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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!solace!news.stealth.net!news.ibm.net.il!arclight.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!Symiserver2.symantec.com!news From: tedm@agora.rdrop.com Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Printing Date: 2 Nov 1996 20:45:24 GMT Organization: Symantec Corp. Lines: 33 Message-ID: <55gbt4$n3v@Symiserver2.symantec.com> References: <55d0jc$btd@usenet.bridge.com> <55dau0$btd@usenet.bridge.com> Reply-To: tedm@agora.rdrop.com NNTP-Posting-Host: shiva1.central.com X-Newsreader: IBM NewsReader/2 v1.2.5 In <55dau0$btd@usenet.bridge.com>, mhughes@bridge.com (Michael Hughes) writes: >In article <55d5nm$4g@fridge-nf0.shore.net>, > Yes lpd is running. I am using the same printcap entry. All I am doing is >moving the printer cable from the dot matix printer to the laser printer. If >the cable is on the dot printer, it works. Now move cable and print the same >thing, nothing. Do lpq and it says printer is off line. > Couple of items: 1) Under DOS, you do not use the interrupt-driven mode of the parallel port, because DOS printing uses the BIOS routines which don't support it. 2) In interrupt-driven printing, there are a number of wires on the parallel cable that need to be active to enable the parallel port, and are not used under DOS printing. The port also needs to handshake properly with the printer, in order to generate the interrupt. The upshot of all this is that simply demonstrating that the printer can print under DOS proves absolutely nothing other than you actually have some kind of parallel printer cable plugged into the printer from the computer. It does not guarentee that the parallel printer cable is made properly. I would first try using a different parallel printer cable, also make sure that there are no switchboxes or other stuff between the computer and the printer, and also the parallel cable shouldn't be longer than 6 feet. If this doesen't work, get a different parallel port card and try that. If this works, you might have some kind of weird timing problem with the first parallel port card, and possible mucking around in the parallel port driver might fix it. Ted