Print Spooler

[PackerFanatic]

Has anyone ever had any issues with the printer spooler service on a server running Win 2K? At least 2 or 3 times a week the service will randomly turn itself off, disconnecting all printers attached to the server. I have to go in and manually turn it back on, then its all okay. The server is rarely ever shut down/restarted, so it can't be an issue with it not starting up with the machine (although it is set to automatic, so even if it was shut down/restarted often, it should start with the machine) Is there a known issue with this service or something I can do? Thanks :)

[Daimyo]

This won't fix the original problem, but on the service properties there is a recovery tab where you can specify to have the service automatically restart if it fails. It doesn't always work though.

If I had to guess at the problem I'd say 90% its a driver issue. Printer drivers almost always suck... especially for SOHO printers.

[PackerFanatic]

Thanks for the input. I put in the recovery thing so hopefully that will help a bit. Maybe I will look into replacing (or upgrading) all the drivers if I can. Thanks again!

[Bonegavel]

Had the same issue when we were running 2k and since we've upgraded to Server 2003 the problem has almost completely gone away.

Of all the problems in the IT world, I think I hate printers the most.

[flere-imsaho]

I remember when 3rd-party print spoolers came out for the Macintosh in the late 80s. It would basically save your file to disk and print it so that you could keep working while your dot-matrix printer chugged away.

Well, that's what the thread title reminded me of, at least.... :)