Printer server performance problem

lkubler 41 Reputation points
2020-11-11T22:12:29.577+00:00

Hi,

We have a Windows Server setup as a print server, sharing out some thermal label and serial impact printers for our warehouse. Periodically during the day performance crashes, taking 10 minutes or more to print one label.

Quick investigation shows that the Print Spooler service will max out CPU utilization, often times hitting and staying at 100%. Restart of the spooler service and rebooting the server does not have an affect. Within minutes of restart the spooler service goes back to 100%. Then magically, between 5:00pm and 5:30pm local time it stops, dropping down to idle 1% to 3% and then labels come out like you would expect.

Clearly there is a computer or some print job out there that isn't behaving but I'm at a loss as to how to figure out where it is coming from. I can't inspect the computers directly, there's a good 15 - 20 in use on any given day, because they are all working from home.

Is there some tool or software that will report what computer is connected to and using resources on the server? Any thoughts on how to isolate what is happening here?

Thanks in advance!

Windows Server Printing
Windows Server Printing
Windows Server: A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.Printing: Printer centralized deployment and management, scan and fax resources management, and document services
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  1. Jenny Yan-MSFT 9,336 Reputation points
    2020-11-12T02:37:40.63+00:00

    Hi,

    You could use Performance Monitor to identify peak resource utilization by checking the performance counters that might be impact the printer performance.

    It is suggested to monitor at least 1 day since there are many factors would affect.

    Diagnostic and performance analysis
    https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/dn554243(v=ws.11)#diagnostic-and-performance-analysis
    Factors that influence Print Server performance
    https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/dn554243(v=ws.11)#factors-that-influence-print-server-performance

    There is also a script helps to identify which users are connected to a Print Queue.
    https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/how-can-i-tell-which-users-are-connected-to-a-print-queue/

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    Hope this helps and please help to accept as Answer if the response is useful.

    Thanks,
    Jenny

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