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printer spooling issues

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5 replies

by seadogs

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When our users print to network printers, it stops their system while the job is being spooled so that they cannot do anything. Is there any way around this?
Details:
OS: w2k pro, all printers are jet direct run off a w2k server
apps: word/autocad/photoshop etc.age
Recent changes: upgraded network from nt4 to w2k ads.
We haven't made any changes to the print settings, they are set to spool documents, and start printing immediately, which they were prior to our upgrade.

5 replies

by captain krunch

Win2k PRo uses the WinNT print engine so I doubt it's that. Do you Print to file or directly to the printer? IS File set up as a printer port?
There is a certain amount of lag built into the operating system when multiple pages are being spooled that will stop the system momentarily.

by seadogs

We're printing directly to the printers. File is not set up as a printer port. The thing is, this never was a problem prior to our network upgrade. Thanks for the tips though.

by pacalealaathotmail.c

check on the client side
that the printer "Advanced" properties -
has two options activated:
"Spool print documents so program finishes printing faster"
and
"Start printing immediately"

more to come after you tell us what you found

hth

by tpopoff

I have run into this issue considerably on corporate networks. The issue appears to be most common when printing to older printers (IE. an HP 4000/4050) with limited RAM (4-24MB). Printing documents like CAD drawings, PSD files or PDF's create massive printer spool files. I've seen 500K PDFs create 75MB spool files. If your printing this to a device with limited memory, you're going to wait a few minutes.

Possible solution: Give that printer a memory upgrade.

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