Can't print from Dos program within Vista?

[Wizard]

I have an RBase application I've been using for years and I have it now
running in Vista Business but I can not get it to print no matter what I
do. I have an HP960c Inkjet printer connect by USB. I have no LPT ports.
I have tried "net use LPT1 \\wizard\HP960c /persistent:yes" where wizard
is the machine name and HP960c is the printer name. I have even shared
the printer but nothing works. This BTW works fine in XP (I have to dual
Boot because of this issue).
I can print with this setup from a command line using the copy command.

Any Help?

 

[Dave]

I don't have an answer, but here's some reading material....


http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-62...forumID=101&threadID=222485&messageID=2233343

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2005/12/02/unable-to-map-net-use-lpt1-in-windows-xp/

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/39674/39674.html

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/showthread.php?t=142728&goto=nextnewest

http://geekswithblogs.net/dtotzke/articles/26204.aspx

I changed my USB printer share to a shorter name, with no spaces, and was
able to map it to LPT1
net use LPT1: \\computer\hp6110

then I was able to print by
type dir.txt > lpt1

(had to send the command 3 times, because the file wasn't a page long in
length)

 

[Guest]

Perhaps the problem is that the old DOS program does not know what a USB
hookup is. I think you have to use a printer that uses the old parallel port.
I know my old DOS program (Q&A) works this way.

 

[Seth]

I have an RBase application I've been using for years and I have it now
running in Vista Business but I can not get it to print no matter what I
do. I have an HP960c Inkjet printer connect by USB. I have no LPT ports.
I have tried "net use LPT1 \\wizard\HP960c /persistent:yes" where wizard
is the machine name and HP960c is the printer name. I have even shared
the printer but nothing works. This BTW works fine in XP (I have to dual
Boot because of this issue).
I can print with this setup from a command line using the copy command.

You don't say if there is actually a network connected to your PC. Without
an active network connection, you can not map a network resource, even to
yourself.

IN a case like this, you need to install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter.
This acts like a virtual network device that is always connected allowing
you to map a network resource (like in this example, to yourself).

I have done this in XP often, but have not tried it in Vista, but I did
verify that the virtual loopback adapter does exist in Vista, so try the
instructions found here...

http://geekswithblogs.net/dtotzke/articles/26204.aspx

You may have to fudge a little as not everything is in the same place. The
trouble I have when passing on some of this information is certain steps I
do from memory without consulting the instructions step-by-step, so if you
have trouble doing it this way, come back with the specific issue.

The above is assuming that your issue is because there is no network
present.

 

[Wizard]

I have tried the "Loopback Adapter" which had no effect. BTW that was
not necessary in XP.
I actually kinda think the problem is that there is no Parallel port on
this MoBo and therefore no LPT's loaded.
There seems to be alot of discussion about this very issue elsewhere on
the web but so far no one has an answer.

 

[Peter B. Steiger]

I actually kinda think the problem is that there is no Parallel port on
this MoBo and therefore no LPT's loaded.

Nope, XP works fine on the same PCs that do not have an onboard parallel
port. Only Vista breaks LPT emulation.

Hey, did you ever get a useful answer to this question? I'm the "legacy
maintainer" (read: software janitor) for a bunch of Clipper apps and our
customers are reporting the same problem. Odd thing is, COPY/B
{filename} LPT1 works file; we just can't get it to print directly from
the application to the printer. I don't know about R:Base, but I think
Clipper invokes a DOS interrupt to check for printer existence and that
DOS interrupt is failing.

Man, I haven't played with R:Base for over 15 years. I fell in love with
it when our database prof showed it off as a lark in 1983, but he didn't
seriously think anyone would do large-scale database operations in
anything but COBOL so he blew it off at the time. Nobody else every came
close to the R:Base natural language query parser!

Email me if you want to do some brainstorming off-list... I can go into
more detail about what we have already tried that doesn't work.

 

[Guest]

Make sure to open the CMD prompt with runs as administrator. I use Rbase and
this works for me. I also set output to a file name and the just print the
file.

 

[Guest]

What I meant in my last post was to elevate the command prompt ( Run as
administrator) when you use the Net use command.