Microsoft KB Archive/90926

= Device Contention Errors with Parallel Port Network Cards =

Article ID: 90926

Article Last Modified on 10/13/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.1
 * Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11

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This article was previously published under Q90926



SYMPTOMS
If you use Windows for Workgroups with a network interface card (NIC) that plugs into the parallel port, device contention errors may occur. (Only two supported NICs plug into the parallel port: the Xircom Pocket Ethernet I and II.)



CAUSE
These errors occur because Windows for Workgroups sees the LPT port as being used by two different resources: the network and the printer.



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, use one of the methods below.

Workaround 1
If you do not need the LPT port for local printing, you can disable the check for device contention by removing the following line in the SYSTEM.INI file: DEVICE=VPD.386 Disabling VPD.386 doesn't affect the ability of Windows for Workgroups to print over the network. However, if you are printing locally, no warning appears and printouts may have garbled characters, or you may experience network communication problems.

Workaround 2
In Control Panel, choose the 386 Enhanced Mode icon. Set the Idle Time for the port in question to zero (0). This turns off VPD trapping for that port.



MORE INFORMATION
For more information about device contention in Windows, query on the following words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

device contention windows

Additional query words: 3.10 3.11 notebook laptop adapter

Keywords: KB90926

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