Printer Ports keep disappearing!

Not sure what is going on, but 75% of the time when a user logs into any of our machines that have Windows 7 the ports disappear and they can't print. The spooler is running. If I restart it, it seems to fix it, or reboot sometimes it will fix it. I have been fighting this for over 2 months and can't figure it out.

I have loaded the latest drivers I can get for the printers. I also turned off the Print services under Windows features. I adjusted the Print and Point info in gpedit.msc. What else am I missing here? This is causing major issues at my work that people are starting to get frustrated. There has to be a fix for this. Any ideas?

These printers are mapped on a Win2003 server to the network and only these Windows 7 systems have this issue.

This morning I removed the drivers from the script and server, reinstalled newer drivers and generic ones that work for HP and Samsung with Win7, and still have the same issue. The Ports on the printers that are listed with all the IPs disappear. Print Spooler still is running and the printers are still listed.

just a shot in the dark because I haven't personally experienced this particular problem. But perhaps, the spool service is starting before certain network resources become available and as a consequence the network printers are not available in a timely manner. You might try on one of the Win7 machines checking how the network services are starting and or perhaps adjust the print spool service to a delayed start. Again just a shot in the dark

Where is the order setup on which services start? I am unfamiliar with this part. Thanks!

click start (or whatever we are now calling the Win7 Orb on extreme left of your taskbar) click run, type services.msc the services are listed and the startup types can be examined by double clicking on them individually. The drop down arrow will allow you to adjust how the services start.

patwhatsthat said:

click start (or whatever we are now calling the Win7 Orb on extreme left of your taskbar) click run, type services.msc the services are listed and the startup types can be examined by double clicking on them individually. The drop down arrow will allow you to adjust how the services start.

I can see a delayed start. Just not sure how long it will wait as the login script runs the printer scripts.

me either, but trying it on one of the Win7 machines shouldn't hurt you can always set it back to automatic. Did you say in your original post, that restarting the print spooler service always fixes the problem. I know that you said rebooting will sometimes fix it.

Well, I tried it on my PC, and while I was on it, the ports disappeared after having these printers on it. I restarted the Print Spooler, and the ports came back and it was okay. Now why is Print Spooler shuting down on it's own?!

Usually this problem is associated with some third party applications and the list is pretty long. Some involve third party VPN solutions, some involve third party remote control, some even applications that put their own proprietary printer onto your system. Is there anything like this running in your environment?

Nope, as these machines are all clean installs. And its every machine that has Win7 not just a few.

do me a favor and check your event viewer and the event viewer on the 2003 server, both application and system events and see if we can get some insight there. And one more thing, is this a domain or workgroup environment.