Printing PDFs kills the spooler

[Sheridan]

We've got an odd issue with Server 2016 and 2019 on several sites now. When users send a PDF to print, it shows in the server queue and stays permanently on 'Spooling'

 

At this point the spooler is kaput, and has to stopped and any print jobs killed before the service is restarted

 

This is now happening on 2 * 2016 server and 1 * 2019 server, the only common factor is they all user the Toshiba Universal Printer 2 Driver (same version). They've been using them for a while so I suspect a recent update has borked this, on both 2016 and 2019 server

 

I haven't found anything relating to pdf printing problems, and other print jobs are ok, anyone have any idea what update may have done this?

[LeMarchand]

We've been getting similar problems, usually when printing PDFs from Edge.

[TriggerHappyUK]

This may help: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1956511-printing-pdfs-from-microsoft-edge-stops-the-print-spooler-on-the-print-server

[gtg93]

We've had this issue with various different print drivers, from different manufactures, but mainly when we've had secure print / account track enabled on photocopiers* - Deploying the new Chromium based edge seems to fix this issue.

 

Alternatively we have previously deployed default apps for PDF via GPO to be Adobe Reader and also had a script that checks for errors in the spooler and clears it if it finds anything, running as a scheduled task every 5 mins.

#To run as a schedule task setup the following - powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass C:\Clear_errored_spooler.ps1
Clear-Host
$DateTime = Get-Date -Format G

Start-Transcript -Path C:\QueueLog.txt -Append
Write-Host "Checking printers and queues for errors"
#Get any documents from all printers that in an error state
$Errors = @(Get-Printer | Get-PrintJob | Where {$_.JobStatus -NotMatch "Printing|Printed"}).Count

If ($Errors -gt 0) {
Write-Warning "$DateTime - $Errors job(s) found in error in the print spooler, clearing!"
Stop-Service spooler
   Remove-Item -Path "C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.SPL" -Force
   Remove-Item -Path "C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.SHD" -Force
Start-Service spooler
Write-Host "Printer queues have been cleared"
} else {
Write-Host "$DateTime - No job(s) found in error in the print spooler, exiting!"
}
Stop-Transcript
Exit

 

 

* I found on some old Konica's that using AD Authentication instead of the built-in copier authentication worked better - may have been a coincidence though.

Edited March 12, 2020 by gtg93

[Sheridan]

Ours doesn't seem specific to Edge, as we've had the users download the PDF first and then print from Acrobat, so it suggests a driver/update issue.

 

As the driver has been in place for many months, it suggests an update at the client end or server has knackered this.

 

The printer/copiers don't use authentication either, just the old department codes for printing colour

[ozydave]

Hi

We were also having many many problems printing PDFs. It was going on for many months.

Google search seems to show lots of people have the same.

 

We have rolled out Foxit and set that as the default for opening PDFs about two weeks ago and not had a problem since.

 

Foxit is the way to gom you can sign up and get an MSI to deploy

 

All the best

[chazzy2501]

its a real shame that edge pdf printing is such an issue. We have sharp printers here. I'm again deploying Adobe PDF to stop this issue. EDGE would be a great solution as PDFs are one of the big vectors for viruses. I only update adobe once a year as its a hassle.

[Sheridan]

Its a total PITA as the affected schools are blaming us, and the leased copier companies are blaming us. I don't really have a solution as Microsoft seemed to have completely ballsed up printing in Windows 10/Server 2016/19 since day one.

[GaryPad]

I'm not sure if the Toshiba MFDs come with PostScript (some manufacturers charge extra for it) but if you're doing a lot of PDF printing, or just having problems printing PDFs, then use a PostScript driver. The Tosh Universal hides this in the Device Settings menu for the queue properties, under Customisation - you can change the PDL in PDL Settings, I suggest from PCL6 to PostScript, and ensure that the queue Sharing is set to Render on the client.

Another thing you could try is the Tosh Universal XPS driver - especially if you want to print from Edge. It seems to have the same settings as the usual Universal driver.

[mavhc]

Seems to becoming clear than photocopier makers can't keep up with the complexity of modern software development. What type are your printer drivers?

[Sheridan]

They all use the Toshiba Universal 2 driver which I updated this week although it hasn’t stopped the issue

 

Thing is, nothing has changed, the copier, the server, the driver and the client os are the same they were 1 year ago, and the problem only really surfaced for us about 1-2 weeks ago.

[GaryPad]

Could be an MS Update; could be something within the PDFs - so often a quick fix is in Print dialog of Acrobat to go to Advanced and then choose "Print as image" (note - this WON'T be accessible if you have "Print as greyscale" in Acrobat's print dialog). Foxit used to (I don't know if it still does) print as an image. Edited March 16, 2020 by GaryPad
More info

[gtg93]

Its a total PITA as the affected schools are blaming us, and the leased copier companies are blaming us. I don't really have a solution as Microsoft seemed to have completely ballsed up printing in Windows 10/Server 2016/19 since day one.

 

We suffered the same problem - the script I linked above on a scheduled task running every 5 minutes resolved the issue for us until we could get to the root of the problem.

 

+1 for Foxit too, but I would recommend installing the ADMX files if you go down this route.