Print server help required!

BrownSparrow

BrownSparrow

BrownSparrow

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29 Nov 2004
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Hi all,

I need some help. I've recently deployed a print server (Win 2008 32) and i'm experiencing problems with slow printing. It seems that print jobs are taking a while to load into the spooler, whilst in most cases it's not a massive amount of time, some customers noticed (they were previously printing directly to the printers so were bound to moan!). I looked into the issue and discovered that the jobs themselves seem to be a great deal larger than the original documents.

I sent a 22kb word doc through to print and when it hit the spooler it was over 400kb? This seems to be happening with prints from all applications.

Now i understand how drivers work and knew that the jobs could potentially be larger. I am using the latest HP pcl6 drivers and so far, other than this issue they have been fine?

Now while the print jobs are larger, this does not worry me as much as the time it takes to load them into the spooler and finally print. The server is on a 100mb network and is set 100 full duplex with the switch. As far as i can see there is no network limitation, and besides, most the docs are only around 1Mb at the most? There is no firewall on the server and nothing else i can see that would interfere? I've tried enabling/disabling the render on client function but that made no difference?

Has anyone else experienced this problem or have any ideas?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
 
1) copy a 100mb file from a workstation to a share on the server... how long does it take..?

2) whats the CPU / HD queue / free memory like on the server?

3) create a new printer use HP LJ4 driver the windows built in one, see how long it takes the file to dgo to the spooler on that printer

are you sure your switch is not half duplex? maybe set it back to auto and reboot the server/switch... or set it to half...
 
I can copy large files to the server fine, if though i'm on a different site 20 miles away.

Resources are fine, i've been monitoring them whilst jobs have been going through and there is a barely a ripple in any resource. Nothing has gone over 5% usage over normal.

I will install another test printer and try some different drivers.

The switch is deffo set to full, i had the network team lock it down as it was set to auto. The server is also locked down to 100 full.
 
It's normal for jobs to increase in size. I would opt for PCL5 drivers.

Is everyone printing on the same local network, rather than over a VPN etc?
 
Everyone is on the same subnet and in the same building (apart from me testing from another office).

Yeah i thought about PCL5, but never the less it 'should' work fine with PCL6 - it does on a 2003 based print server i have tested! The file sizes are nice and small on that print server even though the settings and the driver are the same?

I have found people reporting the same problem using easy print through terminal services - but i'm not using that and have disabled it?

The search continues!
 
Found the culprit! 'Enable advanced printing features' was ticked, apparently it can cause slow pooling. I unticked it and print jobs print in a flash!

Once i knew what to search for there was quite a bit of info online. :)
 
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