Re: can't print from DOS

[Brian Smither]

[posted and mailed]

This has happened (or will happen) to almost everybody.

You said that "one day she could print from her DOS application and the
next day she couldn't." So please research the workstation and try to come
up with *everything* that changed between those two days.

Did you get a new printer? A Win-Printer? What printer are/were you using?
Did you allow any updates or patches to be applied: security, system, or
drivers?
Did you install any new software or upgrade any software to a newer
version?

If, for the life of you, you can't imagine what, if anything, may have
changed between "one day" and "the next day", then I can only suggest you
invest in a neat (and inexpensive) utility called DOSPRN (www.dosprn.com).
Currently, it emulates a generic/text-only printer and the Epson ESC-P
series of printers.

Almost all sub-$150 printers and all USB printers do not have their own
printer control language installed. Thus, sending a simple text stream -
typical of DOS programs - cannot be interpreted by the printer.

Brian Smither
Smither Consulting

 

[Paul Baker]

I don't agree with the statement:

Almost all sub-$150 printers and all USB printers do not have their own
printer control language installed. Thus, sending a simple text stream -
typical of DOS programs - cannot be interpreted by the printer.

I don't know what you mean by "do not have their own printer control
language installed", but the vast majority of printers will take a text file
without any printer control language, escape sequences, etc. and simply
print the text in a default fixed width font. As I recall, this was a HP
Laserjet of some sort. All laserjets that I know of have this capability.

What does DOSPRN do? Surely nothing more than the DOS COPY command?

Paul

[posted and mailed]

This has happened (or will happen) to almost everybody.

You said that "one day she could print from her DOS application and the
next day she couldn't." So please research the workstation and try to come
up with *everything* that changed between those two days.

Did you get a new printer? A Win-Printer? What printer are/were you using?
Did you allow any updates or patches to be applied: security, system, or
drivers?
Did you install any new software or upgrade any software to a newer
version?

If, for the life of you, you can't imagine what, if anything, may have
changed between "one day" and "the next day", then I can only suggest you
invest in a neat (and inexpensive) utility called DOSPRN (www.dosprn.com).
Currently, it emulates a generic/text-only printer and the Epson ESC-P
series of printers.

Almost all sub-$150 printers and all USB printers do not have their own
printer control language installed. Thus, sending a simple text stream -
typical of DOS programs - cannot be interpreted by the printer.

Brian Smither
Smither Consulting

We can't print from a DOS prompt or a DOS based
application on a Windows 2000 Pro. workstation. It has
always worked, but it just stopped working for no reason.
The printer will still print from Windows programs and I
can print a test page from the printer properties. The
same thing happens with any printer on this workstation.
The DOS version is 5.00. It seems to be a DOS/computer
problem and not a printer or application problem.