P
Paul Rubiola
I've got a major printing problem on a local area network that I support.
The setup:
3 machines 2 WinXp Pro, 1 Windows 2000.
Machine1 (WinXP) has 3 printers: a Brother 5070 DN Laser, and 2 Okidata ML
590 dot matrix printers.
All are assigned to Lpt1, 2 and 3 respectively and shared on the lan as
Printer1, Printer2, Printer3 corresponding to Lpt1, 2 & 3 (with the Brother
laser as the default printer on Lpt1)
The machines are all Dell Optiplex systems. Machine1 is less than 6 weeks
old. Machine 2 is a Windows 2000 and Machine3 is also XP pro.
I got additional printer ports for Machine1 via a PCI printer port card
which was installed after the setup of the computer.
I set all this up a couple of weeks ago and things have been functioning
properly for that time.
The problem:
Today (actually yesterday as this is written) the operator of machine1 left
early and shut her machine down - she asked if that was ok, to which others
in the office replied "Sure - no problem". This was followed by a frantic
call to me to report that their printers were not working. As I was
pondering what cosmic shift might have reduced such fine hardware to junk
the caller, in an inquisitive manner said, "does it matter if machine1 is
off?". Immediately the sun shone through the gathering storm clouds and I
replied (a very restrained) "Yes". I instructed the caller to re-boot
everything.
The re-boot showed the printers were on-line and presumabably eagerly
waiting for some print jobs. I told my customer to print something. This
resulted in a disheartening remark to the effect that "nothing printed".
I logged onto my client's machine (unfortunately Machine1 does not have an
internet connection) and viewed what was going on from his computer.
The print queue for Printer1 had 2 print jobs that became 1 job and which
then returned to 2 jobs and back to 1 and back to 2 and ... you get the
idea.
I tried to cancel the print jobs. Alas, I (or at least my customer's
computer) did not have the supreme authority necessary to tell machine1
where to stick the print jobs for printer1. I guess I should mention at
this point that the LAN is strictly Peer to Peer. I suppose the customer
should really consider a full fledged Client Server system but that doesn't
solve my present problem.
After several attempts to fix this on line I decided I had to make an office
call for my client.
My first idea to fix the printing situation was to look at the Print Spooler
service. PS seemed to be running along happily; nevertheless I restarted
the service. No joy there.
Next I check the cables (yep, all plugged in tightly), power cords (in and
on) the bios setting for the onboard Lpt1 (changed to EPP) and a few more
things that I can't remember now. Rebooted and .. SOS (same ol' stuff).
Next I decided to get serious and delete the printers. I deleted all of 'em
and re-booted. Upon restart, the computer said that it had found new
hardware and wanted to install it. I thought that this was a good sign
until I noticed that what it though it had found was one of the Okidata
printers. Now these little workhorses have been around for quite a while
and I've never known them to be so cooperative with the OS. I figured that
something was not right here so I cancelled the automatic install and
decided to try the direct approach via the Add Printer routines.
The "add printer" routine did not detect the Brother Laser. I found this
curious but forced the issue by manually installing the printer on lpt1. I
did the same for Lpt2 and 3. I printed a test page and glory be - it
printed (even went to the right printer). Print out to 2 and 3 went well as
well.
My little celebratory dance stopped however when upon re-boot the print
queues again manifested the schizophrenic behavior of juggling print jobs.
Deleting and manually installing (not letting XP automatically detect) the
printers resolves the problem until the next re-boot.
So how do I get the printers permanently back on the job?
Here are some ideas I have not tried:
1. Dropping the printers out the 2nd story window
2. Dropping the computers out the 2nd story window.
3. Removing the PCI printer card
4. Smashing the monitor
5. Cutting the printer cable into tiny bits
6. Calling an exorcist
Does anybody have some other ideas?
Thanks
Paul Rubiola
The setup:
3 machines 2 WinXp Pro, 1 Windows 2000.
Machine1 (WinXP) has 3 printers: a Brother 5070 DN Laser, and 2 Okidata ML
590 dot matrix printers.
All are assigned to Lpt1, 2 and 3 respectively and shared on the lan as
Printer1, Printer2, Printer3 corresponding to Lpt1, 2 & 3 (with the Brother
laser as the default printer on Lpt1)
The machines are all Dell Optiplex systems. Machine1 is less than 6 weeks
old. Machine 2 is a Windows 2000 and Machine3 is also XP pro.
I got additional printer ports for Machine1 via a PCI printer port card
which was installed after the setup of the computer.
I set all this up a couple of weeks ago and things have been functioning
properly for that time.
The problem:
Today (actually yesterday as this is written) the operator of machine1 left
early and shut her machine down - she asked if that was ok, to which others
in the office replied "Sure - no problem". This was followed by a frantic
call to me to report that their printers were not working. As I was
pondering what cosmic shift might have reduced such fine hardware to junk
the caller, in an inquisitive manner said, "does it matter if machine1 is
off?". Immediately the sun shone through the gathering storm clouds and I
replied (a very restrained) "Yes". I instructed the caller to re-boot
everything.
The re-boot showed the printers were on-line and presumabably eagerly
waiting for some print jobs. I told my customer to print something. This
resulted in a disheartening remark to the effect that "nothing printed".
I logged onto my client's machine (unfortunately Machine1 does not have an
internet connection) and viewed what was going on from his computer.
The print queue for Printer1 had 2 print jobs that became 1 job and which
then returned to 2 jobs and back to 1 and back to 2 and ... you get the
idea.
I tried to cancel the print jobs. Alas, I (or at least my customer's
computer) did not have the supreme authority necessary to tell machine1
where to stick the print jobs for printer1. I guess I should mention at
this point that the LAN is strictly Peer to Peer. I suppose the customer
should really consider a full fledged Client Server system but that doesn't
solve my present problem.
After several attempts to fix this on line I decided I had to make an office
call for my client.
My first idea to fix the printing situation was to look at the Print Spooler
service. PS seemed to be running along happily; nevertheless I restarted
the service. No joy there.
Next I check the cables (yep, all plugged in tightly), power cords (in and
on) the bios setting for the onboard Lpt1 (changed to EPP) and a few more
things that I can't remember now. Rebooted and .. SOS (same ol' stuff).
Next I decided to get serious and delete the printers. I deleted all of 'em
and re-booted. Upon restart, the computer said that it had found new
hardware and wanted to install it. I thought that this was a good sign
until I noticed that what it though it had found was one of the Okidata
printers. Now these little workhorses have been around for quite a while
and I've never known them to be so cooperative with the OS. I figured that
something was not right here so I cancelled the automatic install and
decided to try the direct approach via the Add Printer routines.
The "add printer" routine did not detect the Brother Laser. I found this
curious but forced the issue by manually installing the printer on lpt1. I
did the same for Lpt2 and 3. I printed a test page and glory be - it
printed (even went to the right printer). Print out to 2 and 3 went well as
well.
My little celebratory dance stopped however when upon re-boot the print
queues again manifested the schizophrenic behavior of juggling print jobs.
Deleting and manually installing (not letting XP automatically detect) the
printers resolves the problem until the next re-boot.
So how do I get the printers permanently back on the job?
Here are some ideas I have not tried:
1. Dropping the printers out the 2nd story window
2. Dropping the computers out the 2nd story window.
3. Removing the PCI printer card
4. Smashing the monitor
5. Cutting the printer cable into tiny bits
6. Calling an exorcist
Does anybody have some other ideas?
Thanks
Paul Rubiola