Printer Pooling Improvements in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6 (242035)

MORE INFORMATION

To obtain the latest Windows NT 4.0 service pack, click the link below: WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

Two registry values have been created under the following registry key: These values can only be configured per server:

• RestartJobOnPoolError (REG_DWORD) - configures the time (in seconds) after which a job in the pool should be restarted if the port is in an error state and the error condition has not been resolved.

  Default value = 0x00000258 (600 seconds = 10 minutes)

• RestartJobOnPoolEnabled (REG_DWORD) - Determines whether a print job to a local printer can be restarted after an error.

  0 - Print jobs cannot be restarted on error.
  1 - Print jobs can be restarted on error.
  Default value = 1

To make this work, the spooler must know whether the port is in an error state. Therefore, the port monitor must update the spooler with the device status.
Some printing pools scenarios that explain the functionality include:

• The most common case is to print a job to a pool/printer that is out of paper. The time for updating the printer status is long enough that the printer buffer becomes full before the spooler determines that the port is in an error state and stops writing to the printer. Because of this, you are informed that writing to printer did not succeed. If the restarting behavior is enabled after ten minutes:
  • If you click Retry, the job is restarted after ten minutes.
  • If you click Cancel, the job is deleted.
  • If you do nothing, the job is restarted after ten minutes and the window is closed when job is restarted.
  • If the restarting behavior is not enabled, the window remains on the screen until you click one of the available options.

• If the error state persists more for longer than the time set by the RestartJobOnPoolEnabled value, the job should be restarted on another port.
• If the port is in an error state but recovers before the time for restarting expires, the job should continue to be printed on the same port.
• If Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is disabled, the job stops responding (hangs) on the same port even if restarting is enabled.
• If SNMP is enabled but the printer does not support SNMP, the job hangs on the same port even if restarting is enabled.
• If SNMP is enabled but the printer turned off, the job hangs on the same port even if restarting is enabled.
• If restarting is disabled, the job hangs on the same port (the same as the current behavior).
• If restarting is enabled after a time less than the time needed for the spooler to determine the status of the device and take the proper action (this a per-port monitor setting), the job hangs until the spooler is informed of the device status and it is restarted afterwards.

NOTE: This fix also includes the fix for the issue described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: If you install this fix and then upgrade to Service Pack 6, you lose all printers if you do not set the UseSoftwareHive registry setting as discussed in the article listed above.