Print Spooler hangs

[Scwaal]

Hi everyone

I have 2 machines so far which are giving the same issue. When the user tries to print out of ANY application the printer select screen freezes intermittently. You also cannot open the Printers folder from the control panel. The only way to resolve the issue is to restart the print spooler service which gives a timeout error when stopping but then starts ok right after. Once it has been restarted the user can continue to print for a while. Any suggestions or has anyone experienced something similar.

 

[1toomany]

Hi Scwaal,
Do you have lots of free drive space on the machines acting as your print servers ?

Not enough free space will freeze the spool service.

DDIRR
Detect,Diagnose,Investigate,Repair,Replace

 

[Scwaal]

Hey 1toomany

Thanks for your response, but yes, there is over 100gb free on the print server. The thing is there are only 2 PC's out of 145 that are giving this issue. And it doesn't happen all the time. I cannot recreate the problem. Any other suggestions?

 

[PRPhx]

Try this:
1) Open a cmd session.
2) Type: chkdsk c: and press the enter key. Do you get any errors? Does chkdsk say you should re-run chkdsk with the /f switch?
3) If chkdsk does recommend running chkdsk /f, then type chkdsk c: /r. You will NOT be able to complete the check disk, and you will be asked if you want chkdsk to run on the next boot. Press the Y key. Reboot. WARNING: Rebooting and allowing chkdsk to run may take some time, depending on the size of the drive, etc.

4) If #2 above comes back ok, then defrag your hard drive. I have seen fragmented hard drives cause many printing problems.

5) If you do #3, after your computer does the chkdsk, defrag your hard drive.

What chkdsk (check disk) does is check your drive for file system related problems and atttempts to correct them.

If the above doesn't fix the issue, do a google search on the following: KB919750. It's an article from MS dealing with renaming the print spooler.exe and expanding a new copy from the install cd.

 

[Red131]

I had an issue on some LaserJet 4200 printers where when the user went into the printer properties, it would lock up and force the user to restart their computer to clear it up. It appeared to be an issue with the driver. Once I replaced the driver from a PCL6 to a PCL5e, it resolved the issue.

Could it be that the only users that use that printer are the two computers?

You may try recreating the print queue. Usually when I have printer issues on our network, it is either related to the driver or a corrupt print queue.

Sometimes I would also (for troubleshooting purposes) create a queue on another server (like a domain controller) and point their printers to that location to see if you get the same results. The purpose of this is to use the same driver that those two machines use, but from a different server. This will either narrow down that it is a driver issue or a workstation issue. If the driver works on the other server, then most likely it is a workstation issue.

Last but not least, download Process Monitor

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...x?PHPSESSID=d926bdd849b5aab10f7263dd7f5904f2.

You can use it to watch processes involved in the print routine. Just start the program, create a print job and see if anything pops up.

Hope that helps

 

[Scwaal]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Will try them and keep you posted.

 

[linney]

Stopping of the Print Spooler
thread779-686557

Win XP SP3 Slow Print Dialog
thread779-1474461

This is a hepful site, see what is says about Cleanspl.exe

http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm

Resources for troubleshooting printing problems in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308028/en-us?FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

How to troubleshoot network printing problems in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314073/en-us?FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH