windows 2000 server print spooler stops randomly

[lgoliff]

the print spooler just stops. no error, no warning. no one can print. printer list under add printers is lost.

after manually restarting print spooler service everything is back to normal till the next time it decides to shut down. no one printer seems to be causing this. its happened 9 times over the last two months including 4 times today.

 

[ahalecitrix]

Check the disk space on the partition holding the spooler folder. I've seen the print spooler service stop when print jobs eat up the rest of the disk space.

 

[lgoliff]

not the problem spooler drive has 15gb of free space.

 

[mattjurado]

I've seen certain apps cause this, also certain large files cause this. Some questions I have:

Is the problem occuring in different apps?

How big were the print jobs?

Any event log messages?

Have you scanned everything for viruses?

What service pack are you running on the server?

How many workstations, and what OS?

Matt

 

[ricpinto]

I got the same problem but i can't trace or maybe I not bothering because it only happens once in 3 months. So i just created a batch file to stop and start spooler and ask the user to run it if they can't print. Anyway I'm not administering the server so I can't do much.

Hopefully you guys can solved it..

 

[lgoliff]

in answer to mattjurado questions:

1. yes, this is occouring in mutiple apps ms outlook, ms excel, ms word, arc info, autocad, as well as notepad.

2. print jobs vary in size from less than 50kb to 348mb.

3. event log msg: "the print spooler service terminated unexpectedly.it has done this 9 time(s). the following corrective action will be taken in 0 milliseconds: no action." the next msg reads: "the server service was unable to map error code 1722."

4. server runs mcafee virus scan and it is up to date.

5. service pack 3

6. approx 30 nodes running either windows 2k or windows xp

i hope these answers facilitate a solution. i found the event log messages particularly usless.

 

[mattjurado]

Check this out... Last I saw the error the server service was unable to map error code 1722, it was on NT Servers, where Windows 9x workstations were installing a printer on the workstation, and the server did not have the appropriate drivers for the client workstations to be automatically downloaded. Maybe someone's installing a printer on the workstation, that is freaking out the server? Possibly a workstation that is autocreating a printer through terminal services? Let me know if this is any help...

Matt

 

[ahalecitrix]

I'd look at the printers related to McAfee Virus scan. Search their knowledge base. I believe I had this problem a couple of years ago on Workstations. Not a server. But it may be similar. I don't remember the exact solution, but I had to exclude certain printer .dll files or something from being scanned by the virus scanner.

Also as mattjurado stated make sure the appropriate drivers are being installed on the server. NT 4.0 drivers will install, but are 99% bad mojo for a 2000 box.

Hope that maybe helps in diagnosing the problem.