Local LPT Ports missing

Thanks for the quick response.

Print Spooler is working fine and the server has been rebooted several times.

Trev

Hi TT,

Firstly, check your BIOS settings. Verify that all required ports are enabled.
Secondly, Go to device manager, Remove (uninstall) all ports and or devices.

Restart, check to see if windows has redetected and added them to the device manager.

Try it now.

L

Try updating the chipset drivers - if this is a real server (Compaq, HP, Dell or IBM) then you might have to download and install their latest management packs to get this.  Otherwise, go to Intel and get the latest chipset installation utility and update it.  During the next reboot the OS should pick them back up again (if the BIOS still has them properly enabled).

Let us know.

Thanks for the advice.  I cannot reboot the server until after hours so I will try that tonight and see how it goes.

TT

All ports are enabled in the BIOS and we have updated the chip sets but it is still happening.

TT

In Device Manager, do the ports show up at all?  - even with an exclamation point?

Is there anything in the System Event log that might give us a clue to what the OS is having trouble with?

Advise.

The ports show as working properly in Device Manager

TT

Don't forget that the problem is also occuring for the FILE: port, not just LPT: and COM: ports.  All the IP ports that have previously been created for the network printers are showing though.

TT

Here is some images regarding, the ports.

http://mail.faj.com.au/Missingports.JPG ---- Missing LPT,COM,FILE.
http://mail.faj.com.au/DeviceManager.JPG ---- Device Manager and the ports that we can't see.

Solution that we have stumbled across.

How we came across this solution was, around 2 months ago we were looking for a resolution to add a shared printer to Windows Server 2003. We were having problems with adding it; the error message that was coming up, was to do with System kernel drivers, and with Group Policies I am not sure about what was the message exactly, but one of the solutions we tried was to patch the machine with a registry patch, that we came across on the net, with some one who had similar problem with printer.
The solution that did work for us was a Group Policy that we had to change on the server
Disabled: Disallow installation of printers using kernel mode drivers.
But,
The registry was already changed and that led to other problems.
After remembering that there was a registry change made to do with Printing, we had a look at the patch and found that:
                           |
                           |
                           \/
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PRINT\Monitors\Local Port]
"Driver"="localmon.dll"   <---------The part of the registry that was changed on our 2003 server:

We checked another Windows 2003 machine to see what it had in the place of ("Driver"="localmon.dll") it was "Driver"="localspl.dll".
We changed drivers name back to what it supposes to be.
"Driver"="localspl.dll".
Then we are required to restart Print Spooling Service.
And, then we have a working solution for Missing LPT, COM, and FILE ports.

Some Explanations to what those files are.
 Print monitor - Transmits the print job to the print device and reports the condition of the print device. Print monitors include:
o      LOCALMON.DLL can store the print job in a file and communicates to the print device over serial or parallel ports, named pipes or remote shares.

o      LOCALSPL.DLL Process Name: Microsoft Local Spooler DLL

Thanks for posting the resolution.  I had never seen this type of issue before.

Interesting..thanks for sharing this.

Hi.  I think you should mark trevortucker's last comment as accepted answer so that others who have the same issue can quickly find the resolution.

Hi.  I do not object to point being refunded, and I hope you can mark the resolution as the answer.