Win2k Pro and HP printer..

[brainey426]

Our office has a HP800 Large format printer attached to the network with an internal directjet via tcp/ip. We have 12 CAD stations, all Win2kPro and plot via a Win2k for print servering..
Problem:
4 of the stations have the SPOOL service just shut down for no apparant reason, each at any time. The other 8 are fine and have not once shut down. If you restart it manually in Services.. it runs and may or may not shut down. The O/S states it is making an event listing.. but it is very inconclusive.. i.e. states the Spool service shut down for an unknown reason.

What I have tried:
Ran without active virus protection on System folders on local machines.
Disabled the HPWeb interface.
Updated the Win2k Server driver to most update.
Attached HP800 to a workstation via USB.
Have compared event logs of workstations and Server. Nothing obvious there.
Have looked at the other 8 to see why they are different. They don't appear to be.

I am out of ideas. I have 4 Draftsman following me around like puppys.

I have set the service to restart automatically.. but by chance they always want to print in that one minute window...

Fralinger Engineeing
Brian Rainey
Network Admin

 

[PeteH2]

You have changed the driver on the server, but did you remove the old PRN driver on the workstation BEFORE installing the new one ? The installation routine probably told you that it did, but it may be worth checking...

Have you tried replacing one of the failing PC's with a fresly built one ? (I know, luxury siutation, worth a shot though)

HTH

Pete H

 

[brainey426]

I have deleted and reinstalled each of the 4 connections to the HP800 driver on the server from each workstation. On two of the machines.. I immediately get a SPOOL failure when I click on the HP800 device. Surprisingly.. just a click on it and WHAM. On the one machine that I am beatin my head up against the wall on.. If Autocad is open.. it will close down Autocad WITHOUT a chance of saving anything.
I may in fact re-load there... :^(

Our network consultant.. has never heard of this..

Brian

 

[PeteH2]

I think the printing side of things is a Red Herring to a problem that could be more fundamental; I think your RunDll32 is corrupt. It's when you said 'I only clicked on it....' that rang a bell.

Can you rebuild one of the PC's with just the bare OS and no apps and try it, then gradually install apps trying it after each time. Time-consuming, I know, but at the very least an approach like this will give you time to think.

HTH

Pete H

 

[brainey426]

omg. it's never good when fish gets into your computer...

I just worked on the main problem machine and found out that the machine was not logging onto the domain properly. I went over those settings and now the user has rights on his machine, similar to everyone else's machines.

Testing is still going on now..

Brian