Wierd Network Printing Problem

[mungdrool]

Hi all,

I have two machines, one XP and the other Vista. I have a printer attached to the XP machine that is shared. I have been able to successfully attach to this printer from the Vista machine, but here's where the wierdness starts.

My account is an Admin account while my wife's is a standard user account. I can print multiple page documents with no problem, however she can only print the first page of a multipage document. This happens no matter what application I'm using to print. If I change her account type to be admin, she prints normally. When I switch her back to standard, she only gets the first page again.

Anyone run into this before or have any suggestions on how to track down what's happening here?

Thanks for any ideas,
Jeff

 

[jakechaffee]

I have never run in to that but since it sounds like a persmission issue. Rather than changing her whole account to admin (unless you want that) just change her print permission on the share to manage documents and see if that fixes the issue.

Right click shared printer > sharing > permissions.

Give that a whirl.

Jake Chaffee
"There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who can read binary and those who can't."

 

[mungdrool]

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately it didn't help. It definitely seems to be a permissions problem, but I can't figure out what permission is causing the problem. I have granted the Everyone group all available permissions on this shared printer, as well as just my wife's account, with no change in performance. It's strange that one page can be printed, but not the entire document. Usually, it's an all or nothing deal with permissions. The printer in question is a Lexmark x1270 all-in-one printer. I have the latest drivers installed on both the XP and Vista machines.

Can you think of any other piece that might need its permissions tweaked? I appreciate any help you may provide.

Jeff

 

[linney]

Are there any clues in the Event Viewer?

What are the permissions like on the Spooler side of things?

XP Printing Issues
thread779-1122140

Users can't print docs over 1Mb - but admin can!
thread779-1016521

unable to print whole doc from dos app
thread779-1264310

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

 

[HughLerwill]

Just to eliminate the Printer and its driver, have you tried another printer shared in the same manner?

 

[mungdrool]

I appreciate the feedback. I have checked the group policies on the XP box and they seem to be in line with what this document says. I can't figure out how to check them on the Vista machine. I read somewhere that it's not available for the Home Premium version of Vista. I've checked just about every permission I could find on both boxes, and couldn't see anything that jumped out at me. For the most part, her account has the same rights as mine.

I don't have access to another printer to see how that would work.

I have printed from her account on the XP box and it works fine, so it has to have something to do with the permissions on the Vista machine or somewhere in the network. I see no messages being logged anywhere in my firewalls, event logs, etc.

It does seem to act like the issue in the thread about the users being able to print only 1M unless they are admins. I have no print management software installed either.

Can you think of anything else to try?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[linney]

Have you tried deleting the printer from Printer and Faxes and setting it up again?

What happens if as a test you let this user Print To File and then take the created file and (Drag) drop it on the Printer Icon?

Print to file
Thread779-798962

Printing to a file instead of a printer
thread779-814770

What happens if you create a new user with similar rights as your wife?

Have you tried to print from Safe Mode with Networking?

Has this printer ever worked for your wife?

If it has, and you have System Restore points, then using that may be an option.

You could try the System File Checker program.

How to analyze the log file entries that the Microsoft Windows Resource Checker (SFC.exe) program generates in Windows Vista

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928228

Do you want to try physically attaching the printer to the Vista machine and see if she can then print to it without problems?

 

[mungdrool]

I appreciate all of your suggestions so far. I tried attaching the printer directly to the Vista box and it still only printed one page. I also tried deleting and readding the printer with the same result. At this point, I'm ready to chalk it up as a "Security Feature" and forget about it. Maybe it'll be fixed in a service pack sometime. For now, I just elevated her to Admin so she'll be able to print and I'll keep looking for a proper fix. If I find anything, I'll be sure to post back here and let you all know what I found out.

Thanks again,

Jeff

 

[HughLerwill]

I wonder if 'Microsoft Office Document Image Writer' or something similar like a fax is included in your list of printers. If so what happens with them?

 

[mungdrool]

I just wanted to provide an update to this thread. Lexmark tech support finally provided a solution. The problem was with the "spooler format" for this printer. I had to go into the advanced properties tab for the printer, select the Print Processor button and change it to "Lexmark." Under "Default datatype," select "NT EMF 1.008."

I thank everyone who provided suggestions on this issue.

MungDrool