Documents from the network stick in the printer queue

Hi all,

This should be an easy one, but I've been banging my head against it for a week. I'm hoping I've just been looking at it to closely and someone can take a look from a different perspective, smack me on the back of head, call me an idiot, and point to the obvious solution.

I'm trying to fix a home network for a client. It consists of one desktop computer, two laptops, and a printer. The desktop is attached to the router by a cable, and has the printer, which is shared, and the laptops are wireless. Everybody is running Windows XP Pro, and this is Lexmark Z45 inkjet.

The problem is with printing. It worked until about a week ago, but now when the laptops send a job to the printer, it just sticks in the queue with the status of printing. The desktop can print, so it doesn’t seem to be the printer. The laptops can see the printer, they can connect to the printer, they can send jobs into the queue, but then they just sit there.

I’ve reinstalled the printer on the desktop and the laptops, I’ve downloaded new drivers, I’ve restarted the services, I’ve attached to the share using the computer name as well as just its IP address, I’ve made administrator accounts on the desktop using the same username and password as the laptops use, I’ve made a separate printer account on the desktop and connected using that, and they’re in the same workgroup.

I working on the assumption that has something to do with share permissions, so if anyone has any suggestions I can try, or different approaches to consider, I would be grateful for any suggestions.

Thanks for the quick response. I was trying to stay away from the print server solution because they usually cost as much, if not more, than the printer, especially in a home setup like this. I had several bad experiences with low-end print servers several years ago with clients who wanted to save money, and since then I’ve insisted on people buying HP’s print servers which I’ve never had a single problem with. Of course, the cheapest 175x I would use here costs twice what those Iomega ones do.

Absolutely no offense meant here, but does “Haven’t had any problem with network printing” mean that you’re not even sure where you plugged the thing it because you haven’t touched it since it was installed, or that, unlike some of the people I give these to, you can figure out which plug is the round black power one and not the clippy one or the gray flat one when it occasionally needs to be reset? I’m sure that these print servers have improved since I swore them off, but I’m still hesitant to tell them that they have to spend this money if they want a network printer when I can’t guarantee from my experience that it will absolutely work…

For the price, I may have to give this a try, especially for homes. For offices, I still love the ease of the HP software and hardware combination. It takes me an hour to make sure it all works right and to install their Install Network Printer Wizard on all the workstations, and leave a copy the server. Service calls are less than 5 minutes because all they have to do is re-run the software, which will find, install, and update the drivers for any HP printer/print server on the network, and worse case, just have them re-install it from the server.

And for the less bright people, I just very clearly explain that the only soft drinks they’re allowed to set into the pop-out cup holder is the one you get by pressing the TAB button on the keyboard. Fun to watch them press the button for hours wondering where their drink is…

Anyone else have any suggestions before I try to convince them to double what they paid for their disposable printer? This is the first time I’ve been unable to get a network this small and simple to get along like this.

If I knew the sacred location, I don't believe I would have cared to have wasted your time with the question.