Many users’ workstations have had recent problems printing. Attempting to print may cause an RPC Server failure message, or it may simply fail to queue the job, returning no error. We believe this situation is related to a bug in certain Hewlett Packard specific DLL’s, as they interact with Novell. The action of this bug is intermittent. A workstation may suddenly experience this failure after months of normal operation.

The following document details some specific symptoms, as well as providing a workaround. If your network environment does not allow NDPS style printing, Novell also recommends trying the Postscript based drivers, rather than PCL, if your printer supports it.

The Printer Control panel is empty of all previously installed printers. The user sees the error:

whenever they try to add a printer. This is simply a sign that the Spoolers service is not running. Check the Services Control Panel, and see if you can re-start the spooler. Restarting the spooler will probably not cure the problem. In the past, computers with this error have their spooler spontaneously die whenever they interact with the printers folder in any way. (This includes Pegasus executing)

There is of course no RPC server error, but a related problem causes print jobs that are sent to legacy queues to disappear and never print. In some case, the printer port listed under details will have changed to an LPT port, and when you try to change it back to the legacy queue (e.g. \\uf\.m107 pq1.dean.med.hsc.ufl) it gives an "invalid port" error.

On Win 95/98:

Remove all printers from the Printer control panel. This MAY require a reboot in safe mode. Make note of each printer as you remove it. You may be able to view details, thus you may be able to discover the legacy queue name. If not you will have to depend on user input to record the relevant printers.

After all printers are removed from the printer control panel, you should re-boot. Then you may add the printers. See RE-ADD.

As in the Win 95/98 procedure, you must first clear out all the previous printers. Unfortunately, as previously stated, you may not even be able to SEE any printers listed in the print control panel. You must remove these printers by hand editing the registry. The following registry branches need to have any printer specific keys within them deleted via regedit:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Printer

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Devices

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Devices\windows\device

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\PrinterPorts

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\netware\PrinterData

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Print \Printers and \Environments

Note: Do not completely remove these branches. Simply identify internal keys or branches that are named after a specific printer, by model # or by legacy queue name.

If you know the exact queue name of any of the former printers, you can also search the registry for that name, and delete the keys of which it is a part.

After editing the registry, Reboot. Once computer is rebooted, open the printer control panel again. There may now be various printers listed. If you have removed the above registry keys and branches, you should now be able to simply delete these listings. Remove all remaining printers, and then proceed with RE-ADD.

After a reboot, any network printers may be re-added BUT ONLY USING THE NDPS METHOD. For each legacy queue that was set up on the user’s machine, find the NDPS equivalent.

Note: On some older machines (usually win95) the current novel client may not support NDPS printing. If this is the case, a newer version of the client must be installed. To verify this, go to Network Properties. Look under Services for Novell Distributed Printing Services. If you must re-install or update a client, have all necessary files for the client copied to local CPU before attempting the upgrade. If you must upgrade, use ver. 3.3 for Win95/98/ME, and ver. 4.6 for NT. After the new client is installed, you can install the NDPS printer. Select "add printer" from the printer control panel, select the Network printer option, and browse to the printer in question. On NT machines, your path will be.

NDPS Printers -> NDPS Controlled Access Printers -> UFL -> UFL -> hsc -> itc -> print -> [NDPSNAME]

On Win 95/98, the path is similar, but it begins with Novell Directory Services, and then continues with UFL, etc.

Add any local printers in the standard fashion.

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