Sanity check: Print Server upgrade
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Update:
I've setup a print server and installed two printers and pushed them out to myself via group policy. It's taken me 2 hours, from installing the VM to sending a print from my workstation. Not bad for a relative newbie on Server 2012R2, print serving and group policy.
However, I've hit a snag already
A Konica Minolta MFP seems fine, but an HP Laserjet P3011 has a couple of critical problems. Firstly, it takes about 6 seconds to connect to the printer, compared with the Konica which is pretty much instaneous. Secondly, when I change any of the properties (eg changing the paper size or the number of copies), it doesn't throw an error but it doesn't save my changes. So I change the number of copies to 2, hit print, and then only one copy is actually printed. This is using the universal print driver. This driver works fine when using the old print server.
On the plus side, it does still display a popup to say that the toner is low.
Any ideas? It was going so well
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I'm not sure what you mean by it takes 6 seconds to connect? Are you saying it takes 6 seconds for the GPO to push the printer?
Or each time you try to print it takes 6 seconds before the printer starts to do anything?
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I mean if I select the printer in Word (for example), it takes 6 seconds to connect to. Whilst it's connecting, it displays a message "connecting to printer..." as per screenshot:
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I mean if I select the printer in Word (for example), it takes 6 seconds to connect to. Whilst it's connecting, it displays a message "connecting to printer..." as per screenshot:
Are you spooling on the local machine or on the print server?
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I've chosen "render print jobs on client computers", if that's what you mean.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I've chosen "render print jobs on client computers", if that's what you mean.
Ok.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I mean if I select the printer in Word (for example), it takes 6 seconds to connect to. Whilst it's connecting, it displays a message "connecting to printer..." as per screenshot:
That's normal. It's connecting directly to the printer to get data about it's status, ink/toner levels. if there's a jam or something etc. All of ours do that. It doesn't stop you from printing before that just means it won't show "Ready" under it until it checks.
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@Carnival-Boy when users used the old print server, did the users get low supplies messages?
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@Dashrender said:
@Carnival-Boy when users used the old print server, did the users get low supplies messages?
Yes.
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Interesting - seems like there has been a change, but I can't tell you what it is.
What happens if you hit the print button while it says connecting? Does the print job seem to have any delay in actually being printed?
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@thecreativeone91 said:
That's normal. It's connecting directly to the printer to get data about it's status, ink/toner levels. if there's a jam or something etc. All of ours do that. It doesn't stop you from printing before that just means it won't show "Ready" under it until it checks.
It's not normal to take 6 seconds. As I mentioned, the other printer I setup on the new print server connects immediately (about half a second), and this HP printer connects in immediately on the old print server. I only mention it because I wonder if it is related to the other problem I'm having....
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@Dashrender said:
Interesting - seems like there has been a change, but I can't tell you what it is.
What happens if you hit the print button while it says connecting? Does the print job seem to have any delay in actually being printed?
It's definitely slower. Maybe 3 seconds versus 1 second on the old print server.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
That's normal. It's connecting directly to the printer to get data about it's status, ink/toner levels. if there's a jam or something etc. All of ours do that. It doesn't stop you from printing before that just means it won't show "Ready" under it until it checks.
It's not normal to take 6 seconds. As I mentioned, the other printer I setup on the new print server connects immediately (about half a second), and this HP printer connects in immediately on the old print server. I only mention it because I wonder if it is related to the other problem I'm having....
It is normal when you have the computer spooling locally and directly sending to the printer. Each computer has to pull that information from the printer individually and adds to the time, rather than just the server pulling the the information.
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Just to clarify, I have the same printer set up on two print servers. Both use the same universal print driver (version 6.0.0.18849). Both render jobs on the client. They appear identical. However, the new server takes 6 seconds to connect to and 3 seconds to print, whilst the old server takes 0.5 seconds to connect to and 1 second to print.
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Are both servers on the same VM host? If not, are they on same physical switch? Same IP range i.e. subnet?
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@Dashrender said:
Are both servers on the same VM host? If not, are they on same physical switch? Same IP range i.e. subnet?
Same IP range. Probably different switch. Different host.
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It would be interesting to see what happens when you install the driver and print direct from a VM on the VM host that's having a problem.
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It's super fast.
Here's another odd thing. If I print from the client using Excel, it does save my preferences. It's only if I print from Word that it doesn't work. Why would Word and Excel behave differently? Both are still slow, but this might be a red-herring. Some of my preferences are being saved (the copy count for example, even though I said earlier that it wasn't - my mistake), but the Job Storage tick box isn't being saved. Maybe it is just that one setting, I'll need to check.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
It's super fast.
Here's another odd thing. If I print from the client using Excel, it does save my preferences. It's only if I print from Word that it doesn't work. Why would Word and Excel behave differently? Both are still slow, but this might be a red-herring. Some of my preferences are being saved (the copy count for example, even though I said earlier that it wasn't - my mistake), but the Job Storage tick box isn't being saved. Maybe it is just that one setting, I'll need to check.
I'm assuming you're mentioning the job storage tick box because it does save when you're using the printer from the old Print Queue? Or has that ever saved? It might be a setting that simply does not save.
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Hi Dash
We've been on holiday all last week, so I haven't had time to reply!
To clarify, the stored job feature works when sending to the old print server, but not the new one. HOWEVER! I've tried again and it is now working on the new print server. Not sure what I'm doing differently now to before I went on holiday. I hate printers! Anyway, I'm back on track. It is still slow accessing the printer, which I'm suspicious about. I will now setup some other HP printers and see if they are any quicker or have similar issues with stored jobs and will report back.
