Terminal Services & Word on Office 2000 - hang/crash

[Simon P]

Hi there,

I am a relatively new IT manager, working on a Windows
2000 server based environment with 18 users accessing the
server through TS client software. We are running a case
management system on the Win2000 Server that interacts
with Word to produce documents to send to our clients
(using a print/save macro). We have had problems now for
the past couple of months where CPU power seems to be
being zapped when we print certain documents from word (no
identifiable pattern).

The symptoms are that word hangs along with the print box
and it cannot be closed by the user. Within 5 minutes, the
rest of the users usually have their terminal services
connection ended unexpectedly and by either powering down
and back up the switches or the server, the problem is
solved but it's causing lots of disruption.

We are using Office 2000 and Windows 2000 Server with
latest patches and SP4. We do not have a seperate print
server so our printers are on the same network as our
applications and data - could this be hindering us? We
have been recommended to buy a seperate print/file server
but before going to the expense of around £5,000 I wanted
to check if there are any alternatives.

 

[Simon P]

Patrick,

Thanks for your mail and the links. Reviewing the
Microsoft paper on Printer Drivers it appears that we have
the worst combo of drivers/printers you could imagine. The
majority of our printers are FS-1000 or FS-1050 networked
Kyocera printers residing on the same Windows 2000 server
as our applications. Hence when the print jobs go screwy,
everyone using the server does too before eventually
overloading the server CPU and disconnecting everyone. The
print drivers for the Kyocera are kernel mode, monolithic
and not incorporated into the 'Designed for Windows' list.
Given that we have around 8 printers (costing £3,000 to
replace) are there any options we can pursue given the
predicament we are now in?

Cheers

Simon

 

[Simon P]

Just one thing to add to the reply below which is that we
are using applications that necessitate the use of PCL
based drivers (Laserform 8 being one) because if we change
to Kyocera's KX Drivers, even though they state they adapt
to PCL format, they don't. I am therefore concerned that
by purchasing a print server, we will just continue the
problems on here rather than eliminating them totally.
_________________________________________________________

 

[Guest]

I would recommed that you try out a 3rd party printing program like triCerat Screwdrivers, UniPrint or ThinPrint or try mapping the KyoCera Printers to something like a LaserJet 4 using the user defined inf file. Both options listed here

http://www.workthin.com/tsp.ht

Patrick Rous
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Serve
http://www.workthin.co

----- Simon P wrote: ----

Just one thing to add to the reply below which is that we
are using applications that necessitate the use of PCL
based drivers (Laserform 8 being one) because if we change
to Kyocera's KX Drivers, even though they state they adapt
to PCL format, they don't. I am therefore concerned that
by purchasing a print server, we will just continue the
problems on here rather than eliminating them totally
________________________________________________________