Waking up a Printer

[Tim Childs]

Is it possible to send a control character or similar to wake up a remote
printer that goes into a power-down energy-saving mode.

The idea is to reduce the time spent waiting for the printer after the print
job has been prepared and sent.

Thanks

Tim

 

[keepITcool]

i doubt it. in DOS days it wouldnt have been that hard,
but under windows i fear the spooler will interfere.


but you can try.. my DOS is very rusty, but if I remember correctly..
following might work

This tries to send an ESC E (reset) to the printer port.
(since you cant type the esc .. use some code to make the batch file


Const fn = "c:\wakeup.bat"

Sub CreateESCE()
If Dir(fn) <> "" Then Kill fn
Open fn For Output As #1
Print #1, "'Batch file to wakeup the printer"
Print #1, "echo " & Chr(27) & "E >LPT1:"
Close #1
End Sub

Sub RunEscE()
If Dir(fn) = "" Then CreateESCE
Call Shell(fn, vbNormal)
End Sub


I'd try to get my hands on the printer manual (d/l from internet?),
and adjust its timeout settings via the panel.


--
keepITcool
| www.XLsupport.com | keepITcool chello nl | amsterdam


Tim Childs wrote :

 

[Tim Childs]

Hi

Many thanks for response - sorry for tardy reply from me.

It certainly seems to work at home where I am now. It will be
interesting to see if it transfers to work OK as it will be on a
network printer - is that still normally deemd to be LPT1?

Thanks

Tim