Print Jobs May Stop Responding and Event ID 2004 May Be Displayed

• Windows Base Terminal Server
• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 4.0, 4.0 SP4, Terminal Server Edition

SYMPTOMS

Print jobs may stop responding (hang) in the print queue for an extended period of time. In addition, Event ID 2004 may be displayed in the application log.

CAUSE

Line printer remote (LPR) printing in Terminal Server Edition (Service Pack 3 and Service Pack 4) defaults to TCP ports 512-1023. Unless the target line printer daemon (LPD) server supports using this non-RFC 1179 specified port range, print jobs do not spool to the LPD server unless the randomly selected port does not work within the supported LPD port range (typically, 721-731 for RFC 1179).

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack

STATUS

This problem is fixed in Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition, Service Pack 5.

MORE INFORMATION

LPR printing in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and earlier uses TCP ports 512-1023 by default. In Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 (SP3), LPR uses TCP ports 721-731 by default, as described in RFC 1179 (Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 and earlier).

In addition, there are two registry entries you can use to configure LPR in SP3, to enable the use of TCP port 1024 and greater. For additional information about setting LPR printers so they are RFC compliant, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q141708 Printing to LPD Printer Is Slow or Fails with Windows NT

Additional query words: fail fails

Keywords : kbprint
Version : :; winnt:4.0,4.0 SP4
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug