Host Print Sessions Using GDI May Stop Printing (196243)

SYMPTOMS

Print sessions may fail to print after successfully printing for some time. When this occurs, print sessions may appear to stop responding or get stuck in a spooling status when attempting to start the session or sessions. This problem may cause other symptoms as well.

For more information on a problem that may cause the same symptoms, please refer to the following Knowledge Base article:

   ARTICLE-ID: <WWLINK TYPE="ARTICLE" VALUE="Q180864">Q180864</WWLINK>
   TITLE     : Print Sessions Stop with Host Print Service

CAUSE

SNA Server's host print service uses an internal counter to track the number of Device Contexts (DCs) that are currently in use. The count is decremented when a DC is freed. This counter may be decremented twice when one DC is freed causing a negative value to be displayed in the counter. Further DC creation requests may fail, causing print sessions to stop responding.

RESOLUTION

SNA Server 3.0

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for SNA Server version 3.0. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

184307 How to Obtain the Latest SNA Server Version 3.0 Service Pack

SNA Server 4.0

This problem was corrected in the latest SNA Server version 4.0 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining this Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SNA Server 3.0, 3.0 Service Pack 1, 3.0 Service Pack 2, 3.0 Service Pack 3, 4.0, and 4.0 Service Pack 1. This problem was first corrected in SNA Server 3.0 Service Pack 4.