Weird Windows 2000 printing problem 1

jrbarnett · Sep 4, 2004

I have come across a very unusual problem relating to printing. I'm not really sure whether it is Windows 2000, the printer, Excel or something else, but never mind. Here goes:

There are a group of 3 people who use a networked printer, an ordinary HP Laserjet 4, with an inbuilt JetDirect card, which is used to connect it to the network. Workstations are connecting to it using IP, rather than shares off a server.

The 3 workstations run the standard build: Windows 2000 Pro SP4 with IE6 and Office XP. However, they are all different models of PC, and other PC's of the same model print fine without exhibiting this problem elsewhere in the organisation. This, to my mind, rules out something in the RIS build that disagrees with their printer, which is why I haven't yet tried reinstalling the PC's.

Here's the problem: Very occasionally, while printing something from Excel (and it is only Excel, it doesn't happen with any other application), the print just doesn't come out.
Restarting the print spooler service in control panel fixes the problem, but it doesn't explain why this happens in the first place. It isn't anything in a spreadsheet either, because it could print it fine once, but then fail if printed again at a later date.
This problem started when they were upgraded to Excel XP, it didn't happen with Excel 97 (also on windows 2000).

Here's the weird bit: Setting the Print Spooler service to automatically restart after a failed attempt (on the Recovery tab of the Properties box in the Services MMC snapin) doesn't restart the service, it must be done manually.

I have checked and these three people all have local administrator rights on their PC's, so the service should have no problems restarting even if it was run as them rather than local administrator. The event logs also show nothing unusual around the time they try to print something, whether it works or not.

Nobody else uses this printer, so we can't easily find out if it is the printer, PC's, Excel or something else. Additionally, everybody keeps to their own PC, so we can't easily find out if it relates to their profile on their PC (no roaming profiles).

Here's what has been tried so far:
* Uninstall, reboot and reinstall office XP (rather than a repair install)
* Install office XP SP3
* Set the Remote Procedure Call service to restart on failure (Print Spooler is listed as being dependent on the RPC service), although this doesn't seem to stop.

This issue has been around in the helpdesk now for several months, and has baffled everybody here. If anybody has any ideas as to the cause of this, or what I can do to fix it, I am open to suggestions.

John

tsuji · Sep 7, 2004

Hello jrbarnett,

This kind of issues/bugs often you know calls for excel patch. Maybe out of many mskb articles there is one describing this situation. (I do not know.)

I device nevertheless this script so that when it happens you can have your colleagues run it to diagnose what happens to the printer. I only isolate two critical parameters "Configuration Manager error" and "Availability". At least it will report the problem involved, as your event log shows nothing. Try it out and see what can do more.

It is a plaintext extension .vbs file, called it whatever such as "checkprinter.vbs". Double-click to go. (Watchout line wrap.)

Code:

'printer diagnostic : checkprinter.vbs or whatever
aErrConfigmgr=array("This device is working properly.",  _
    "This device is not configured correctly.",  _
    "Windows cannot load the driver for this device.",  _
    "The driver for this device might be corrupted, or your system might be running low on memory or other resources. ", _
    "This device is not working properly. One of its drivers or your registry might be corrupted.", _
    "The driver for this device needs a resource that Windows cannot manage.", _
    "The boot configuration for this device conflicts with other devices.", _
    "Cannot filter.", _
    "The driver loader for the device is missing.", _
    "This device is not working properly because the controlling firmware is reporting the resources for the device incorrectly.", _
    "This device cannot start.", _
    "This device failed.", _
    "This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use.", _
    "Windows cannot verify this device's resources.", _
    "This device cannot work properly until you restart your computer.", _
    "This device is not working properly because there is probably a re-enumeration problem.", _
    "Windows cannot identify all the resources this device uses.", _
    "This device is asking for an unknown resource type.", _
    "Reinstall the drivers for this device.", _
    "Failure using the Virtual Device Driver (VXD) loader.", _
    "Your registry might be corrupted.", _
    "System failure: try changing the driver for this device. If that does not work, see your hardware documentation. Windows is removing this device.", _
    "This device is disabled.", _
    "System failure: try changing the driver for this device. If that doesn't work, see your hardware documentation.", _
    "This device is not present, not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed.", _
    "Windows is still setting up this device.", _
    "Windows is still setting up this device.",  _
    "This device does not have valid log configuration.", _
    "The drivers for this device are not installed.", _
    "This device is disabled because the firmware of the device did not give it the required resources.", _
    "This device is using an Interrupt Request (IRQ) resource that another device is using.", _
    "This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device.", _
    "Property Unsupported - status unknown.")    'win9x unsupported - custom entry

aAvailability=array("Other", _
    "Unknown", _
    "Running/Full Power", _
    "Warning", _
    "In Test", _
    "Not Applicable", _
    "Power Off", _
    "Off Line", _
    "Off Duty", _
    "Degraded", _
    "Not Installed", _
    "Install Error", _
    "Power Save - Unknown", _
    "Power Save - Low Power Mode", _
    "Power Save - Standby", _
    "Power Cycle", _
    "Power Save - Warning", _
    "Property Unsupported - status unknown.")    'win 9x unsupported - custom entry

set svc=getobject("winmgmts:root\cimv2")
set cprnt=svc.execquery("select * from win32_printer")
for each oprnt in cprnt
    ierrconfigmgr=oprnt.configManagerErrorCode
    iavailability=oprnt.availability
    if isnull(ierrconfigmgr) then ierrconfigmgr=ubound(aErrConfigMgr)	    'unsupported win9x
    if isnull(iavailability) then iavailability=ubound(aAvailability)+1    'unsupported win9x
    wscript.echo "Printer Drivername : " & oprnt.drivername & vbcrlf & vbcrlf & _
        "Config Mgr Error Code : " & ierrconfigmgr & vbcrlf & vbcrlf & _
        "Error Description : " & aErrConfigMgr(ierrconfigmgr) & vbcrlf & vbcrlf & _
        "Availability : " & aAvailability(iavailability-1)
next
set cprnt=nothing : set svc=nothing

regards - tsuji

jrbarnett · Sep 10, 2004

Thank you very much for that tsuji, I will keep it for future use. I seem to have fixed it by unregistering mobsync.dll - these people have a portable device for data collection from car park systems (no. of tickets issued, coins in the machine etc), but it is not a typical PDA of the Palm, Pocket PC or Psion variety.
Why unregistering mobsync.dll actually fixed the Excel printing, I haven't the foggiest idea, but it works now.

John

danbpc · Sep 11, 2004

I have run into similar weirdness with Microsoft applications, I believe that the problem comes from Microsoft writing print drivers which are not exactly conforming to the standard for the printer or the printer page description language. This issue comes up especially with Postscript.

My favorite is if you tell word or powerpoint to print 10 copies of a 20 page document, Word or powerpoint will send 200 pages to a postscript printer rather than use the postscript function to print 10 copies of the 20 page document. Guess which one crashes the printer. It is likely Execell has the same kinds of issues.

I run a printing business and have all kinds of fun.

tsuji · Sep 12, 2004

John,

Thanks for the vote and sharing the solution you found with us.

- tsuji

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Weird Windows 2000 printing problem 1

jrbarnett

Programmer

tsuji

Technical User

jrbarnett

Programmer

danbpc

Technical User

tsuji

Technical User

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