Network printer Issues

unnameduser

Hope ye can get me out of a hole again.

I have 10 computers on a network. Have a printer connected to my main computer. recently i have been getting error messages on the other computers in word / excel / powerpoint / access saying "winword has generated errors and must be shutdown..."

Ive looked into it and others have found that it happens when your printer is a network printer.

So i removed my network printer from the computers and it works fine.

However now i obviously cant print!!

Any ideas on how to get around this??

Shane O' Malley

Your first port of call should be to check you have the latest drivers for that printer.

shayser

(no expert, just thinking out loud )
Has the printer a NIC? You could try IP printing. Have you a server OS. An MS client OS will get stroppy when there is more than 10 connections. Does the printer make 11? Some machines might have more than one session open on the main comp so this might mean more than 10 connections.

Did you delete the share/mapping on the PCs or unplug the printer?

Is it happening on your computer?

unnameduser

whoosh, rush of air over my head!

What is a NIC?

No dont have a server OS. Just windows 2k.I would very rarely have all connections using the network at the same time. Most of the time just one or two. The other computers could be off at the time.

shayser

unnameduser wrote:

whoosh, rush of air over my head!

What is a NIC?

No dont have a server OS. Just windows 2k.I would very rarely have all connections using the network at the same time. Most of the time just one or two. The other computers could be off at the time.

Was kinda hoping somebody else would step in here

NIC = network interface card. This will have a port just like the port on your PCs that allows connection to a network/hub.

When you say that the printer is connected to your main computer I presume that it is connected by parallel cable and that you have the printer shared. I was thinking that if the printer has a NIC you could connect it to your hub instead.

Ive looked into it and others have found that it happens when your printer is a network printer.

Do you mean you've sourced this as a documented problem?

If it's not an inconvenience, change the default printer.

There might be something here:
http://www.nocrash.com/ncbbs/msgs/705.shtml

unnameduser

Yes the computers are linked with cat 5 network cables. Broadband comes into office. Then connected to a large hub. From each port in the hub a computer is connected. I have read on other forums that this problem is known to happen when connecting to a printer on a network.

Perhaps Im blind but im missing the point here. I only have 1 printer. What do I change my default printer to?!!

Ideally i would like to turn on my 'main" computer to which the printer is connected. Then during the day when using other computers just hit network neighbourhood, connect to maincomputer with password. then hit print in the program i was running word / excel etc. hey presto it should work and has done for months.

tis a strange one.

shayser

If your printer has a Cat5 port I would look up IP printing.

It looks like Windows on the PCs is trying to talk to the defatult printer to check status etc before the password has been entered and cannot.

You could set up a dummy printer. Just select one from the list in the setup process. Make this your default printer. With this bit, I'm only going on what I've read.

Shane O'Malley wrote:

Your first port of call should be to check you have the latest drivers for that printer.

Definitely do this.