XP Pro Client crashes when printing to Samba printer

[davewat]

Im running Red Hat 8 and Samba 2.2.5. I inherited the configuration which has been running ok for about 6 months.

I've just added the first Windows XP Pro client to the domain. It's a brand new XP install plus all Service packs. However, as soon as I print to my shared HP Laserjet 4000, the XP client becomes very unstable (lots of applications subsequently crash).

Although I'm not 100% certain printing is the problem, i've tried everything else I can think of but the association with printing is too much of a coincidence. I suspect that the correct drivers for Win XP are not laoded on the server. I've downloaded drivers from HP but I can't seem to add them. When I browse to the printer and select properies, the buttons that allow me to update drivers are greyed (My user is a member of @printer admins).

Please can anyone explain to me what I'm missing, either any ideas on how to upgrade drivers or how else to troubleshoot the problem. Events in XP event viewer are typically ID 1000, 1001, 1002.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mattjurado]

Generally speaking, if other clients can print to it okay, then the queue is probably okay. Not that it should matter, but what are you running, cups?

The driver on the workstation is what I would suspect, if indeed printing is the problem. However, you don't seem too sure that it is the problem.

Before you fix anything, you really need to think of logical tests that prove where the breakdown point is. Otherwise, you'll be shooting in the dark.

1. Is the machine stable if you don't print to that printer, and can you print to other printers okay? You might go as far as running the machine a day or so. If you still have problems, then you need to look deeper (background processes, spyware, virus, etc...).
If it runs great, and event logs stay clear during the testing period, then let's move on to that printer.

2. Can you move the printer to the machine through a parallel cable as a test, and print using the same driver, just change the port to LPT1? Does the problem occur? If yes, okay, then try printing to it using a Laserjet III or IV driver. If that doesn't help, then Windows itself has an issue.

If the printer prints fine through a local port, then look at communications. Are all the right protocols installed? Can you print to the device directly by configuring a TCP/IP port in Windows, instead of your Samba queue?

Matt J.

 

[davewat]

Matt - Thanks for your most helpful response.

The print queue is LPRng. My user can print to an alternative printer ok. Since in the office we only have one laserjet and one inkjet it's a little more difficult to avoid printing to the Laserjet for a prolonged period to determine stability.

I also only had the one XP client so it was difficult to determine if the problem was client specific. So to eliminate this I built a new client (by installing software rather than ghosting an image) and installed the core applications on this (Office & Sageline 100). On testing this gave me the same problems when printing. Next, to eliminate anything to do with the profile, I replaced the users profile with the default user's profile of the newly built machine. Still the same problems when printing to the laserjet, suggesting neither user nor client specific.

I found the following article on microsoft's website

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=135406

which gave me a way of deleting the printer driver (locally at least and adding the latest one I'd downloaded from HP. This seems to have fixed the problem. Now I can leave my user for a few days to see how stable things are, if this has fixed the problem then I'll need to work out how to get these drivers where they belong on the print server. At this point I should be able to prove conclusively that drivers were the problem and hopefully fix and re-create the problem at will.

I'll post an update in a few days when it's clear what the problem and the fix really was.