Trying to get my head round 64 bit & 32 bit printer drivers

[TwistedHelixis]

Hi all,

 

About 6 months back I installed a new 2012r2 server for a primary school everything works well except the spooler gets clogged up with jobs once a day and I have to remote in and fix the issue.

 

Just looking through the printer settings on the server and noticed under additional drivers only the x64 driver is installed.

 

Looking on the Sharp site they only do x32 drivers for windows 7 and windows 8 but not 2012r2.

 

Just did some googling and someone posted that server 2012r2 is fully x64 and does not support x32 drivers and you must not install x32 drivers. Is that correct?

 

Should I only have x64 listed in additional drivers?

Am I OK to use the x32 drivers for windows 7 or windows 8?

 

Printers are not my strong point :0)

[3s-gtech]

Windows printer servers can host 32 and 64 bit drivers. You can't install them on the server as such, but Printer Management allows you to add both types of driver for each printer (the version must match exactly). I do the same thing here - I have a 32 bit Server 2008 print server which hosts 32 and 64 bit drivers, and I also have a Server 2012 R2 server which also hosts 32 and 64 bit drivers.

 

server 2012r2 is fully x64 and does not support x32 drivers and you must not install x32 drivers. Is that correct?

 

Yes and no. Yes it's 64 bit only, and no it doesn't support 32 bit drivers itself. However, as a network print server for Windows it hosts the drivers for clients, so that when they connect to the printer it supplies the required driver (sadly it can't do it for other OSs!) Hope that's clear.

[TwistedHelixis]

Perfect explanation. Thanks

[TwistedHelixis]

Do you have any recommended was of determining spooler issues?

 

When I check the print job list the one that is stuck still spooling is very random, can be a pdf, photo etc and from any laptop.

 

I have recently deployed a gpo that makes sure pdf'f are opened with Adobe and not MS reader etc as that has caused others spooler issues.

 

I can't seem to narrow down the issue

[3s-gtech]

The spooler can flake depending on a large number of issues - massive print jobs, poor drivers for that printer, Windows having a bad day, etc. My own solution was very simple - I have a scheduled task which restarts the spooler daily. Since doing so, I have massively reduced my printer-related helpdesk tickets!

[ITJS2015]

Look at how many pages and high quality pictures there is on one document which is causing the problem, I have had this before and you cannot do a 50 page document with it being a high quality pdf as it will not print and will get stuck

 

 

Night mare and not simple enough

[TwistedHelixis]

It can happen with a single photo or document.

 

Also restating the spooler is not enough to kick things off again, I also need to delete all the documents from the que and then start the spooler service again.

[Julian]

Most printers, are also webservers, showing the status of the printer. I find this very useful for when the issue is the wrong paper size (the printer wants "American Letter" size, for a document downloaded of the internet).

[MatthewL]

What Sharp machine is it, you need to ensure both drivers are the same version to save any issues. Let me know which model you are using and I will link you to the best driver combination.