XP SP2 Print Spooler Problem

[DotNetNewbie]

Hi,

I am hoping that someone can help me with what is proving to be a real brain aching problem:

We have recently taken delivery of a number of Dell GX280 desktops. We have built a generic imagine for them to speed up installation. The first 5,6 worked without a problem, however all the others we build seem to encounter the same fault:

The fault being that when you boot up and log in as any user or admin the Print Sooler service is stopped, attempting to restart it in any fashion (ive read other articles about this) results in the service starting for about 30 seconds then stopping again.

No printers have ever been installed onto these machines, they all run XP PRo, with SP2 installed.

I cannot see why the first 5,6 worked and the rest all have this problem. I've tried just about everything I have been able to find on the net, with the exeption of rebuilding from scratch. I've even spoken to Dell, who told me not to install SP2 !!!

Any ideas most welcome, and i'll buy a pint for anyone who find me a workable solution

Thanks in advance

D.

 

[JFBouchard]

Hi, have you tried to configure the windows firewall with an exception for "file and print sharing"?

 

[DotNetNewbie]

Hey,

Thanks for the quick reponce. However it errors if you have the firewall enabled/disabled or even with an exception.

Good idea mind.

Dave

 

[JFBouchard]

I've seen some interesting bugs, some products need to have exceptions defined EVEN if the firewall is disabled, can you believe this?? (NetIQ agent is one of them, SMS administrator console counts for two).

Hope this helps. Please let know if this resolve your issue

Jeff

 

[bcastner]

Start, Run, eventvwr.msc

What are the detailed Event Logs for the spooler?

 

[DotNetNewbie]

Hey Bcastner,

I've read your posts about this subject

As Requested:

Source : Service Control Manager
Category : None
Event ID : 7031 and 7034
Description :

The Print Spooler service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 60000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

OR

The Print Spooler service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 3 time(s).

I hope that helps, let me know if you need more information.

 

[bcastner]

http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=7031&eventno=465&source=Service Control Manager&phase=1

 

[DotNetNewbie]

bcastner,

Thanks for the link but it doesn't really help. A majority of those posts refer to W2K, I am referring to XP, and its nothing to do with old spool files or incompatible drivers as this is a fresh install with a printer never been installed.

Its odd that the first 5,6 machines work fine and the rest dont. However saying that i did notice when I built the 5th one it originally had the problem but running windows update and adding additional programs seem to have fixed it, however since the 5th machine was for a developer alot of additional software was installed.

Keep the info coming, im sure we can find the solution....

Regards

D.

 

[bcastner]

You checked the installed print monitors?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260142

 

[Spiggsy]

I once had a similar problem with this on Dell desktops. It turned out that the hardware had changed ever so slighty, like a REV1 to REV2 version change. We had to create new images every approximately 10 PC's. This is caused us a total headache, especially when we had a couple of hundred machines.

Try creating a fresh install and using that as an image on the remaining desktops.

This is the #1 reason I will never put a Dell in the workplace!

 

[DotNetNewbie]

Thanks for the replies,

bcastner, sorry to say that didnt help

Spiggsy,

I think you could be right, we have started to build a new image and so far, tough wood, it is working, I have a few multilingual bits to add and it should then be ready for sysprep.

Its odd as Dell's are teh desktop of choice here, and up until now we have never had any problems with them.

Well I will keep you all posted.

D.

 

[timroop]

Just for confirmation of Spiggsy's diagnosis. Dell changes hardware revisions all the time. I've seen it even within the same model run. I have ordered 5 machines at a time and had as many as 3 hardware revisions. Ugg!

Makes system imaging a nightmare.



Tim Roop
"If you can do something about it, why waste time getting upset? If you can't do anything about it, why bother getting upset on top of it? -Shantideva

 

[DotNetNewbie]

Gents,

It would seem its a Dell issue, I have just received a further 10 machines and guess what, I had to use one of the earlier builds I had for the GX280 to get it to work correctly.

I found a few additional posts on various bloggs and it would seem that this is a common problem with the new GX280's.....Odd that I never had this problem with the GX270 and we had well over 200 of those.....

Thanks for your time and effort guys..and gals.

Regards.

D.