Win 2008_R2 print spooler issues and Client freezes

driversgroup-policyprint-serverstabilitywindows-server-2008-r2

Environment:

  • Windows 2008 R2 Print Server (Virtual)
  • 178 Printers installed. All using TCP/IP
  • Many different printer brands
  • Most all employees print through this print server

Problems:
The spooler service has recently started crashing. This is bad, but I know some of the general troubleshooting needed. I am slowly trying to find the bad print driver. Already purged all pending print jobs to make sure it wasn't a corrupt job. (that happened to me once before).

My main concern that I would like help with is this: when the print server spooler service (or the entire server) is not responding, many of my employee PCs freeze/hang, but some do not. Is there a group policy or registry change I can make that will make the client OS on each PC more tolerant/resistant to print server problems??

I am guessing there might be a way, since some PCs already seem to work while the server is down.

I am moving my critical life and death PCs to a different print server.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Best Answer

Here is how I solved this:

  • Moved all critical printers to a different print server
  • Isolated as many drivers as possible (shared or isolated mode)
  • Wrote a custom printer driver information tool and searched for older drivers that do not support isolation. I updated them when possible.

most of the issues are gone or happen very rarely now.