Printed Docs Retained in Spool on XP Pro

D

DukieDallas

I'm having a hell of a problem with a single workstation on the office
network keeping documents in its print spool file. The printer definition
isn't set to do that.

When a document is sent to the printer, it prints and then stays in the
print queue (spool) with the status "Sent to printer." If the workstation
is rebooted, all documents in the spool print again. Documents have to
manually be deleted from the print queue either individually or by clearing
the whole queue. The spool folder is in the default location and properties
on it seem normal. The files in the spool folder seem normal, with normal
properties. (Except of course, that they stay there.)

Workstation: WinXP Professional SP1a, upgraded from Win2000 Pro SP4 several
months ago.

(Pardon my sending this to the Win2000 group as well as the WinXP group.
The problem I'm having is identical to one reported on 1/27/04 by
(e-mail address removed) with the subject "W2Kp Spooler not deleting files...") I
don't see a reply to him from that post.

The workstation is up to date with all recommended patches. I also
reapplied XP Service Pack 1a.

Several printers are defined on the workstation. All printers are networked
so the print spools are on the individual workstations. All are different
flavors of HP LaserJets with "HP Standard TCP/IP" port defiinitions. The
printers were installed using the "HP Install Network Printer Wizard"
application. Only one of the several printers defined on this one
workstation suffers from this problem at any one time. With the other
printers, documents are printed and then deleted automatically from the
print queue.

If the offending printer is deleted, the problem seems to move to another
one of the defined printers. Which one seems to be random, i.e. - it
doesn't seem to follow the order in which the printers are listed in Pinters
& Faxes, nor does it follow the order in which the printers are listed in
the registry
(HKLM/\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Print\Printers\....)

I've deleted the offending printer(s) and reinstalled them. No change.
Also removed the "HP Standard TCP/IP" port and replaced it with XP's
"Standard TCP/IP" port. No change.

Also have deleted and reinstalled the offending printer several times with
different drivers: PCL6, PCL5e, PostScript. No change.

I've checked the offending printer's properties, specifically the "Keep
printed documents" checkbox on the Advanced tab. That checkbox is cleared.
Checking it, rebooting, and then unchecking it does not clear the problem.

I've also checked the registry, specifically the "printKeepPrintedJobs"
value in the
HKLM/\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Print\Printers\<printernam
e>\Spooler key. Whether it's set to binary 00 (do not keep printed
documents) or binary 01 (keep printed documents) is perfectly in sync with
the checkbox on the Advanced properties. But it obviously isn't working
that way for the one printer.

The same printer, defined in the same way, works normally on all other
workstations in the office. Those workstations are a mixture of Win2000 Pro
and WinXP Pro.

This started about a week ago on this one workstation, although to the best
of my knowledge, no changes were made to it.

Bottom line, I haven't made any progress despite the actions above and
checking the MS knowledgebase, TechNet, and various newsgroups. Anyone have
an idea? Please reply in the newsgroup.

Thanks,
DukieDallas
 
S

sbass

DukieDallas said:
I'm having a hell of a problem with a single workstation on the office
network keeping documents in its print spool file. The printer definition
isn't set to do that.

Disable bi-directional support on the printer object. If that fails,
disable spooling on the printer object.

Shawn
 
Joined
Jun 12, 2006
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I have the same problem

I have the same problem using my work laptop at home. I had a Dell Inspiron 8500 with W2K SP4 that kept the printed files. I now have an HP nw8240 with XP SP2 that's doing the same thing. The printer is an HP 3310 connected to my network via a DLink print server. I'm also using the standard TCP/IP port in XP. If I connect direct via USB there's no problem. I also have an HP 2210 on another DLink print server which has not had this problem with either laptop. I've tried most of the trouble-shooting you've mentioned above with no joy either.

I looked for the bi-directional support selection (I remember seeing that at some point, somewhere), but I can't seem to locate it in the printer properties. Maybe that was a W2K thing or maybe I'm looking in the wrong place. I will try disabling print spooling, but I suspect that will make printing a bit painful with some of the large documents I use.

Please post if you have any new info or other ideas.

-Brad
 

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