that is very compatible with the lj 4 driver.
Can you test one of the ts servers by removing the pcl5e driver, installing the lj 4 driver and printing to it.
If the problem goes away, we know that the pcl5e driver "gets confused" sometimes.
-gsgi
Can you test one of the ts servers by removing the pcl5e driver, installing the lj 4 driver and printing to it.
If the problem goes away, we know that the pcl5e driver "gets confused" sometimes.
-gsgi
ASKER
I read an article that states to use the PCL5e drivers instead of the PCL6 due to one of the errors I got. I will get back to you.
Oh yeah pcl 6 is known to be a problem. lj 4 is NOT pcl 6.
-gsgi
-gsgi
ASKER
ok I can narrow it down to a few printers. For example lets call the printer in question Printer1. Printer1 is a LaserJet 2430dn. It had been pretty good after I made that printer use the HP LaserJet PCL 5e driver on all servers but the problem has returned. Now what do you mean by the "the lj 4 driver"? Is that one called "HP LaserJet 4"? I was also told by another sysadmin that you can use the driver named "HP LaserJet" for all LaserJet printers. Is that true?
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Well, from everything I've read, one of the printer drivers is wrong.
What are your printers.
Are they used by ip (like jet directs) or through clients, or through the RDP protocol - print to the default printer of the client connecting?
Do you spool jobs on the server?
-gsgi