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I have a Windows 2003 printer server up and running with 50 XP SP3 clients.

One user (say user_a) cannot print : when trying to print a document (pdf, office, etc.) it hangs the software window and it never come back. I have to force quit or kill/restart explorer.

The only difference with the other users is that user_a is logged on 4 computers at a same time, and they're Virtual Machines (VMWare). It was working until today, and suddenly crashed. I cannot access the printer's properties anymore (nothing happens).

I've made some tcpdump capture showing that some packets are going in and out from the clients, so this is not network issue. Also I can mount network drives from this server with the same credentials (user_a). I've delete/reinstall the printer several times without success. I've tried on other printers, same results. There's nothing in the log files (client or server).

Note that it works on the same computers logging with another user, and connecting to the same printer (with tcp/ip) works fine too.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ack__
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1 Answers1

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Clearly something has changed, and from your description it would appear to be in user_a's profile, but finding out what is not always easy. There are a few things you can try, such as uninstalling the printer, deleting the driver files and reinstalling it. To make things much simpler I suggest you use System Restore to go back to the point where it was working.

John Gardeniers
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  • Hi, Well I was not using the driver on the client computer as it was sent to a printer server. And the same printer is working fine with other clients. Unfortunately I cannot use System Restore. But if something has changed on the user account it would have been of no use as it's not a local account. – ack__ Jul 29 '10 at 10:17
  • Even when you are using a print server, the client still has its own drivers. Whether it's a domain account or local doesn't change the fact that the user has a profile on any machine that user has logged on to, even if the account uses a roaming profile. – John Gardeniers Jul 30 '10 at 06:47