RPC Server Unavailable?? Any Ideas?? 1

[wncads]

I am unable to open ADD NEW PRINTER, or do anything related to Printers on the NT 4.0 Server. Any time you attempt to view properties or view anything related to printers I receive the RPC (Remote Procedure Call) Server is unavailable. Yet the RPS service is running with nothing reported in the EVENT VIEWER. I have attempted removing the service and re-adding and then reapplying the most recent service pack with no luck. I have attempted to uninstall spoolss.exe and spoolss.dll and reinstall but not sure if I did so correctly. However I am receiving the same error message. 1) How do I extract files such as spoolss.exe from the original CD to replace possibly corrupted files. and 2) What can I do to get the problem resolved ASAP to add a new network printer using the TCP/IP Printing feature. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Zelandakh]

Are both services set to system accounts?

 

[wncads]

Thanks for the reply. Not sure I follow you. This is a 60 system network of Win 9x and NT 4.0 Workstations, I am working physically on the NT 4.0 Server (Service Pack 6a) and am logged in as Adminstrator. What do you mean by having the services set to system accounts?

 

[masai]

This is not related to file corruption.
I believe your system is overloaded. I have had the problem before. It took my sleep away.
Your server proabably does Domain services (PDC), File, printing services and more. I'd say it does not have much CPU too. NT works with thread queues. Every job gets in the "row" for CPU time. The priority is for services like authentication, share and with low priority printing for obvious reasons. They are all RPC processes. If the server is too loaded with authentication and sharing (mapped home directories for instance) it will start dropping the less prioritary services, in this case printing. You probably will notice that your spooler service is not running (stopped). If you start it again using "net start spooler" or starting it from the control panel /services /spooler it will re-start but probably few minutes later it will go down again. Doing it too frequentely will cause the server rebooting itself automatically. And no event will show up in the Event viewer.
It is not budget saving but it would be better if you have a PDC, a File Server and a print server in different boxes.

 

[wncads]

Actually we have seperate PDC, BDC, and this is simply and RMS server which autenticates users, has a few shared directories and also should be able to handle the Printer Services. IT has never had any printers connected to it since it came out of the box. When attempting the net start spool command, I get the already started response and the viewer doesn't indicate any problems??? All the servers are taken down every Sunday for a complete ten minute shutdown and then brought back up for refreshing purposes. The resources are actually plentyful and thus I don't think that is the issue in this case. That is why I suggested file corruption previously. Anyone else got a CLUE????

 

[masai]

Ooops!
Sliped again. The sites below were very usefull to resolve my server problems.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q177/4/46.asp

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q224/3/70.ASP

http://home.uchicago.edu/~depstein/NTServices.html

(I guess you have tried to net stop / net start rcss already right?)

 

[masai]

Sorry I meant RPCSS (net stop / net start RPCSS)

 

[CitrixEngineer]

I have resolved similar issues by increasing the number of WorkItems the printer server can handle:

These knowledge base articles should help you:

Q138244, Q153477, Q161734, Q172462, Q191370, Q232476, Q242079(!)
Warning: Q232890.

...although in many cases, they simply suggest applying the latest service pack.

HmmmMicrosoft.

I hope this information is useful

 

[PerseusMi]

I've been experiencing the same situation with SBS 4.5 ( 6A ) that is the sole server. The problem arises only on NT Clients. Should HP printers with the Jet Direct have a static WINS mapping? and its typically happening over and over to the same users. Spooler and disk space isn't an issues locally or on the Server.

 

[kjonnnnn]

I've had that probably too. Booting seemed to be the temp fix. But I did notice that since I've taken one HP printer off of this particular server, I dont get those errors any more.

Could it be a driver problem????

(Incidently, only the PC that has this printer (HP 970)connected locks up now.)

 

[carlosenrique]

I'have this problem too i must install a new station for a new user..
I install a network print hp 4V and i test in loggin administrator that work and when i loggin on user he give me error rpc not avaible no create rwfactory class id number.
I don't know if the problem is with policy of the RPC service of unable to resolve a DNS or NetBIOS name.
An RPC channel cannot be established of bad driver of locator problem.
one think what i know is that i don't know...
FY :in this group there are 10 users and they can print on this HP 4V only one the new user can't.
I HOPE THAT ALL THIS INFORMATION CAN HELP YOU...

 

[carlosenrique]

Hi i am back my printer works...
I unistall printer hp 4V via regedit
I deleted from control panel printer
I look for services and no spool service started?
I install sp6a for NT 40
I reinstall printer
I look for service spool started automatic?
AND that works...
No messages like RPC and No create...
I hope that go work by you good luck...
Carlos