Event ID 68 — Print Migration Import Status

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

You can use the Printer Migration Wizard or the Printbrm.exe command-line tool to export print queues, printer settings, printer ports, and language monitors, and then import them on another print server that is running a Microsoft Windows operating system. Note that you cannot import files that were created using the Print Migrator 3.1 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=104715) tool.

Event Details

Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 68
Source: Microsoft-Windows-PrintBRM
Version: 6.0
Symbolic Name: MSG_SERVICE_FAILED_START
Message: While restoring a print queue from backup, Printbrm.exe (the Printer Migration Wizard or the command-line tool) failed to start service %1 on computer %2. Error %3. Try printing to the affected printer to determine if there is a problem.

Diagnose

This error might be caused by one of the following conditions:

  • Windows resources are unavailable
  • The Print Spooler service malfunctioned or is not started
  • There is a bad printer driver or different processor architecture

To diagnose the problem, use the procedures in the following sections.

Note: The error (system error code) listed in the event can in some instances provide additional information about the cause of the problem. To learn what the system error code means, see the following Microsoft Web site: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=104717

Windows resources are unavailable

To identify what is causing the system to be low on resources, you can generate a System Diagnostics Report by using Reliability and Performance Monitor.

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the local Administrators group on the affected computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To collect system information for 60 seconds and generate a System Diagnostics Report:

  1. Open an elevated Command Prompt window. (Click Start, point to All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.)
  2. At the command prompt, type perfmon /report and then press ENTER. Reliability and Performance Monitor will start collecting data to create the System Diagnostics Report.
  3. When the report is ready for viewing, locate the Diagnostic Results section of the report, and then check for any warnings (indicated by Warning in the report). You can follow links to additional help on resolving warnings from this section. In addition, you can expand each category in the Basic System Checks section to see more details about why warnings appear. Also, the Performance section provides process-level details about top consumers of resources.
  4. If the system is experiencing resource issues that appear to be causing problems, see the section titled "Close programs and optionally restart the server".
  5. If the system appears to be operating normally, use the procedure in the next section to continue troubleshooting.

The Print Spooler service malfunctioned or is not started

To test printing:

  1. Print a document or test page to an existing printer.
  2. If the printer does not work properly, the problem is likely occurring because the print spooler malfunctioned or is not started. For more information about this, see the section titled "Restart the Print Spooler service".
  3. If the document printed properly, use the procedure in the next section to continue troubleshooting.

There is a bad printer driver or different processor architecture

To test printing to imported print queues:

  1. Print a document or test page to an imported print queue.
  2. If the printer does not work properly, the problem is likely occurring because of the printer driver. For more information about this, see the section titled "Install a compatible printer driver".

Resolve

To resolve this issue, use the resolution that corresponds to the cause you identified in the Diagnose section. After performing the resolution, see the Verify section to confirm that the feature is operating properly

Cause

Resolution

Windows resources are unavailable

Close programs and optionally restart the server

The Print Spooler service malfunctioned or is not started

Restart the Print Spooler service

There is a bad printer driver or different processor architecture

Install a compatible printer driver

Close programs and optionally restart the server

To resolve this issue, use the following procedure to end processes (close programs) and, if necessary, restart the server:

  1. Close any unnecessary programs.

  2. Open Task Manager, and then look for applications that have memory leaks or that are consuming excessive processor resources. To do this, use the following procedure:

    1. Open Task Manager by clicking CTRL+SHIFT+ESCAPE.
    2. Click the Processes tab, and then click the Memory column heading to sort processes by memory consumption.
    3. Look for any processes that are consuming excessive amounts of memory. If you want to stop any of these processes, select them and then click End Process.
    4. Click the CPU heading to sort processes by central processing unit (CPU) utilization.
    5. Look for any processes that are consuming excessive amounts of processing time. If you want to stop any of these processes, select them and then click End Process.

  3. If the system continues to be unresponsive, notify users and then restart the server. If you cannot do this locally, open the Command Prompt window using a user account that has Server Operator permissions on the remote server, and then type the following command to restart the server remotely (where <servername> is the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path of the server you want to restart):

    shutdown /m \\<servername> /r /t 0

  4. If the system is often under excessive load, upgrade the server hardware or move one or more server roles to another server that has more capacity.

Restart the Print Spooler service

Often you can resolve this issue by restarting the Print Spooler service, using the following procedures.

To start or restart the Print Spooler service:

  1. In the Administrative Tools folder, open the Services snap-in.

  2. Locate the Print Spooler service in the list of services, and then confirm that its status is Started. If its status is not Started, select the service and then click Start on the Action menu.

    Note: You can also do this from an elevated Command Prompt window by typing the following command: net stop spooler && net start spooler

In some instances, you might receive Error 1068 – "The dependency service or group failed to start" – when attempting to start the Print Spooler service. This can happen if the Print Spooler service relies on other services that are not running.

To resolve Error 1068:

  1. In the Services snap-in, right-click Print Spooler and then click Properties.
  2. Click the Dependencies tab. The first box lists all of the system services that must be running for the Print Spooler service to start. These are the dependencies.
  3. Make a note of each service, click OK, and then start each service that the Print Spooler service depends on, if the service is not already started. If a particular service is not already started, right-click it, click Properties, and then confirm that the Startup type is Automatic.

Install a compatible printer driver

To update or change the printer drivers or language monitors (which are part of printer drivers) for a printer, use the following procedure. Client computers automatically download and install the updated printer drivers the next time they attempt to print to the printer.

Note:**** When installing printer drivers that are provided by the device manufacturer, follow the instructions provided with the printer driver instead of using this procedure.

To update or change printer drivers for a printer:

  1. Right-click the printer with the driver that you want to change or update, and then click Properties.
  2. Click the Advanced tab.
  3. Select a new driver in the Driver box, or click New Driver to install a new printer driver.

To support client computers that use processor architectures that are different from one used by the print server, you must install additional drivers. To add client printer drivers to the print server, click the Sharing tab in the Properties dialog box, and then click Additional Drivers. For more information about this, see the "Update or change printer drivers" topic in Print Management Help, or see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=104835.

Verify

To confirm that print queues and all settings were successfully imported, perform the following tasks:

  • Confirm that all of the print queues that you exported from the source print server are listed in the Printers folder in Control Panel on the destination server to which you imported the print queues.

    If you have a large number of printers to compare, export a list of printers on the server from which you exported the print queues. Then export a list of printers from the server on which you imported the files, and then compare the results in Microsoft Excel or another spreadsheet program. To export a list of printers from a server, use the following procedure:

    1. On a computer running Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Ultimate, or Windows Server 2008, open the Print Management snap-in from the Administrative Tools folder.
    2. In the Print Management tree, click the name of the computer that contains the printer queues that you exported (if available), right-click Printers, and then click Export List.
    3. Specify a file name for the list of printers, and then click Save.

  • Test printing to each printer. All documents should print properly.

  • Confirm that each printer is shared and accessible from other computers on the network and has the appropriate printer preferences for your environment.

  • Confirm that the printer was successfully published to Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), if appropriate.

    To do this, look for Print Spooler Event 36 or Print Spooler Event 40 in Event Viewer (if the print server logs spooler information events), or use the following procedure to search AD DS for the printer:

    1. On a computer in the same domain as the print server, open the Printers folder in Control Panel and then click Add a printer. The Add Printer Wizard appears.
    2. Select A printer that is not attached to my computer (a network printer), and then click Next.
    3. Click The printer I am looking for is not on this list.
    4. Select Find a printer in Active Directory, based on location or feature, click Next, and then use the Find Printers dialog box to search AD DS for the printer.

Print Migration Import Status

Printing Infrastructure