The problem disappears if I omit the option pagebackref=true in the hyperref praeamble. With the option, the error message occurs, but a pdf is produced in the lyx\temp folder. It can be viewed by defining the new format (Edit-> Preferences->File Formats->New) with
Format: pdf4 GUI name: PDF (view) Extension: pdf Viewer: pdfviewer and definining the new viewer by placing a file named pdfviewer.cmd containing kill -c AdobeAcrobat del viewer.pdf copy %~dpn1.pdf %~dp1\viewer.pdf START /max AcroRd32.exe %~dp1\viewer.pdf exit into the lyx\bin directory. The first line in pdfviewer.cmd uses the kill utility from http://21st-century.net/Pub/WINNT/Utilities/kill.zip to kill any existing Acrobat window. It can be omitted, but in this case all Acrobat windows must be closed manually before invoking the lyx command buffer-view pdf4 from the mini-buffer or from the toolbar (if placed on the toolbar by adding Icon "buffer-view pdf4" under the toolbar heading in the .ui file). HTH - in (unlikely but annoying) case that somebody runs into a similar problem as I did. Ekkehart