Printers disappearing!

[storkyIV]

Hi all,

I have just had a overhall of printing, by installing a dedicated printserver aswell as adding 15 new network printers. The majority of the printers are HP 2015n's with a handful of Ricoh document stations. 35 printers in total.

Originally there were vbs scripts mapping the printers, however these were not working as well as I would have liked, so I decided to deploy the printers through group policy on a 2k3 R2 server. All client machines are XP.

I have deployed the printers, and have placed the pushprinterconnection.exe into the startup section of the group policy editor.

On the OU that I have been testing this on, the printers ARE deployed, however after a minute or 2 they start disapearing from the client machine.

There are no other scripts, as I have removed them all, and I have tried deploying to both user startup and computer startup.

Any ideas? This one is really baffling me!!!

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards.

[Crispin]

Are there any oddities turning up in Event Viewer?

[mac_shinobi]

you blocked in heritance on that OU so that any scripts coming from above are not applying to that OU that way its not filtered down to the OU the computers / users are in ?

[storkyIV]

Thanks for the quick responses guys.
I did check the event logs when the issue arose, and the only thing that is listed of any relevence is that the drivers were added (see log below)

Printer Driver HP Universal Printing PCL 5 for Windows NT x86 Version-3 was added or updated. Files:- unidrv.dll, hpmdp083.dll, hpcu0835.gpd, unidrv.hlp, hpcui083.dll, hpcpe083.dll, hpcur083.dll, hpcu0835.dem, hpmur083.DLL, hpmux083.dll, hpmpm081.DLL, hpmpw081.DLL, hpcls083.dll, hpcss083.dll, hpmsn083.dll, hpmsl083.dll, hpcsat20.dll, hpcdmc32.dll, hpc5r083.dll, hpcsm083.gpd, hpcst083.dll, hpcu0835.hpx, hpcu083b.INI, hpcu0835.XML, hpcsc083.dtd, hpcev083.dll, HPMCUGee.chm, HPMCUGen.chm, HPMCUGfr.chm, HPMCUGge.chm, HPMCUGit.chm, HPMCUGja.chm, HPMCUGko.chm, HPMCUGsc.chm, HPMCUGsp.chm, HPMCUGtc.chm, HPMCUGar.chm, HPMCUGca.chm, HPMCUGcs.chm, HPMCUGda.chm, HPMCUGel.chm, HPMCUGfi.chm, HPMCUGhe.chm, HPMCUGhu.chm, HPMCUGnl.chm, HPMCUGno.chm, HPMCUGpl.chm, HPMCUGpr.chm, HPMCUGru.chm, HPMCUGsk.chm, HPMCUGsv.chm, HPMCUGth.chm, HPMCUGtk.chm, hpchl083.cab, UNIRES.DLL, UNIDRVUI.DLL, STDNAMES.GPD, STDDTYPE.GDL, STDSCHEM.GDL, STDSCHMX.GDL, fxcompchannel.dll, cioum.dll, cioum32.msi, hpcpn083.dll, hppccompio.dll, hpcc3083.DLL, HPJobCaps.dll, hpfxcomw.dll, hpmup083.bin, hpbcfgre.DLL, hpcpu083.CFG.

Inheritence isn't blocked either!
I am kind of thinking that I may go back to vbs now, but I don't want to be beaten!!!!

[linkazoid]

I've had loads of problems with these P2015 printers over the last couple of months... the driver kept on crashing the spooler on XP SP3 machines.

Check to make sure the spooler is running.... A temporary workaround for us was to use the HP Laserjet 2000 driver.

Michael

[storkyIV]

Thanks Michael,

I have around 30 2015's and they have been working ok. I either use PCL 5 universal drivers or PCL 5e drivers, and have been working almost without fault.
Would the spooler service crashing delete the printers? I cannot see anything in the event logs that would suggest this was hapenning.

Unless it is something to do with the fact there is no way of specifying that the connections should be persistent, and it's the network that is dropping the connection?

[Ric_]

Would the spooler service crashing delete the printers? I cannot see anything in the event logs that would suggest this was hapenning.

It wouldn't delete the printer connections but it would make the printers dissappear from view.

[Mcshammer_dj]

check the spooler recovery settings as ussually they are set to do nothing third time that they crash.

Equally you might want to check the security on the server spooler and have a look at the bi directional settings. I had a 2600 which kept causing similar problems until we removed the bidirectional setting on the client and the server

[contink]

Stupid questions so try not to hurt me for it... BUT...

Do you have a seperate script running that deletes network printers?

I ask because I'd imagine that you might create a concurrency problem with a script that was busy adding while the other script was busy deleting. Just a thought.

[storkyIV]

Hi Contink,

I thought of that too, and have searched both dc's for another script, and there isn't any.
But, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I have been testing this today in one of the IT suites, and it works like a dream, so it would appear that the issue is in one of the offices alone.

I shall investigate and let you all know!!!!

[mrforgetful]

We've been having a problem here for months.

Had printers installing via the Server 2003 R2 method.

Now it's hit and miss if printers show up. Might do might not. A Restart might help or it might not.

Print Spooler service running fine.

[storkyIV]

I seem to have got somewhere!
I did find some rougue scripts lurking in some of the client machines as someone mentioned earlier in this case.

I have successfully managed to deploy the printers through group policy, however, this will not remove existing printer connections. I have been deleting them manually under the users logon, restarting the machine, and voilla, all deployed printers are there!

Mr forgetful - have you ensured that the pushprinterconnections.exe is listed in the group policy startup container?

[mrforgetful]

Mr forgetful - have you ensured that the pushprinterconnections.exe is listed in the group policy startup container?

The pushprinterconnections.exe is located in \\domain.xx\NETLOGON\Printers\pushprinterconnectio ns.exe

I usually put all my files in NETLOGON so I only need one instance of them.