Printing to LPR Port Does Not Succeed, Printer Ports Missing

• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51, 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to print to a printer by using a line print remote (LPR) port, the job may not be printed. When you view the printer properties and examine the list of ports, some or all printer ports may be missing.

CAUSE

This problem can occur when an LPR port is corrupted.

RESOLUTION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

To resolve this issue, use one or more of the following procedures to find out which LPR port is corrupted and then delete the corrupted port:

1. Try to locate the corrupted LPR port and delete it:
   
   NOTE: In some cases, the last port that is listed in Print Manager will give you an idea of where to look in the list of ports for the corrupted port.



1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32).



2. Make a backup of the LPR port registry key so that when you determine which port is corrupted, you can restore the key and just delete the corrupted port. The LPR port registry key is located at:




HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors\LPR\Ports 

3. Look for a corrupted port name in the following registry key:




HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors\LPR\Ports 

4. If you locate a corrupted port name, delete the port.



5. Quit Registry Editor.



2. If you cannot identify a corrupted port name, or if no ports are listed, attempt to identify the corrupted port by deleting the ports one at a time, stopping and restarting the spooler each time to see if the ports reappear. After you identify the corrupted port, restore the LPR port registry key you backed up and saved, and then delete the corrupted port.



3. If you still cannot identify the corrupted port, verify the validity of the ports the printers are configured to print to:



1. Start Registry Editor.



2. Locate the following registry key:




HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers\printer_name 

3. Verify that the printers are configured to print to a valid LPR port, not to a universal naming convention (UNC) print share name (\\server_name\printer_share). If a printer is configured to print to a UNC share name and you can determine which LPR port the printer is supposed to print to, that LPR port can be causing the problem.



4. Quit Registry Editor.



4. If you cannot identify the corrupted LPR port, delete all of the LPR ports and re-create them manually in Print Manager.

Additional query words:

Keywords :
Version : winnt:3.51,4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbprb