Windows Forum

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Not printing from peer-to-peer network

0 helpful
7 replies

by philando

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
I have a client who has 6 win95 and 1 NTWS(sp6a)connected via peer-to-peer (bnc connectors). 3 of the machines have printers attached locally. 1 machine has internet dial-up connection via Juno. The NTWS has a ms mai postoffice. Now all of a sudden when the users try to print from any of the machines to one of the shared printers they get an error message. "Error printing to printer \\computername\printername. There was an unknown system error. The printer will be set to work offline." Once in a while if I keep hittng retry it will eventually print the job. Plus, the other day it started to print fine for a few hours then back to the same s**t. I have removed then added network configuration to no avail. Recreated prnter(no luck). Booted one of the machines that have printer attached with the latest Norton virus scan but only found Ms word macro virus(deleted it). Users assured me that nothing was tampered with or installed on any of the machine (no, I think one user downloaded a program called weatherbug). Important: all network services work except printing. Shared drives are mapped, Users can share file, send/receive mail, browse network .... the whole shabang, except printing. It sound like something chaged a registry settingon all machines. I dont know where to go now. ANY SUGGESTIONS!

7 replies

by jimb

Hello Philando :
I was just wondering if you had checked your spooler setting to see if anyone had change settings for the printer.
You might want to start there.
good luck

Jim

by philando

Checked it. Nothing has changed on the printer setting. Plus I deleted and recreated some of the printers.

by nvpaladin

I feel another rejection coming, but....Have you checked to make sure the printers are still shared? That the correct printer is selected? I have my doubts , but I know I have found these before. Good luck

by philando

Yes they are still shared. I delete and recreated the shared printers. Sometimes if I keep hitting retry it will print a test page then go back to giving the error on the next job.

by raffi_

A couple fo things to note.

When you delete a printer on an NT box it is not actually removed from the system until the Spooler service is re-started. Make sure you always re-boot if you have deleted a cranky printer.

The fact that your other network services function OK points me to the spooler file. for the printers. I would suggest actually moving the spooler file to a different location - a different physical disk if one is available. Here are the instructions for moving it:

- In Control Panel, double-click Printers.

- On the File menu, click Server Properties, and then click the Advanced tab.

- Type the path you want to use in the Spool Folder box, and then click OK.

NOTE: Some third-party programs may block you from moving the spool file in Windows NT 4.0.

REF: MS KnowledgeBase Q123747

Regards
Raffi_

by philando

There is only 1 NT box and a printer is not physically attached. I deleted the contents of c:\windows\spools\printers on all the machines that had printers attached to them. It worked. Thanx.

This discussion is closed to new replies.