Problem with Printer Spooler Service

I know that this forum is for XP related issues, but I am desperate in my search for an answer on the following scenario.

I have a print server running Windows 2003 with the latest service packs and updates. For as long as I have been working at the company, there has been issues with printing every now and again. We have recently the problems have become much more frequent and we started to investigate the problems more seriously and found the following:

Each time the users are experiencing printing problems, there is a string of Event ID 6161 errors in the System Event Log. We found that an error occurs somewhere in the printing subsystem, but that the event is logged with an "error code 0 - Command completed successfully"

Restarting the printer spooler appears to solve the problem temporarily but we need to find a permanent solution to the problem.

Recently we also noticed that sometimes when we restart the printer spooler we are unable to see any local printers in the Printers and Faxes folder. When this occurs we are also unable to add any new local printers. These symptoms appears to be similar to a user who does not have admin rights on the machine, yet we are logging in with only one account and that account has full admin rights on the machine. Sometimes if you restart the printer spooler several times, the problem disappears and we can see all of the printers and add new local printers again. This is a strange problem which I have never seen before.

Any ideas?

Regards
EM

If you also hit error 6162 you have an application that leaks GDI resources.
Yes GDI likes to return success when it fails and the spooler happily passes
along this information. The Office 2003 MODI printer has this issue (there
was a patch later for this) but I recall there was a veterinary application
that had the same issue.

Track the GDI resources using task manager when logged onto the console of
the local machine. If you TS to the machine be sure to run "mstsc /console"
..

taskman
Processes
View
Select Columns
GDI Objects

be sure to check Show processes for all users

If spoolsv.exe gets above 500 most likely you have some issue. Any process
at 10000 GDI objects can no longer allocate any more objects and weird stuff
fails.

If you only see 0 GDI object for spooler you are not in the console session.

Here's the link to the TechNet print / fax forum.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...rprint/threads


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

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

"Erik Mostert" wrote in message
...

I know that this forum is for XP related issues, but I am desperate in
my search for an answer on the following scenario.

I have a print server running Windows 2003 with the latest service
packs and updates. For as long as I have been working at the company,
there has been issues with printing every now and again. We have
recently the problems have become much more frequent and we started to
investigate the problems more seriously and found the following:

Each time the users are experiencing printing problems, there is a
string of Event ID 6161 errors in the System Event Log. We found that
an error occurs somewhere in the printing subsystem, but that the event
is logged with an "error code 0 - Command completed successfully"

Restarting the printer spooler appears to solve the problem temporarily
but we need to find a permanent solution to the problem.

Recently we also noticed that sometimes when we restart the printer
spooler we are unable to see any local printers in the Printers and
Faxes folder. When this occurs we are also unable to add any new local
printers. These symptoms appears to be similar to a user who does not
have admin rights on the machine, yet we are logging in with only one
account and that account has full admin rights on the machine.
Sometimes if you restart the printer spooler several times, the problem
disappears and we can see all of the printers and add new local printers
again. This is a strange problem which I have never seen before.

Any ideas?

Regards
EM




--
Erik Mostert

If you also hit error 6162 you have an application that leaks GDI resources.
Yes GDI likes to return success when it fails and the spooler happily passes
along this information. The Office 2003 MODI printer has this issue (there
was a patch later for this) but I recall there was a veterinary application
that had the same issue.

Track the GDI resources using task manager when logged onto the console of
the local machine. If you TS to the machine be sure to run "mstsc /console"
..

taskman
Processes
View
Select Columns
GDI Objects

be sure to check Show processes for all users

If spoolsv.exe gets above 500 most likely you have some issue. Any process
at 10000 GDI objects can no longer allocate any more objects and weird stuff
fails.

If you only see 0 GDI object for spooler you are not in the console session.

Here's the link to the TechNet print / fax forum.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...rprint/threads


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

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

"Erik Mostert" wrote in message
...

I know that this forum is for XP related issues, but I am desperate in
my search for an answer on the following scenario.

I have a print server running Windows 2003 with the latest service
packs and updates. For as long as I have been working at the company,
there has been issues with printing every now and again. We have
recently the problems have become much more frequent and we started to
investigate the problems more seriously and found the following:

Each time the users are experiencing printing problems, there is a
string of Event ID 6161 errors in the System Event Log. We found that
an error occurs somewhere in the printing subsystem, but that the event
is logged with an "error code 0 - Command completed successfully"

Restarting the printer spooler appears to solve the problem temporarily
but we need to find a permanent solution to the problem.

Recently we also noticed that sometimes when we restart the printer
spooler we are unable to see any local printers in the Printers and
Faxes folder. When this occurs we are also unable to add any new local
printers. These symptoms appears to be similar to a user who does not
have admin rights on the machine, yet we are logging in with only one
account and that account has full admin rights on the machine.
Sometimes if you restart the printer spooler several times, the problem
disappears and we can see all of the printers and add new local printers
again. This is a strange problem which I have never seen before.

Any ideas?

Regards
EM




--
Erik Mostert

Hi Alan

Thank you for your feedback. I monitored the GDI objects for the last couple of weeks and they newer go higher than 56. I think the problem might be related to one or more of the printer drivers. We are running a wide selection of 135 printers of different brands and models. I have now replaced the Windows Printer Spooler and have started to install the latest available printer drivers, trying to use the Universal Printer Drivers as far as possible. If history is to repeat itself, we expect the problem to occur either today or during next week. I will post new information as soon as I have something.

Originally Posted by Alan Morris [MSFT]

If you also hit error 6162 you have an application that leaks GDI resources.
Yes GDI likes to return success when it fails and the spooler happily passes
along this information. The Office 2003 MODI printer has this issue (there
was a patch later for this) but I recall there was a veterinary application
that had the same issue.

Track the GDI resources using task manager when logged onto the console of
the local machine. If you TS to the machine be sure to run "mstsc /console"
..

taskman
Processes
View
Select Columns
GDI Objects

be sure to check Show processes for all users

If spoolsv.exe gets above 500 most likely you have some issue. Any process
at 10000 GDI objects can no longer allocate any more objects and weird stuff
fails.

If you only see 0 GDI object for spooler you are not in the console session.

Here's the link to the TechNet print / fax forum.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...rprint/threads


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

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

"Erik Mostert" wrote in message
...

I know that this forum is for XP related issues, but I am desperate in
my search for an answer on the following scenario.

I have a print server running Windows 2003 with the latest service
packs and updates. For as long as I have been working at the company,
there has been issues with printing every now and again. We have
recently the problems have become much more frequent and we started to
investigate the problems more seriously and found the following:

Each time the users are experiencing printing problems, there is a
string of Event ID 6161 errors in the System Event Log. We found that
an error occurs somewhere in the printing subsystem, but that the event
is logged with an "error code 0 - Command completed successfully"

Restarting the printer spooler appears to solve the problem temporarily
but we need to find a permanent solution to the problem.

Recently we also noticed that sometimes when we restart the printer
spooler we are unable to see any local printers in the Printers and
Faxes folder. When this occurs we are also unable to add any new local
printers. These symptoms appears to be similar to a user who does not
have admin rights on the machine, yet we are logging in with only one
account and that account has full admin rights on the machine.
Sometimes if you restart the printer spooler several times, the problem
disappears and we can see all of the printers and add new local printers
again. This is a strange problem which I have never seen before.

Any ideas?

Regards
EM




--
Erik Mostert

Printer spooler problem can solve just by reinstalling the printer

Originally Posted by rusty_theron11

Printer spooler problem can solve just by reinstalling the printer

Hi Rusty

I actually managed to isolate the problem to several corrupt printer drivers. Once we standardized our drivers the problems disappeared.

Regards
Erik

I think reinstall printer, is it on network?