Event 15 logged when attempting to print with SNA Print Server (225055)

SYMPTOMS

When a user attempts to do AS/400 or mainframe printing using SNA Print Server, the print job may fail to print, and the event below may be logged in the Application Event Log.

Event ID: 15
Source: SNA Virtual Print Driver

The GDI routine StartDoc has returned an error to the SNA Virtual Print Driver.

Error returned: 5.
Print session: [print session name]
Device context: [device context number]
Job name: SNA Print Job on session [print session name]
Output file name (if re-directed to file): (null).

CAUSE

This error occurs if the SnaPrint service user account does not have access to the network printer. The error 5 listed above is a Windows NT error that means "access denied."

NOTE: There are other reasons that could cause the Event 15 to be logged, resulting in a different error returned.

RESOLUTION

On the computer where the network printer is defined, go into Control Panel, Printers, and select the properties for the printer. On the Security tab, click Permissions, and give the SnaPrint service user ID access to the printer.

MORE INFORMATION

The user account that the SnaPrint service is using can be viewed in Control Panel, Services.

One way to determine whether this user account has access to the network printer is to have a user log onto the SNA Server computer using the same user account that the SnaPrint service using. Then, have the user try printing to the network printer using an application other than SNA Server (such as Notepad, WordPad, and so on). If the user account does not have access to the printer, a message similar to "access denied" will appear.