Print Manager: Unable to Configure Print Monitors

ID: Q153477

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.51, 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51, 4.0

SYMPTOMS

You are unable to create or select a print monitor. One of the following symptoms may occur:

Double-clicking one of the installed available print monitors (for example, Digital Network Port, Hewlett-Packard Network Port, Local Port, or LPR Port) does nothing; the dialog box titled Print Destinations simply reappears.

-or-

When trying to add a port, such as an LPR Port, you may receive a Dr. Watson access violation or application error message in Spoolss.exe. This may be followed by:

Specified port cannot be added. The remote procedure call failed.

Specified port cannot be added. The printer already exists.

If you attempt to add an LPR port by double-clicking the LPR Port entry in the list of available monitors, you may notice that the list of ports in the Printer Properties dialog box appears to contain invalid port names (random characters).

CAUSE

The Spooler service is not configured to allow it to interact with the desktop.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem:

In Control Panel, double-click the Services icon.

Click Spooler service and click the Startup button.

Verify that the service is configured to log on using the System account, and that it is allowed to interact with the desktop.

If invalid network printer port names appear in the list, they can be deleted from within Print Manager.

For more information on deleting network printer ports, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Q125953How to Delete a Network Printer Port

Additional query words: corrupt dialog lpr disappear dlc print to lpt1 garbage trash tcpip create missing exception 0xc0000005 dr. watson drwtsn32


Keywords          : kbnetwork kbprint ntprint NTSrvWkst 
Version           : WinNT:3.51,4.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: February 24, 1999