Windows Print Spooler OS Problems??

[JBeckman]

We have two print servers and around 100 networked printers hooked-up to them. They are HP servers with Windows Server 2003 SPK 2. We are just using the Windows Print Spooler software and have had several weird problems lately with printers on the network. All printers on the network are HPs using the HP JetDirect cards.
The problems we've seen are:
random printing to a different printer than requested. In fact the printer it prints to isn't even mapped on the users PC.
When trying to print multiple copies of documents it will print one copy then print an error message on the second page and then stops. This happens no matter what software the user is printing from.


Any assistance is helpful here.

 

[KRPGroup]

I am assuming with that number of printers there are a lot of exact models?
Is this limited to a select few printers, models or all printers?
Are all the printers setup with static IPs?
Can you reproduce this issue when printing from the print server itself?

Does your Event logs should confirm if the job were sent to the appropriate que/printer/IP but show up at another printer.

I have never managed that amount of printers but is there a limit or settings to what the spooler can handle based on # of users/printer, job sizes ect.

Have you reinstall the printers at the server/client level.

 

[itsp1965]

I have seen this random printing issue in Terminal Services/Citrix environments whereby a user's printer would become the default printer for the server. Haven't seen this in awhile though, but it's still quite possible

 

[JBeckman]

Thanks itsp1965...how did you resolve the issue of it becoming the default printer? Does making another printer on the server fix the issue?

 

[DTracy]

If your printers are DHCP and you failed to reserve all the IP's of those printers then there is a possibility that some of the IP's have been chenged. Sending a job to an old IP might not work or it may be sent to a different printer then the one you selected.

 

[itsp1965]

In my case it was an issue with print driver mapping caused by naming printers to something different besides the default. For example if I have an HP Laserjet but I rename it Bob's printer it would appear as such in Citrix/TS which would "confuse" it and would print jobs to random printers
Now I haven't worked in TS/Citrix printing environments for awhile, but I sounds like the same problem