The printer is stuck in queue

Hi Everyone,

We have 8 network ready color/mono laser printers. They all have their own
network card and they work fine. For the past three months all my printers
no matter what i do would be stuck in the queue after it becomes idle for
about an 1hr. It doesn't matter what printer. Even if i turn off sleep mode
and have it on 24/7 it is still stuck in the queue. I have Brother MFC 9440,
Okidata C5500n, HP Color Laser 4700n, HL 5250dn. Each printer setup as a peer
to peer printing. It doesn't go to a PC or a print server. When you print it
goes directly to the printer.

I did found a solution to the problem. If i restart the print spooler it
works. But it gets really annoying to do it every hour and a half. Basically
i restart the print spooler service and all the jobs that were stuck in the
queue prints. The jobs don't time out or say error. It shows that it is
printing. We have 15 computers in the office. We all have windows xp pro sp3.

There are no error logs on event viewer. I don't have a personal firewall
for each workstation. Just a simple Anti-virus and windows firewall. Windows
firewall doesn't block traffic coming out of the PC only from outside coming
into the PC.

I don't know what else to do. I have upgraded the drivers and firmware. Even
when it stops printing I check to see if I can ping the printer and I am able
to. So I am pretty sure it isn't the printer. But if it is the PC then why
all 15pc have the same problem.

Should I put a print server and have all the print jobs go to the print
server and then to the printer.

Since there are 15 computers printing. Everyone now and then two people will
print to the printer at the same time. I am not sure because at night when no
one is here it still does the same thing. So once again I am back to square
one.

I just can't pin point the issue. If you guys can help me out. I don't want
to restart the print spooler service every 90mins. Please help.

What Port type are you using to target the printers? If you are using
Standard TCP/IP Port included with XP, try disabling SNMP.

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Ankit Shah" <AnkitShah@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D1E8FC0F-1D54-411E-9A9A-044507F2F1A4@microsoft.com...
> Hi Everyone,
>
> We have 8 network ready color/mono laser printers. They all have their own
> network card and they work fine. For the past three months all my
> printers
> no matter what i do would be stuck in the queue after it becomes idle for
> about an 1hr. It doesn't matter what printer. Even if i turn off sleep
> mode
> and have it on 24/7 it is still stuck in the queue. I have Brother MFC
> 9440,
> Okidata C5500n, HP Color Laser 4700n, HL 5250dn. Each printer setup as a
> peer
> to peer printing. It doesn't go to a PC or a print server. When you print
> it
> goes directly to the printer.
>
> I did found a solution to the problem. If i restart the print spooler it
> works. But it gets really annoying to do it every hour and a half.
> Basically
> i restart the print spooler service and all the jobs that were stuck in
> the
> queue prints. The jobs don't time out or say error. It shows that it is
> printing. We have 15 computers in the office. We all have windows xp pro
> sp3.
>
> There are no error logs on event viewer. I don't have a personal firewall
> for each workstation. Just a simple Anti-virus and windows firewall.
> Windows
> firewall doesn't block traffic coming out of the PC only from outside
> coming
> into the PC.
>
> I don't know what else to do. I have upgraded the drivers and firmware.
> Even
> when it stops printing I check to see if I can ping the printer and I am
> able
> to. So I am pretty sure it isn't the printer. But if it is the PC then why
> all 15pc have the same problem.
>
> Should I put a print server and have all the print jobs go to the print
> server and then to the printer.
>
> Since there are 15 computers printing. Everyone now and then two people
> will
> print to the printer at the same time. I am not sure because at night when
> no
> one is here it still does the same thing. So once again I am back to
> square
> one.
>
> I just can't pin point the issue. If you guys can help me out. I don't
> want
> to restart the print spooler service every 90mins. Please help.