All Shared printers (Ricoh, HP, Xerox) from Windows Server 2012 R2 goes offline on all computers (Win7/8/10)

Question

Dear All,

We have several shared printers on our windows server 2012R2. It was working fine so far but recently since last few weeks all of a sudden, all printers appear offline on the user's computers. We have windows 7/8/8.1 and 10. All the printers show offline on all the computers (200+).

Tried installing all the available updates on the server but the issue still persisted.

On some users computers, we installed the printers manually and some were installed with Group policy. The problem affects all the users and all the printers. We are using Ricoh Universal print driver, HP Plotter driver and Xerox model specific driver.

The only solution so far is to restart the spooler service on the server, after which all the printers appear online.

Right now a windows task scheduler has been created to restart the service every 30 mins but the issue is still sometimes encountered just after 10 minutes of service restart. Attaching the installed updated on the server.

Tried

Requesting assistance if anyone has encountered anything similar.

Answer 1

Hi!

To debug and isolate the problem make sure you have the print server role added, and check to make sure the print driver of all printers are set to ISOLATED.

That way if a printer drivers crash it would not take down the spooler, just printqueue that use that driver.

I tell that point as your problem is most probably a problem with a bad driver that crash your spooler.

Regards, Philippe
MVP Windows and Device for IT (2014-Current)