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Q185792: Shared Printers Are Unavailable After a Server Restart

Article: Q185792
Product(s): Microsoft Windows NT
Version(s): WinNT:4.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbenv kbprint
Last Modified: 07-SEP-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0 
- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 
- Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0 
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SYMPTOMS
========

After you restart your computer running Windows NT, printer shares on your
computer may no longer be available to other users. The Event log may contain
the following event:

  Event ID: 19
  Source: Print
  Type: Error
  Category: None
  Description: Sharing printer failed, <printer name>\<print share name>.

CAUSE
=====

This problem can occur if the comment field for a shared printer contains more
than 256 characters, including 2 characters for each new line.

Note that when you initially set up a shared printer with more than 256
characters in the comment field, one of the following messages may be
generated:

- Printer settings could not be saved. The RPC server is unavailable.

- Printer settings could not be saved. The data area passed to a system call is
  too small.

- Printer settings could not be saved. The parameter is incorrect.


RESOLUTION
==========

To allow the system to properly share a logical printer, make sure that the
printer Comment field does not have more than 256 characters total. As a test,
you may want to copy the entire comment field into notepad and save the text as
a file. Check the size (in bytes) of the file to determine whether you have
exceeded the 256 character limit.


STATUS
======

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT 4.0

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Keywords          : kbenv kbprint 
Technology        : kbWinNTsearch kbWinNTWsearch kbWinNTW400 kbWinNTW400search kbWinNT400search kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTSEntSearch kbWinNTSEnt400 kbWinNTS400search kbWinNTS400
Version           : WinNT:4.0
Issue type        : kbprb

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