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Elusive network printer problem driving me nuts...........

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by thumbsup2

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Hey all,

I need to get your opinions on an elusive network printer problem which has been driving me nuts for months now. I can't seem to track down the cause of this behavior.

Situation:
This particular office has 4 computers running WinXP Pro Sp2 and an external snap server set up in a workgroup configuration along with an HP color Laserjet 2550 network printer in use as the group printer, all cabled into the router and out from there to the DSL modem for internet access. The "network" works fine as far as file sharing and 3 users have no problem printing to the printer.

One user in this group is having [b]occasional[/b] difficulties printing to the printer. Normally, it prints fine. But, when he tries to print one specific type of PDF file from our company web site which is being viewed in his browser (IE7 or Firefox, doesn't matter), the file won't always print immediately. Sometimes it takes hours to print. Sometimes longer. Sometimes, it prints immediately. The other day though, it printed one copy of a file for him, out of the blue, which he had tried to print numerous times [b]TWO WEEKS[/b] prior. Where the other print attempts went to, nobody knows. His computer had been rebooted a couple of times since then too.

When this happens, there is no document waiting to be printed showing in his print que. And, I can run a test print AFTER his print request which goes through to the printer almost immediately. The printer is shut off nightly, so its memory should have been cleared numerous times.

Now, this particular kind of PDF that is having problems is one which is fillable online by our customers. We run Adobe server at HQ (not sure of the version). The customer fills out an online PDF form and submits it to our servers. A plain PDF is generated and stored at HQ, then my user is notified that it is available for viewing/printing. The document he views through his browser is a "dumb" PDF (not fillable, just printable).

HQ insists that no other users have reported having print problems with this particular kind of PDF. So, I'm coming to you to ask what else can I look for to cause this problem? I'm stumped. :(

11 replies

by bart777

That's a really strange one.

Does the job show in the local print queue?

Does this user do a straight IP print to the printer or is the PC setup to you some other device to print the job? If it's mapping thru another PC or server you may need to hunt theproblem down at that end.

A couple of things I would try.
Remove the printer and driver from the offending PC.
Setup a straight IP port to the print device from server properties screen.
Reinstall the printer using this newly created port and the latest drivers from HP.
Then beat the tar out of it with test prints of this document. I would also try saving the PDF locally and make sure that this works too.

Let us know how it works out.

by thumbsup2

Gremlins are the toughest ones to track down and this particular one has TEETH! ;)

No, the job does not show in the print queue.

The printer drivers have been uninstalled, manually deleted and reinstalled numerous times using the latest drivers from HP.

The printer port in the printer properties prints directly to the IP address of the printer. It is not connected to any other device, other than the router. Diagnostics on the printer itself show the same IP being used in this user's printer setup.

The only thing I haven't tried yet is indescriminate use of the hammer in my toolkit. ;)

I don't know what it's doing. Everything is acting as if the print job is being stored in the router somewhere, somehow, then turned loose when IT dang well feels like it. If the router is dropping packets or hiding them, why just on this type of file and why not for everyone else? Of course, the other users haven't tried to print this particular TYPE of PDF file either. They do print other PDF's though.

Hmmm..... is it possible the router has a bad port or two? But, that wouldn't explain how a print job can be "lost" for two flippin' weeks unless the router is getting ready to puke all over itself! Maybe I'll try plugging him and/or the printer into a different port on the router and see if that makes a difference though. There's two unused ports left.

by bart777

The only thing to try next is Adobe.

As for the job sitting around for 2 weeks, are you sure it really was there and it wasn't just sitting in a queue somewhere else? I can't see how a router issue would do this and still allow the user to connect to the network without major issues.

by tonythetiger

printed "from the browser window" that disappeared when right clicking on the PDF link, saving it locally, then opening it up and printing from acrobat reader.

I've even seen this phantom even on two identical, freshly ghosted computers... where it works right on one and not on the other.

by dumphrey

match? And are you using Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader?
I would double check the connection to the printer as well, it could be print driver gone south, or flaky connection.
But I am more certain its Adobe related since its only affecting PDFs?
Check the adobe settings to see if document protection is on by default...
This is a puzzler.

by thumbsup2

I'll have to double check the Adobe server version, since I don't know it off the top of my head. The local user has Adobe Acrobat 7 (with patches) and does not have Reader installed. It's using the built in reader that comes with Acrobat.

The funny thing is that he can print other PDF's just fine. The only file he's ever had problems with is this one particular kind of PDF which is generated by customers inputting data and submitting it to the server which in turn generates a dumb PDF.

Of course, wouldn't you know, this is a relatively new project at HQ which has been in place for about a year. Getting them to admit that the problem MAY be on their end is like pulling teeth. :( Especially since no other users have reported having problems. Maybe it's specific to this particular make/model of printer.

by dumphrey

your machines is having the issue makes me wonder. Adobe can get corrupt in weird ways. We use adobe to send pdfs straight to mail from word templates (word with embedded excel charts etc). And every so often, one would freeze up acrobat. Eventually I uninstalled everything, cleaned the crap out of the registry, and reinstalled Office and Acrobat. What ended up working was upgrading the acrobat from 7 to 8. I think the issue is in Adobe its self. Why its not consistant I don't know...But you may be having a similar problem.
Do you only need to print these PDFs? If so, you could try removing acrobat and just using reader or foxit reader.

by oh smeg

This may not necessarily be quite correct. In a past life where I worked for a boss with something [b]Special[/b] head office was known to be Economical with the truth when it came to problems. I used to routinely hit a problem and was facing a Brick Wall as no one else ever had the same problem that I was looking at. Then the next time I was in Head Office after fixing whatever it was I would overhear that I was the only one who could fix this problem and the others had given up trying.

But I think I can tell you what is happening to the Print Job at least. The job is for some reason going to the Server that hosts the PDF File and then it gets passed onto a General Print Que/Server and is allocated to a Que that either has a lot of work or requires Print Jobs to be approved.

When the job is approved it gets sent onto the original printer that it was supposed to go to when it was originally sent. This would also explain the other print jobs disappearing from the Que when the file is attempted to be printed several times. Either the Job gets rejected by whatever is approving it or it goes through. If the job gets relegated somewhere it can sit there till whatever is being used to Approve the Jobs gets cleared. Hence the ability to Power Down and still have the job come through.

The Connection to head office or wherever this job is going gets treated as a WAN and the job just disappears into the Network till it eventually comes out the other end or gets deleted.

I think you'll find this is what is happening here but I'm dammed if I know why it's occurring. Not something that I've seen in a Windows Environment but something from a long time ago when I was working with Dumb Terminals and the Big Iron at Wang.

I hope that helps to save your hair but I'm sorry that I can not think of a reason why it is happening.

Col

by rob miners

and along with the other suggestions I can't add too much more as you may have already tried these.

If the other users haven't tried to print this document, I would impose on one of them and see if they can print it from their PC.

Logon as another User on the problem PC and see if it prints. That would determine if it is a profile problem.

Delete all temp files on the PC including acr*.tmp if they are there.

I run this batch file on startup that removes Temp files
===========
:USERPROFILE
c:
cd \
cd %USERPROFILE%\"Local Settings"\"Temporary Internet Files"
del *.* /s /q
rmdir . /s /q
goto PREFETCH

:PREFETCH
cd \
cd %WINDIR%\PREFETCH
del *.* /s /q
goto INIT

:INIT
@echo off
setlocal
set cStatflag=0
C:

:USERTEMP
cd \
cd %TEMP%

:REMOVE
del *.* /s /q
rmdir . /s /q

:CHECK
if %cStatflag%==1 goto FINISH

:WINTEMP
cd \
cd %WINDIR%\TEMP
set cStatflag=1
goto REMOVE

:FINISH
endlocal
===========

Check to see if anything is hanging around in the Spools folder.

1. Go to Start, Control Panel and Administrative Tools. Double click on Services icon.

2. Scroll down to the Print Spooler service and right click on it and select Stop. In order to do this, you need to be logged in as Administrator. At this point, no one will be able to print anything on any of the printers that are being hosted on this server.

3. Next you need to go to the following directory: C:\WINDOWS\System32\spool\Printers. Delete all the files in this folder. This will clear all print queues.

4. Now you can go back to the Services console and right-click and choose Start for the Print Spooler service!

You can also go to a command prompt and type net stop spooler or net start spooler to start and stop the service.

To enable spooling, use one of the following methods:

? Select the radio button labeled Spool Print Documents So Program Finishes Printing Faster.

? Select Start Printing Immediately if you want printing to begin immediately when the print device is not already in use. This option is preferable when you want print jobs to be completed faster or when you want to ensure that the application returns control to users as soon as possible.

Completely Uninstall and Reinstall your Printer and 'force' XP to see new drivers:

1. Disconnect the printer from the PC

2. Go to the Control Panel and click on Add/Remove Programs. Highlight any Printer Software that is listed here. Select Remove.

3. From the Control Panel, click on Printers & Faxes. Right click the printer in question and select Delete

4. Look at the Toolbar. Select File, then Server Properties. Look in the Drivers tab. Highlight the printers drivers listed here and click on Remove for each one.

5. Reboot the PC. Do NOT reconnect the printer!

6. Go to the website of your printer manufacturer. Look for new XP drivers for your model. Download the correct software.

7. Run the exe file you just downloaded. It should auto-start the installation program

8. The software will tell you when to connect the printer.

9. Once the software is installed and the printer connected, try to print the document.

PS: I deliberately do not carry a hammer

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