Win XP SP3 Slow Print Dialog 2

[jrjuiliano]

Hey all,

Just installed XP Service Pack 3 on a few machines and the big complaint at this point is that when printing a document (from pretty much any application), the print dialog box can take 5-20 seconds to come up. This is through either hitting the "print" button, going to file>print, or just using CTRL+P.

Anyone else experience this problem? Know of any fixes? I've been searching around but there is nothing concrete. Most of the printers we use are network printers, aside from one app (snapshot) that prints to TIFF format for our document management program.

Any help or insight would be appreciated!

J.R. Juiliano

 

[linney]

Are they all using the same make and model printer, if so, could it be a driver problem?

I have not seen any link between SP3 specifically and slow opening of the Print dialog box but there is a bit of general information around.

Slow Printing Response on Network - Vista to XP - Please Help

http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=683757

http://groups.google.com/groups?q="print dialog box "+slow+xp&rls=com.microsoft:

 

[jrjuiliano]

I'll check to see if there are updated drivers for our net printers, thanks for the links.

There may be an issue with the snapshot printer mentioned in my earlier post, but we'll just have to see!

Thanks again.

J.R.

 

[jrjuiliano]

Interesting little followup.

New drivers for the HP networked printer didn't help.

One of the clients had an outdated (removed) printer sitting in the "printers and faxes" list. Removed that printer and suddenly everything worked fast!

It didn't go so well for another client, but at least I'm on the right track. At the very least I can probably remove ALL printers in the list and add them again.

 

[2ffat]

linney's solution about making the network port a local port worked for me. It took me a little while to figure out that after I had deleted the old port, I had to reboot for the port to go away, though. Otherwise it keeps saying the port still exists and won't let you connect.

One note of interest. I've had problems with the this on a Dell and HP but an Acer worked without changing the network port to a local port. Odd.




James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[Doughboi]

My network printers were already set to use local port/TCPIP, but since installing XP SP3, I have to wait what seems like forever for the dialog to pop up whenever I print anything.

The users on my network use a mix of print server and print to local port/TCPIP. I hope that I wouldn't have to touch each of these computers to 'fix' this issue.

Anyone have other suggestions?

 

[ITArchitect]

>My network printers were already set to use local port/TCPIP, but since installing XP SP3, I have to wait what seems like forever for the dialog to pop up whenever I print anything.<

Same here. I'm not totally confident that it was from SP3 or something after that. All I know is you switch to something else in the mean time because it takes a full minute no matter how big or small the print job.

 

[linney]

Two further things you can consider while you wait for this thread to develop.

1. Support for SP3 problems is free from Microsoft, but you have to contact them to start the process.

http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&prid=11273&gprid=522131

2. Uninstall SP3 and return back to SP2.

How to remove Windows XP Service Pack 3 from your computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950249

You could check out some of the Server Forums to see if they have had a similar experience to you.

http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=931

http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=1674

 

[Blondie63]

Hi jrjuiliano (MIS), i've same problem with some my customers !
Have you found a solution ?

best regards

Blondie

 

[jrjuiliano]

Blondie,

After removing that old printer my clients haven't complained about the issue, so I 'assume' (I know I shouldn't) that the problem was solved for them.

On an individual client, I would check for that and also try removing and re-installing any and all printers in the client's printer list.

I know this may not be easy for those with a ton of clients, but to test on an individual should help.

Might want to try and nail it to specific applications as well. Sometimes it was specific to our document management platform (Laserfiche) but it would work fine on things like MS Word.

Sorry I can't be more help!

 

[rdb3]

I have gone thru the same experience with 20s delay in appearance of print dialog box after installing SP3. Spent 90 mins on phone with MS Tech Support this morning and after much wringing of hands the only thing that worked was to delete and then reinstall all printers. Now works like a charm. Don't waste your time on the phone like I did. Either uninstall SP3 or reinstall the printers.

 

[dc2112]

Same as rdb3 only the client PCs had printers setup for PCs on the network that didn't exist anymore. All I did was remove these non existent printers. I didn't even have to remove and reinstall the existing printers.