Network Printer Offline

[ShayneK]

I hope this is an easy question for someone. I have looked everywhere for an answer but cannot find any.

Problem:
One employee (Happens to be the GM) cannot print to any network printers. He keeps getting the message "Printer is offline." When I take the check mark out of "Use Printer Offline" It comes up and states that user intervention is required and the printer is offline. Sorry, but the printer is not offline and everyone else can print to it just fine.

Setup:
Dell Latitude Laptop with docking station running Windows 98SE. Novell Client 3.3, Print queues reside on a Novell 5.0 and 4.11 server. Local canon printer attached to his LPT1: port and prints just fine (only used for small docs becuse it is so slow). Tried 2 different HP 8100 and one HP 8000 printers.

Troubleshooting:
1) Tried Uninstalling and reinstalling all printers - Nope
2) Tried Uninstalling and upgrading novell client - Nope
3) Tried resetting up the printers as if they were just out of the box and connected to the network. Even tried different print server and queue names - Nope
4) Moved the print queues to another server - Nope
5) Checked all his user rights and they are fine. If I login with his user ID on another computer it will print to the printers just fine.
6) I can change his printer to go to LPT1: and then issue a capture command through DOS to send it to the network printer. This does work but because he travels and uses different printers at each site I can't keep it this way.

I hope someone has an answer or can point me in the right direction. The GM happens to be one of those people who believe all of us IT people can twitch our noses and ever thing works instantly. I'm sure you understand!!

Thanks in Advance,
Shayne Kolata

 

[yvfwc]

You mentioned he travels to different sites. Can he print to network printers at any of those sites? Have you tried printing directly to the printer with TCP/IP? You could install HP's JetDirect print services on the laptop but it is not a good solution for travelers because the IP address would be limited to that site. (I know you don't want to change that remotely every time he travels.) If, however, print queues are working at other sites (on the laptop) then we should be able to make it work there as well.

With the above trouble shooting you have done and answers to these questions maybe we can solve this.

Cheers,

Mark ;-)

 

[ShayneK]

Mark,

Thanks for your help but I wish I could report that it worked. I tried loggin onto his computer as me (I have same rights as Admin) but it didn't work either. I have a feeling either his Registry is corrupted somewhere or his whole Network settings are corrupted. Either way it doesn't look good. I'm sure I should try uninstalling EVERYTHING in his network properties but having a docking station makes it a pain.

If anyone else has any other suggestions before I try removing everything in the network properties please let me know.

Thanks Again Mark!!

Shayne

 

[ShayneK]

I apologize about the last message being confusing. I've posted this problem up on several different Tech boards and accidently got my responses mixed up. I still would like to say Thank you to Mark!!

I did check to see if his printers would work on the other sites but they too do not. We are connected by a Frame Relay so we have no problems printing anywhere in the company. I'm not sure I can install HP Jetdirect print service because we are the only site that uses Novell. All the other sites are all on NT. Do you think this would cause a problem for him? I don't have much experience in using JetDirect with NT Servers.

Thanks,
Shayne

 

[yvfwc]

Shayne,

If your computers and printers are setup with TCP/IP you would bypass either the NetWare or NT servers and print directly to the printers. That said, if he physically moves to another site (subnet) he would need to change his IP address & gateway, not a very good solution.

Back to the present, in your Network Neighborhood properties, have you checked to make sure that in the properties of the IPX 32-bit protocol for the NetWare Client, Advanced IPX tab, the Primary logical board frame type is set correctly? (ie: Ethernet_802.2, Ethernet_802.3, etc.) Is he able to login (to either NetWare or NT) and access files on the network?

The JetDirect would be a temporary work-around. Is there a PC-Card NIC you could install temporarily to bypass the docking station? Write back and let's see if we can't get this figured out. Anyone out there have any ideas?

Cheers,

Mark ;-)

 

[JGliddon]

We have run into this same problem at my site also. It is not just Dell laptops though, we have some Dell desktops that are doing the same. The problem is intermittent which makes it very difficult to find or fix.
Have you tried to print while the laptop is out of the docking station? Does it have a PC Card NIC that you can use to get on the network or do you have to have it in the dock to get to the network? We had some laptops that couldnt print while in the dock, but would work fine undocked using the PC Card Network card.
We contacted Dell and there is a process you must go through to correctly set up the laptop to work with the docking station. I dont have it handy, but if you contact Dell tech support, they can tell you. They told us it is a well known problem if it is not set up correctly.
Good luck!