Reboot server every morning to print

[lanwan]

Every morning I have people in my office that can't print. I have to reboot the server every morning in order for everything to work. We have 1 Windows 2000 server domain controller. I have a firewall in place running DHCP.

 

[Jpoandl]

Things to check:

1) Check to make sure that clients are pointing to the DC for DNS (They may be pointing to the router)

2) Verify that the DC isn't also handing out DHCP. (You may want to turn of the routers DHCP service and configure Windows 2000 DHCP.)



Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2003

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[bowfonz]

Have you tried just stopping and starting the spooler service instead of rebooting? If that works, then you can create a batch file that runs once or twice a day and does a "net stop spooler" and a "net start spooler".

 

[bowfonz]

I forgot to add that I realize this is not a solution to the underlying problem but it will definitely make your life easier.

 

[lanwan]

THANKS FOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS, I WILL TRY THEM OUT

 

[mikiemov]

I quite often arrive at the office to find the same error, say one occasion every 2-3 weeks. Stopping/starting the print spooler does not resolve the problem.

I have found that changing the path to the spool folder within server proerties on the W2k print server works around the problem however its not a resolve.

Any ideas ?

 

[Micron1090]

Next time it happens, try stopping the spooler, then deleting the contents of the spooler directory before you restart it. I've seen, especially on metaframe 1.8 with HP drivers, that spool files just sit there and kill the spooler. We had to create a manual job to run everynight to stop, delete and start.

 

[dholbrook]

As an additional suggestion, be sure the spooling on the print server is NOT located on the same drive as the operating system. I have had print servers crash because they ran out of operating space as users dumped a few 500+ MB power point print jobs at the same time, and believe me, it is not prretty to try to recover a server with 0 bits of drive space left!

To pin point your problem when the users can not print, can they ping the print server (by name, not ip address)? If not, you have a WINS issue or a DNS issue to resolve, as this gets information updated when you reboot the server and it announces itself to the network. If the user cannot ping the print server, then I agree with jpondel.

Make sure also that the print server (and all other servers) are using fixed addresses that are excluded from the dhcp ranges.

With a DOmain, you should make the DC the DNS server for your Domain, point all users to the Domain DC for DNS. Make sure you have pointed the DC DNS to itself first, the to the outside DNS sources second. This way all users will be able to resolve the internal print server name correctly.

Important note, however, do not forget that if any of your users are on older operating systems such as WIN98, then you MUST have a WINS service running for them to resolve the printer address everytime they log on. Put this on the DC also.

HTH
David

 

[mikiemov]

Hi, thanks for your responses.

All name resoulution services are working/configured fine.

I have changed the spool folder to a different partition from the o/s so let see if that works.

Mike,