Deleted printers reapear

[mal]

I have 2 printers on a 2003 server
and XP clients - Some machine/users
have 2 printers that appear in printers and faxes
but some have 4, two working and two not working
They have that'unable to connect' message. If I delete them
they reappear after about half a second ( it doesn't matter
if you are Administrator or a User )

Example

UserA logs on to machineA there are 2 printers which is OK
UserA logs on to machineB and there are 4 which is wrong
UserB logs on to machineB and there are 2 printers
UserB logs on to machineX and there are 4 printers

The printers are set with a vbs script which is OK because the
two working printers are always there. There used to be a Novell
print server some time ago but that is now gone

Can someone please point me in the right direction before
I go completely mad !

regards

m

 

[Gerry Hickman]

UserA logs on to machineA there are 2 printers which is OK

Does machineA _ever_ have more than 2?

UserA logs on to machineB and there are 4 which is wrong

Does machineB _ever_ have less than 4?

 

[mal]

Does machineA _ever_ have more than 2?



Does machineB _ever_ have less than 4?

MachineA will have 2 or 4 depending who is logged in
the same goes for machineB

( I simplified it a bit for the sake of this email - no one goes mad
over two machines and a couple of users - we are talking 1500 users here
- all with different combinations of 2 or 4 printers depending on which
workstation they sit down at )

But not always the same users - so UserA may have 2 printers on some
workstations and 4 on others but UserB may have a different combination

What bugs me is where those two extra printers come from and why they
won't go away if you delete them - Originally I thought that it might be
due to the windows 2003 server having ipx/spx still on it from the days
when there was a novell server but I got rid of that

I have checked the print server and the printers are all correct and
there are no extra ones

!!**!

m

 

[Gerry Hickman]

MachineA will have 2 or 4 depending who is logged in
the same goes for machineB

OK, it's beginning to make sense.

( I simplified it a bit for the sake of this email - no one goes mad
over two machines and a couple of users - we are talking 1500 users here
- all with different combinations of 2 or 4 printers depending on which
workstation they sit down at )

OK, is it always the case that the same workstations are always the same
ones where extra printers appear?

You imply you are running a dedicated print server, and I'm assuming
there are NO LOCALLY CONNECTED printers on any workstation right?

Can you try two things:

1. Log onto two workstations (as local admin) where you've seen the
problem. Do you see ANY printers at all? You should not see any unless
you've actually printed as a local admin on those stations for some
reason. If you see printers and you've never printed as local admin it
could be one of your admins bungled a script.

2. You say you use a script but don't give details. Can you say how this
is set up (GPO, NetLogon etc) and post the code of the part dealing with
printers.

 

[Bill Stewart]

I have 2 printers on a 2003 server and XP clients - Some
machine/users have 2 printers that appear in printers and faxes but
some have 4, two working and two not working They have that'unable to
connect' message. If I delete them they reappear after about half a
second ( it doesn't matter if you are Administrator or a User )

Hi Mal,

Are the printers connected as "per-machine" printers? Try this command:

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /c"\\<computer>" /ge

<computer> is the name of the problem computer. This will pop up a GUI
window listing the per-machine printers for the specified computer.
These printers will appear no matter who is logged on and will reappear
after deletion unless removed by:

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /c"\\<computer>" /gd /n"<printername>"

HTH,

Bill

 

[mal]

I'll try that - I have posted another example of my problem to the other
thread - maybe it will help

many thanks

mal

 

[mal]

Here is another example

3 machines in a row

machine A , B , C

logged userA into all machines
machine A = 2 printers
machine B = 4 printers
machine C = 2 printers

logged userB into all machines
machine A = 2 printers
machine B = 2 printers
machine C = 4 printers

regards


mal

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Are the printers connected as "per-machine" printers?

That's what I was wondering...

Try this command:

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /c"\\<computer>" /ge

Excellent tool!