Strange spooler behaviour in remote XP computer

[Mr Davo]

Hi Everyone,

My work has a main office in Victoria (Australia) and a regional office in Queensland. The two offices are separated by about 1700 kilometers, and they are connected by VPN. Often the Victorian office sends print jobs to the regional Queensland office.

In the Queensland office we have an XP computer connected to a Kyocera (FS-2000) printer, and lately we have been seeing some strange entries in the Windows Print Spooler:

Even though you may conclude that nothing will print with the spooler in this condition surprisingly print jobs still get through to the printer, it is as if they skips past the jobs that are "stuck"!

Even more confusing we are often seeing "N/A" for the number of pages on some spooled print jobs:

Once again you might assume that no print jobs will be able to get through with the spooler in this condition, however this is not always the case! However sometimes it is!!!

Usually rebooting the computer (in Queensland) helps, but sometimes we also have to reboot the Server in Victoria.

If anybody has any suggestions on how to resolve this, or what might be the cause of this it will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Davo

 

[Saga Lout]

Pick a time - any time - and relate it to events in the Event View of the Queensland machine to see what was working at that specific moment. Therein may lie a clue.

I don't see many Ozzie posts and it's quite surreal sitting here in the Mother Country responding to a problem that hasn't actually happened yet, given it's only ten o'clock in the morning of the 19th.

 

[Mr Davo]

Hi Saga Lout,

Thanks for the input. Unfortunately there are no specific entries in the Event Viewer for times related to odd behaviour in the Spooler.

Out of curiosity where are you currently located.

Cheers

Davo

 

[Mr Davo]

Here is a link showing some print jobs "jumping past" other stuck jobs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJfXBblMQNw&feature=youtu.be

 

[Saga Lout]

I'm in England.

It's very surprusing that there's nothing in the Event Viewer>Applications log when these odd spooling events are taking place. Are there any diferences between the print jobs and those which do go through normally or which jump the queue?

 

[Mr Davo]

Hi Saga Lout,

How is the weather over in England at the moment?

I have taken a few more screen shots - these are from yesterday (Aussy time)

I noticed with the first few "stuck" print jobs that there is a specific time interval between them!

http://www.systemcontrol.com.au/dd/SpecificIntervals.jpg

The Application & System Logs don't appear to show any events around 1:50 pm!!!

http://www.systemcontrol.com.au/dd/Stoppage-Application-Log.JPG

http://www.systemcontrol.com.au/dd/Stoppage-System-Log.JPG

What surprises me most about this situation is that print jobs are still getting through to the printer. I was
always under the impression that the Windows Print Spooler is FIFO, but it is acting LIFO!

Any further help will be much appreciated. The weather over here is fine, but people are driving like "Munyuks!", but then it is the Silly Season

Thanks again for your time.

Kind Regards,

Davo

 

[Saga Lout]

I'm afraid I'm at a loss here and can suggest nothing better than uninstalling the printer from that computer, then checking it still works from other before restarting and reinstalling.

 

[Saga Lout]

I saw two at 1minute 24 seconds and a third at 1:25 but took that as coincidental.

Are they actually genuine print jobs or phantoms?

The only time I ever had a problem with the Spooler Service was some while after uninstalling a Lexmark printer. I then found that the Spooler was still dependent on the LexBCE Service so I deleted it, whereupon printing wouldn't work at all and I had to reconstitute the darned thing to get printing to work again.

Ever had a Lexmark printer?

 

[Mr Davo]

Yes I had a Lexmark once, it was a bubble jet and I worked it to the bone in my student days - it will always have a soft spot in my heart, and when I think about how much printing that little trooper did I can't help but smile Have a great Christmas, and thanks again for your time and assistance...