Print spooler & XP laptop

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I have a laptop that keeps stopping printing. Its in a room with 25 other PC's and they all share a printer that is connected to the 25th PC and all the print jobs go via the printserver in the comms room.

For some reason the laptop will at various times not print and when trying to investigate further an errror message that the print spooler service is not started is displayed. But the other 25 PC's can stll print???

Any ideas, if you need more info just ask as I'm rushing.

EDIT: Forgot to add that if I stop and start the print spool service on the print server then the laptop will print. Just dont know why it keeps doing this.

 

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Is there any common factors to take into account, such as, it will print the first X number of times then you get the error, It only gets the error message after 30 mins of operation or when first plugged in.

Is the print spooler service starting automatically on the laptop?

 

The laptop print service has no effect on the problem if I stop and start the service on the laptop the problem is still there but if I stop and start the service on the print server it will print OK

As for common factors its hard to say as its a teachers laptop and they only call when I stops printing and from what I can gather its at different times and with different files?

 

I have continual and similar problems with my set-up (w2k, mind). All PCs print through a dedicated Print Server network device (Intel NetPort, actually) which has the printer connected, and then it in turn is thru' the hub to the LAN.

I can print standard jobs (say 4-5 page docs, etc) normally, but then every so often the service will halt. As you say, Si - restarting the service usually clears the prob. Otherwise I need to reset the print server.

Maybe a known issue with w2k / XP ? Damn pain in the @ss

 

I assume that all the machines are XP, or you have loaded the additional drivers on the server? The other thing that springs to mind is the settings for the printer on the laptop in question, is it using the same format and spool settings as the machines that can print normally?

 

Its odd how its only the laptop and non of the other PC's. The laptop OS is XP and the PC's are 2K could it be something there??

For the time being I've connected the laptop to the printer direct to the PC instead of the printer server.

 

That points to in being a driver issue I suspect. I would make sure the latest drivers are on the server for XP and re-install the printer on the client.

 

You might be onto something Luton, I'll try this wednesday as not at work tommorow. Thanks

 

Another thought for Wednesday Si, if the print "server" is a 2k professional machine, an not server, could you be falling foul of the 10 connections limit?

 

No its a 2K server, so that shouldnt be a problem