xp pro serial printer dos <sigh>

[jd]

no luck at tek-tips dot com so I'll try posting here.
thanks.
[snip]
i am doing this in a batch file before starting the pos program
mode com1:96,n,8,1,p
mode lpt1:=com1:

I can print once or twice but after that it goes back to garbage.

xp pro
dos program runs full screen. I'll try it in a window for a while and
see what happens. In the meantime any suggestions are appreciated.
nope... running in a dos window is doing the same as when it is in
full screen

tried running msconfig and add Com1AutoAssign=0 to the [386enh]
section with no success.
Any suggestions? The printer is at a remote location so not much I
can do from here.

the pos program has a receipt setup part to it.
at the end of the receipt I put in a 27 105 code for cutting the
paper. Is this screwing things up? we shall see

nope... took the cut codes out and still wonky.

 

[zakezuke]

no luck at tek-tips dot com so I'll try posting here.
thanks.
[snip]
i am doing this in a batch file before starting the pos program
mode com1:96,n,8,1,p
mode lpt1:=com1:

I can print once or twice but after that it goes back to garbage.

xp pro
dos program runs full screen. I'll try it in a window for a while and
see what happens. In the meantime any suggestions are appreciated.
nope... running in a dos window is doing the same as when it is in
full screen

tried running msconfig and add Com1AutoAssign=0 to the [386enh]
section with no success.
Any suggestions? The printer is at a remote location so not much I
can do from here.

the pos program has a receipt setup part to it.
at the end of the receipt I put in a 27 105 code for cutting the
paper. Is this screwing things up? we shall see

nope... took the cut codes out and still wonky.

first question... are you running cmd or command.

Your unclear as to the software you are running... and unclear as to
what printer you are using... though a serial printer would be well...
likely to be either HP or postscript compatable. I've not enjoyed much
success dealing with serial printers... the last one I delt with was an
Apple laserwriter NT... which was to be fair... a tad wonky. This was
my resolution... don't even muck with the idea of controling port
information... use the network, or rather use the loopback address.
Redirect lpt1: to the local loopback address where windows can deal
with the job as if it came from a remote system. The DOS program is
happy because it's printing to what it sees as a normal printer and
network printing has been supported for years. Windows is happy
because it doesn't have some stupid freaking program that wants to grab
total control of your hardware.

net use lpt1: \\remote-machine-name\remote-printer-name
or
net use lpt1: \\x.x.x.x\MyPrintername where x.x.x.x = the address you
assign to the machine that has the printer... oh you'll have to enable
at least printing sharing.

The value would be 127.0.0.1... that is the loopback address... while
the dos layer thinks it's a remote printer, while windows thinks the
job is comming from a remote pc, when in reality the jobs never leave
your PC.

I don't know if your POS software supports lpt1:, it should... but if
it doesn't i'm sure you can redirect comX" to lpt1:.

I don't know if this will help as I have little info but it's worth a
shot... dos programs have bad manners.

 

[Lou]

no luck at tek-tips dot com so I'll try posting here.
thanks.
[snip]
i am doing this in a batch file before starting the pos program
mode com1:96,n,8,1,p
mode lpt1:=com1:

I can print once or twice but after that it goes back to garbage.

xp pro
dos program runs full screen. I'll try it in a window for a while and
see what happens. In the meantime any suggestions are appreciated.
nope... running in a dos window is doing the same as when it is in
full screen

tried running msconfig and add Com1AutoAssign=0 to the [386enh]
section with no success.
Any suggestions? The printer is at a remote location so not much I
can do from here.

the pos program has a receipt setup part to it.
at the end of the receipt I put in a 27 105 code for cutting the
paper. Is this screwing things up? we shall see

nope... took the cut codes out and still wonky.

first question... are you running cmd or command.

Your unclear as to the software you are running... and unclear as to
what printer you are using... though a serial printer would be well...
likely to be either HP or postscript compatable. I've not enjoyed much
success dealing with serial printers... the last one I delt with was an
Apple laserwriter NT... which was to be fair... a tad wonky. This was
my resolution... don't even muck with the idea of controling port
information... use the network, or rather use the loopback address.
Redirect lpt1: to the local loopback address where windows can deal
with the job as if it came from a remote system. The DOS program is
happy because it's printing to what it sees as a normal printer and
network printing has been supported for years. Windows is happy
because it doesn't have some stupid freaking program that wants to grab
total control of your hardware.

net use lpt1: \\remote-machine-name\remote-printer-name
or
net use lpt1: \\x.x.x.x\MyPrintername where x.x.x.x = the address you
assign to the machine that has the printer... oh you'll have to enable
at least printing sharing.

The value would be 127.0.0.1... that is the loopback address... while
the dos layer thinks it's a remote printer, while windows thinks the
job is comming from a remote pc, when in reality the jobs never leave
your PC.

I don't know if your POS software supports lpt1:, it should... but if
it doesn't i'm sure you can redirect comX" to lpt1:.

I don't know if this will help as I have little info but it's worth a
shot... dos programs have bad manners.

Good answer except last line.
DOS was here first then MS realized it makes more money when folks have to buy
newer hardware and made it har to use old software <sigh>

 

[zakezuke]

Good answer except last line.

DOS was here first then MS realized it makes more money when folks have to buy
newer hardware and made it har to use old software <sigh>

Actually downward compatibility was one of the big features, and in
fact the dos based windows was slated to be abandoned in 2000 but due
to the *nice*(sic) people at microsoft they released one more version.
I'm not saying there are not issues... there are a ton of issues, more
than you can shake a stick at. But on the whole it's rather remarkable
the fact that one can if needed run software made 15 years ago on
modern equipment. Hardware to some extent though it's harder with ISA
hardware as the only boards sold that support ISA stuff are typicaly
the rackmount server class. And it's not really in Microsoft's best
interest to promote the purchace of new hardware... they are a software
company after all.

The issues I'm refering to with dos software being a rude piece of
filth have to do with the fact that it was not slated as a multi-user
enviroment... and this simply was not an aspect programers took into
account. Running software that grabs the hardware tended to make it
unavailable for other applications... most notable modems and serial
mice while on different com ports but by default the same IRQ resulted
in, best case scenero before IRQ sharing, only one device working at a
time, worst case devices being out of site.

Flacky as sin? Oh yea. But this was our choice... and given the great
computer crash of 1983.... not to speak of the grand shift to the
mc68000 circa 1987.... you can see how the idea of downward
compatibility though sometimes buggy was a huge godsend.. While yes
serial devices might not work well in dosmode.. fortunatly there is at
the very least a workaround.

Microsoft... it mostly works. Now were did my document go today?

 

[Lou]

zakezuke wrote:

snipped mostly

"And it's not really in Microsoft's best
interest to promote the purchace of new hardware... they are a software
company after all."

Uh that software company makes a very large amount of its Windows money by charging
computer makers for OEM copies of Windows. Also true of Office.

Yes they make money on upgrades, but how often does that happen?

Lou

 

[Ron Martell]

no luck at tek-tips dot com so I'll try posting here.
thanks.
[snip]
i am doing this in a batch file before starting the pos program
mode com1:96,n,8,1,p
mode lpt1:=com1:

Try putting these commands into the autoexec.nt file in the
\Windows\System32 folder

Is your POS program trying to control the serial port hardware
directly? That is totally prohibited in Windows XP. All access must
be made via operating system function calls.


Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada

 

[zakezuke]

Uh that software company makes a very large amount of its Windows money by

charging computer makers for OEM copies of Windows. Also true of Office.

Ok, you got me there... hardware sales = software sales though for some
reason I thought their Office department was the huge money maker...
something sold both on the OEM front and on the off the shelf front.
But my point is... you don't have to for example buy a spiffy new
version of office xp... nor do you actually "need" to buy a new
computer. I know people who are perfectly happy puttering around with
office 97... honest joes who buy from those of us who upgrade to remain
compatable with others who upgrade... but on the flip side of the
coin... there are still many a legal office still puttering around with
word perfect 5.x or the slightly more fancy 6.0 for dos. Why? To keep
compatable with other offices who's IS is centered around forms for
word perfect. And the fact is... even on modern hardware you can still
run if you desire trully legacy applications.

The issue at hand is Dos applications being moderatly misbehaved under
WinXP... and you sugesting this was part of a master plan, where I
claim they at least tried to maintain downward compatability. It in
fact was a big selling point.

 

[jd]

That's exactly what I was doing.
The printer has been replaced with a parallel one and I'll do some testing
when it gets back.
One thing triggered my imagination though... when the parallel was
installed, there was no irq assigned to lpt1.
Thanks to all and I'll let you know.

no luck at tek-tips dot com so I'll try posting here.
thanks.
[snip]
i am doing this in a batch file before starting the pos program
mode com1:96,n,8,1,p
mode lpt1:=com1:

Try putting these commands into the autoexec.nt file in the
\Windows\System32 folder

Is your POS program trying to control the serial port hardware
directly? That is totally prohibited in Windows XP. All access must
be made via operating system function calls.


Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada