Printers disappearing after login script

[gshaw]

Hi all,

We moved our printers over to a new print server a few months back and since then it's caused nothing but aggro

At first we were getting spooler crash errors, tracked that down to new HP drivers playing up so sorted that but now there's a different problem!

Print server is set up the usual way, TCP\IP port to JetDirect, share and publish in AD. We map our printers through VBS logon script e.g.

' VBScript.
Set net = WScript.CreateObject("wscript.network")
net.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\server\printer"
net.SetDefaultPrinter "\\server\printer"

Nothing out the ordinary there... now here's the weird bit...

We get a lot of users calling up saying they have NO printers, just OneNote and that kinda stuff. I've sat and watched a PC boot up, login, run the script, printers appear then about 5-10 mins later something deletes the lot of em :x 8O

There's no other scripts running so what could be doing it - I'm stumped! Doesn't happen on all the PC's either, typically our IT Office ones work perfectly!

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Gerrard

[Oops_my_bad]

Have you had a look at the event viewer on the PC when the printer is removed? Might say why it was removed..

[mark]

Got to be a permissions problem surely. We had this when we moved our scripts. Can't remember exactly, but will update if i remember before you post a fix

[gshaw]

Just to clarify a few things...

- we haven't moved the scripts, they're still in the folder of each Group Policy as they were before. The only thing we did is to change the UNC path inside the script to point to the new server.

- what's odd is how they map and stay for a few mins then disappear, surely if it was permissions they wouldn't come up in the first place? On the server it's on default permissions (the Everyone group can print, no management).

- had a look in Event Viewer, nothing out the ordinary by the looks of things, get a few 10020 DCOM errors and a 11163 DNSAPI one (I think I know why that last one happens and the DCOM might be down to IIS).

So still stumped, I'm gonna try it on a fresh machine to see if it's something to do with the image, now getting on for 2 years old and really need re-doing...

[gshaw]

Still no closer with this... saw the printers map on someone's PC after they logged on and after 30 mins they've gone 8O

Nothing in event viewer saying printers purged either, they just disappear :?

[jwood]

Doesn't Windows 2000/XP have some feature that disconnects network mappings if they're left idle for a period of time?

If so, that could account for printers disappearing.

[maniac]

I'm not 100% sure on this one, but at the back of my mind I seem to recall if the print spooler service is stopped and restarted on a machine, non persistant printer connections will be dropped. Is there any chance the local print spooler service on the machines could be restarting its self??

Just an idea.

Mike.

[gshaw]

Possible but then again nothing in the Event Logs saying it.

Speaking of persistant connections, could I add that to the VBS script to make the connections persistant (if they're not already?)

[mark]

We also had printers being mapped twice (oops! ) - startup script mapped printers - logon script took effect about a minute after logon = dissapearing printer trick!

[01hanstu]

Are the printers HP/Lexmark we had an issue with some computers and a printer. The printer didnt show up not even the micosoft Fax printer.

Try this at the bottom it worked for us on the client computers

You cannot add a printer and you receive printer spooler error messages in Windows XP scroll down to the section titled Now delete spool printer and driver files...

Worked for our School
Thanks

[Michael]

I would say it's most likely the spooler is stopping/crashing on the workstation which is why they're disappearing.

If you use MMC and have a look remotely at Services on the workstation in question, you should be able to see whether the spooler is started or not What causes the spooler to crash? Usually it's poor drivers.

[kmount]

I'd hope it was resolved as this thread died off 18 months ago.