DOS printing problem in Windows XP

[Charles Shapiro]

I have an older DOS program running on Windows XP-PRO and a HP Laserjet
1100A printer.

There are going to be 2 questions here.

1st question. This is one machine in a 5 machine peer-peer network. I am
trying to install
a print server (which I was able to install). This older DOS program only
has provision for
standard printer port designation, ie: LPT1, LPT2, etc. The print server's
port when installed
is: LPTSB31B-1.

Question: Is there a way I can redirect the output from the programs LPT1
to LPTSB31B-1
in a batch file that also starts the program? Would this work?

Next question, same hardware as above. The HP Laserjet 1100A printer has
the capability to do 'manual'
printing with media other than the normal 8.5 x 11" sheets of paper. The
same program as above
will print to the printer when hooked directly to LPT1, but it takes it 30
seconds. The data
is received by the printer immediately ( I see the light blinking), but with
that the 'big' button (the
manual button) also blinks. You can hit the 'big' button and it will start
to print immediately, but this
is not acceptable, to have to get up everytime and hit that button to make
it print. I have checked all
over the properties for the printer ( that HP1100A) and can't find any place
to make changes. I have
tried making all the changes on the page that talks about spooling, printing
directly to the printer,
etc to no avail. The only other thing I can see that might affect it is the
'manual duplex' setting and
it's turned off.

Appreciate any and all ideas!

Thanks.

...Chip..

 

[LVTravel]

A laser printer never did print properly from DOS. Since it is set to
deliver a full page at a time it will not print the page until the computer
sends a signal that the end of the page has been delivered to it. What you
are seeing with the 30 seconds delay is the default "time out" that the
printer has, i.e., it will flush itself and print what ever is in memory if
it doesn't receive a signal from the computer within that 30 seconds.

To enable a faster timeout you need to go into the printer's setup menu.
Read the manual and reduce the timeout to about 10 seconds if this option is
available for this printer.

Another way to speed the job is to have your DOS program send a Form Feed at
the end of each page.

 

[Charles Shapiro]

A laser printer never did print properly from DOS. Since it is set to
deliver a full page at a time it will not print the page until the computer
sends a signal that the end of the page has been delivered to it. What you
are seeing with the 30 seconds delay is the default "time out" that the
printer has, i.e., it will flush itself and print what ever is in memory if
it doesn't receive a signal from the computer within that 30 seconds.

Sounds like what it's doing. Of course when the program is run from WIN98
this doesn't happen,
so I know it is the lack of DOS support (in XP) in combination with the
older DOS program, and the
laser printer..

To enable a faster timeout you need to go into the printer's setup menu.
Read the manual and reduce the timeout to about 10 seconds if this option is
available for this printer.

I didn't see that option available in the properties, but I did see a
priority setting which I increased
to the maximum but the result was the same..

Another way to speed the job is to have your DOS program send a Form Feed at
the end of each page.

I wouldn't know how to do that from within the program. It's not something
I can set. I can set
the printer type, the port and the lines on the page..

Thanks for the reply, you gave me some things to think about!

...Chip..