I have had the same error ( '33' ) (I have 4.2, 5.1, 6, 6.1, 7.0 and 7.1installed) It has happened with both rev B Byteblasters and the Terasic Blaster I have.
Re-plugging the USB seems to fix it, other problems have stopped me from investigating further :)
Its always worth checking your task manager for processes like jtagserver.exe and killing off any duplicates - Various Nios-IDEs have caused me much grief by not shutting down their terminal windows properly.
I stopped using the LPT byteblaster MV the day I started using NIOS - its simply not up to it, especially when you get to debug or signal tap. I have heard nothing but bad things about the first rev A blasters.
The latest revision byteblaster is rev C, but they are like hens teeth atm!
hth
P.S. the terrasic blasters are very cheap, look almost identical (but different pcb inside ;) ) and I have found it to work a bit better than rev B byteblasters - maybe down to the different cable (IDE ribbon) and different driver chips inside.