Print jobs disappear

[Brandon]

I have a Windows 2000 Print Server dedicated to our
network. It has 103 printers connected to it. Recently,
3 of the print queues stopped working properly. If my
user (who has Power User rights to the domain) attempts to
send a print job to the print queue, everything looks as
it should. They do not get any errors and the printer
icon beside the clock shows up, then goes away after a
minute. The problem is, nothing ever prints. The print
server never receives the job and the printer never
prints. Now, if I capture the same print queue to a LPT
port, then the user prints to the LPT port, the network
printer will print everytime. When I logon to any
computer using my administrator account to the domain, I
can print to the network queue everytime. The first thing
I did was check the user rights on the printers. (I am
having this identical issue on four different printers.)
I doublechecked the users rights on these printer queues
versus the other print queues, and they are all
identical. I went so far as to change the queue names,
delete the "non-working" queues, and switch the IP
addresses on the printers. Still the same issues. Anyone
have any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Gerald]

Hi Brandon,

did you define every printer as a local printer and did
you create a new 'standard tcp/ip port' for every printer?
If so check the portsettings (rightclick printer ->
properties -> ports. Press configure port). If you're
using LPR as protocol, then check the LPR settings and
especially the Queue name. If this queue name is wrong
you get the problems you described.

Regards Gerald

 

[Brandon]

Gerald,

I checked what you said and I found the Protocol is set
for RAW which causes the LPR Settings to be greyed out.
When I checkmarked the LPR setting, I was able to type in
the Queue Name (which had been blank). I typed in the
share name of the printer, OK, then watched the printers
as my user tried printing to the network queue. I saw the
job enter and exit the print server printers (it took less
than a second), but the job never made it to the printer.
I am still open to suggestions!

Thanks for your help.

Brandon

 

[tim]

I have had a similar problem in the past. My 2000 server
manages about 50 printers. User would print, you would
quickly see the printer come up in bottom right but then
it would vanish and of course no printout.

It eventally worked again after multiple printer restarts
and reinstalling the printer on the server.

perhaps try the latest driver?

 

[Gerald]

Brandon,

when using RAW printing you use a port number that
matches the port numbers that you're printers support
(e.g 9100, 515, 2000)? And you have RAW peinting enabled
on the printer? We're using for example Xerox copiers. I
can enable or disable RAW printing per machine and I can
tell the machine what port to use for RAW printing. This
then must match the RAW port settings on the server.
I hope this helps.

regards Gerald