sexygeek
asked on
Problem with Quickbooks POS receipt printer delay.
I am a technician trapped in a restaurant in Chicago. The problem is that they use Quickbooks Point of Sale 9 for multi-stores and they're having problems with one of their registers (PCs) delaying printing during busy times. I have looked at all PC and network issues and everything seems to be OK (no related Windows errors and no problem using the network during delays.) I'll describe the setup as well as I can.
They have three PCs that act as registers. Two are in the front and one is in their food prep area in back. All PCs are newish and run Windows 7 Business 32-bit. Windows and Quickbooks are up to date on updates and drivers. They use Citizen CTS310A thermal printers. The PCs are attached to the printers by USB and to each other over a network. The PC that's having the problem is also the QB server.
The problem PC prints to the back area printer with no problem until it gets just a little busy. Then suddenly it seems not to print. Then 30-40 minutes later all the receipts print out at once. Normally during this time the other register prints out with no problem One more thing: the PC with the problem also has problems with controlling the drawer whenever there's a problem with the printer. Again, the PC works and connects to the Internet and other PCs when the problem arises.
Intuit support sucks. I do have a question on their forum but I've come to rely on the expertise at EE. So do I need to reinstall QB. This is not a fun prospect because this is the server and the configuration may turn out to be a nightmare. Or can I replace the QB internal print spooler? (By the way, I tried changing out the Citizen driver and also went into print properties and told it to print directly to the printer.) If it's the internal print spooler, then why is the drawer not working?
Any ideas??? Thanks for any help.
They have three PCs that act as registers. Two are in the front and one is in their food prep area in back. All PCs are newish and run Windows 7 Business 32-bit. Windows and Quickbooks are up to date on updates and drivers. They use Citizen CTS310A thermal printers. The PCs are attached to the printers by USB and to each other over a network. The PC that's having the problem is also the QB server.
The problem PC prints to the back area printer with no problem until it gets just a little busy. Then suddenly it seems not to print. Then 30-40 minutes later all the receipts print out at once. Normally during this time the other register prints out with no problem One more thing: the PC with the problem also has problems with controlling the drawer whenever there's a problem with the printer. Again, the PC works and connects to the Internet and other PCs when the problem arises.
Intuit support sucks. I do have a question on their forum but I've come to rely on the expertise at EE. So do I need to reinstall QB. This is not a fun prospect because this is the server and the configuration may turn out to be a nightmare. Or can I replace the QB internal print spooler? (By the way, I tried changing out the Citizen driver and also went into print properties and told it to print directly to the printer.) If it's the internal print spooler, then why is the drawer not working?
Any ideas??? Thanks for any help.
ASKER
There are no events in either application or system logs that correspond to any time that this has happened. One reason that I suspect the Quickbooks printer spooler (I believe that's what it is) is that when the printer fails to print, they get a Quickbook printer message, not a Windows printer error. If you look in the Windows printer you will see the documents getting lined up, but if you restart them, they sill won't print.
I will try the Process Explorer tomorrow. I'd like to know what you or anyone else thnks about a Quickbooks explanation - if there is one.
I will try the Process Explorer tomorrow. I'd like to know what you or anyone else thnks about a Quickbooks explanation - if there is one.
ASKER
Actually, there is a new wrinkle. In order to send receipts to the back printer for the cooks while printing from the front printer for the customer, a program called PrintMulti (from Germany) is in the mix (I have to figure out where). It allows the printer driver to print to two printers at once. The thing is that all this worked and now it doesn't. It especially seems to fail when they get busy.
All hardware and OS items checked out today.
All hardware and OS items checked out today.
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Are there any Event Log errors happening?
Run Process Explorer and see if it is a CPU or Memory usage issue.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx