Printers not appearing!!

[chris-t]

Hi All,
We are having a strange problem at our site on 2 machines. The two machines are running Vista Business and IE8. The problem being when a user (including domain admin and local admin) tries to print from internet explorer the box pops up to select the print queue, then the print queues disappear. Or to put it more accurately, hide. There is a split second when the box first pops up that the printers are visible, before they disappear. When F5 is pressed to refresh the box they reappear.

There are 2 queues assigned to these machines, one being a "follow me" print queue and one for a Kyocera C5400Dn network colour laser printer.

I can't find anything on here or on the net referring to anyone else experiencing the same problem. Although the users can print they are finding pressing F5 a bit of an inconvenience and would like it sorting. I believe I have exhausted everything I could think of to solve it, including removing and re-installing IE8 and other bits of software incase that is the issue. I have also started from scratch with both machines and the problem still reoccurs.

The printers also appear fine when printing from any other application than IE. Also these queues are applied to different machines in the school and appear when printing from IE.
As you can see im at a bit of a loss, so any help would be appreciated.

Regards,
Chris

[sukh]

Hi

Is the a vanilla network or RM?
How have you deployed the software? Usong GPO's/Print Management?
Can you reproduce the issue?

Sukh

[chris-t]

Hi Sukh,
It's an RM CC4 (SR2) network. The printers are installed on a print server running 2003, we do have PCounter installed to manage the auditing of printing which is supported by a 3rd party printing managed service provider. The printers are deployed using GPOs and are assigned by location.
I have not been able to recreate the issue on any other machines than the two having the problem, which are both legacy NECs. We have other legacy NECs of the same model in the school which do not have the problem, but have the same or similar printers assigned...

Like I say, I'm starting to run out of ideas!

Chris

[sukh]

Hi

As a test, can you run IE without any addons and test?

•Click the Start button , click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Internet Explorer (No Add-ons).

As another test, can you run Windows in Safe Mode with Networking and Test?

Can you create a local account on the PC and test?

Sukh

[Michael]

This is a strange problem I must admit. Why IE and nothing else? I suppose you could try your luck with IE9 and see if that makes any difference.

Are the Vista machines x86 or x64 and have you checked and updated drivers accordingly? From memory Kyocera have basic and full drivers. I presume you've tried both?

[chris-t]

Hi Sukh/Michael,

Thanks for the replies and suggestions. I have managed to figure this out today! The problem being that one of the printer's FQDN was slightly too long so when the box initially popped up it was showing the "second page" of printers, however there was no scroll bar at the bottom, to allow me to see the "first page".

I have renamed the printer to something shorter and straight away no problems!

Cheers,
Chris