PC freezing when used to print labels

Question

I have a Windows XP machine that is used to print labels from a Zebra label printer. It is connected a member of the domain. I am getting reports that when people try to use the computer it will sometimes be frozen to the point where they have to physically shut the machine down and boot to get it responding. (this happens about once a day).

I took a look in Event Viewer and nabbed some of these errors out of it:

Event Type: Error
Event Source:   Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID:   1054
Date:       11/12/2010
Time:       9:13:04 AM
User:       NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer:   FS-LABELMACHINE
Description:
Windows cannot obtain the domain controller name for your computer network. (A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable host. ). Group Policy processing aborted. 

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.Microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


Event Type: Error
Event Source:   AutoEnrollment
Event Category: None
Event ID:   15
Date:       11/11/2010
Time:       11:08:25 PM
User:       N/A
Computer:   FS-LABELMACHINE
Description:
Automatic certificate enrollment for local system failed to contact the active directory (0x80072751).  A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable host.
  Enrollment will not be performed.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.Microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


Hanging application MSACCESS.EXE, version 11.0.8166.0, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.Microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp....


SearchIndexer (2420) Unable to write a shadowed header for file C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\MSS.chk. Error -1032.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.Microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.



Failed auto update retrieval of third-party root list sequence number from: <http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/v3/static/trustedr/en/authrootseq.txt> with error: A connection with the server could not be established


For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.Microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I'm not really sure what to make out of this...

Answer 1

How old is the machine? Usually hard lock-ups indicate a HW issue.

If this machine only does one thing, the easiest fixh will be to perform a clean Windows XP installation. 9 out of 10 times that will solve any wierd windows lock ups which otherwise might take many hours to troubleshoot.

Answer 2

"Unable to write a shadowed header"

You might verify that the XP installation is at least at SP2.

Answer 3

1. Check the cable for the hard drive. They can go bad. Just replace it with new one.
2. Check the hard drive with SMART and see if it warns you of any issues.
3. Format and reinstall Windows XP it can be corrupted over time.
4. Remove unnecessary software from the computer...less is better.
5. Check the cable for the network card, network errors can freeze windows.
6. Upgrade to Windows 7...it really is a better OS for all day operations.

Answer 4

Sounds like the print server is having network connectivity issues. This is why users are reporting that it seems unresponsive until they reboot it (at which time it reconnects, authenticates to domain, makes printer services available, for a while).

Check network drivers. Check network cables, making sure they are snug on each end, and cannot become loose by people bumping into them (properly run cables cannot be bumped into). Set up a network test between the print server and your admin workstation, so you are alerted to the next time it happens, the instant it happens, and you can more immediately figure out why.

Check disk space on C: drive. Some type of resource exhaustion could cause everything else in logs.