Users Are Unable to Print to Server (186247)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition
- Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0
- Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition 4.0
This article was previously published under Q186247 SYMPTOMS
After a while, all Windows NT workstations are no longer able to submit
print jobs to a print server. You may receive the following error message:
The RPC Server is unavailable.
A network trace of the traffic between a client and the print server shows
that the server is returning STATUS_PIPE_NOT_AVAILABLE to the client
whenever it tries to connect to the spoolss RPC server.
File sharing and other remote administrative tasks against the server are
not affected. Downlevel (non-RPC) clients can still print, and print jobs
submitted from the server itself also print correctly.
This tends to occur more frequently in the early evening as users are
leaving work.
CAUSE
Workstations are being powered off without being properly shut down.
Specifically, the problem arises if the workstation had one or more printer
property windows open. The server attempts to perform an RPC print
notification update to the client, but, because the client was turned off,
the underlying transport times out the connection request. During this
period, the RPC run time is unable to create any named pipe instances for
new incoming print requests.
It usually requires several workstations to be turned off in a short period
of time for these symptoms to appear on the server.
RESOLUTIONTo resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:
152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack
STATUSMicrosoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.
Modification Type: | Minor | Last Reviewed: | 9/23/2005 |
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Keywords: | kbHotfixServer kbQFE kbbug kbfix kbQFE KB186247 |
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