DOS printing problem

[Guest]

I am now consider to buy a new system that will run the POS system under DOS.
My question is that, I heard it from my friend, he say that at WINDOWS XP
will get the printing problem, like printing a receipt will wait a few minute
to print, but at WIN 98 it will direct print to printer- no delay. He also
try to post the question at this forum, someone suggest to try adjusting the
DOS LPT timeout value

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;102059
Registry Entries for NT Virtual DOS Machine (VDM):

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=kb;en-us;Q101850
MS-DOS Application Prints Incomplete Pages
and he set the time out to 3, the problem still connot solve!!!
Is it correct? If it is correct then I have no choice and have to buy the
WIN 98 and low end computer or second hand computer (P4 2.4 and 845 chipset
compare to 915 chipset and P4 3.0)?
BTW is the SP2 for windows XP correct this problem?

Thanks

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Have you read through Bruce Sanderson's article at:
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/printfromdos.htm

 

[Guest]

Ya, I have read the article, the case is as below. So what can I do ?

the printer is a Local Printer and the print device is connected directly to
a parallel port (e.g. LPT1).

In this case, you should not have to anything to be able to print from a
Command Prompt, from an emulated DOS prompt (command.com) or a DOS (16 bit)
program.

 

[Davide Guolo]

GBE,

My question is that, I heard it from my friend, he say that at WINDOWS XP
will get the printing problem, like printing a receipt will wait a few minute
to print, but at WIN 98 it will direct print to printer- no delay.

This happens because your DOS app. do not close the printer port at the end
of the job, so it's not spooled until Windows reaches the timeout value (or
the app is closed).

I heard you already tried to change the Registry entry.
The best solution would be to fix the DOS app., but if you cannot, then you
can also try the following:

Go to SYSTEM.INI file
in [386enh] section search [Network]
if it does not exist enter the following :

[Network]
PrintBufTime=10
[IFSMGR]
PrintBufTime=10

This should set the timeout value to 10 seconds.

Kind regards,
Davide Guolo
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