Novell NetWare: Error Message on Printer Reconnections (83033)

SUMMARY

Microsoft Windows version 3.1 has a feature called persistent network connections. When you start Windows, it attempts to reestablish the network connections that were in use when you closed your last Windows session. This applies to both network servers and printers.

When you have persistent printer connections and are running Novell NetWare, if the print queue no longer exists, you receive an error message when Windows starts up. The NetWare driver is attempting to reconnect your system to a print queue that no longer exists. You continue to be presented with this error message every time Windows is started until the port in question is connected to another network print queue.

There are three solutions to this problem; see below for more details.

MORE INFORMATION

Resolve the problem with one of the following methods.

Method 1: Making Permanent Connections

By making your new connections permanent, you will overwrite the information for the nonexistent print queue in the WIN.INI file with your new permanent connection information. Next time you start Windows, it will reconnect you to your new printer connections and not display error messages.

Method 2: Connecting from the MS-DOS Prompt

If you do not want to create a permanent printer queue connection in Windows, you can connect all the LPT ports to a NetWare print queue from the MS-DOS prompt before entering Windows.

If you do this, the next time you start Windows the NetWare driver will prompt you to find out if you want to override the existing connection with the connection as specified in the WIN.INI file (which is invalid). This message occurs because the printer connection definitions in the WIN.INI file are invalid (no print queue by that name exists), and the associated LPT port has already been redirected (in MS-DOS prior to starting Windows). Choose the No button.

You will then be prompted with another message:

Do you want to remove this printer connection definition from WIN.INI?

Choose the Yes button. This removes the invalid entry from your WIN.INI file. The next time you start Windows, you won't get any error messages about your invalid print queues.

Method 3: Editing the WIN.INI File

You can edit the WIN.INI file with an MS-DOS-based text editor or with Notepad to remove the invalid information and replace it with valid information.