jbh@trsvax.UUCP (08/24/90)
I recently experienced a problem printing under Windows 3.0. Using a parallel printer cable that did not use all of the lines, attempts to print on one 386 machine resulted in a 'Cannot print to LPT1' message. The DOS Print command worked fine, as did other applications, using this cable. When another cable that did carry all of the signals to the printer was used, Windows printed OK. Also, when the 'bad' cable was put onto another machine (386sx), attempts to print from Windows 3.0 resulted in form feeds, with nothing being printed. Once again, the DOS Print command, as well as other applications, printed OK. Does anyone know what is going on? Is Windows 3.0 bypassing the INT17 call used by DOS? Could it be going to the port directly? Please EMAIL me or post. Inquiring mind want to know %-) Brad
marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) (08/28/90)
jbh@trsvax.UUCP writes: >I recently experienced a problem printing under Windows 3.0. Using a >parallel printer cable that did not use all of the lines, attempts to print >on one 386 machine resulted in a 'Cannot print to LPT1' message. The DOS >Print command worked fine, as did other applications, using this cable. >When another cable that did carry all of the signals to the printer was >used, Windows printed OK. Also, when the 'bad' cable was put onto another >machine (386sx), attempts to print from Windows 3.0 resulted in form feeds, >with nothing being printed. Once again, the DOS Print command, as well as >other applications, printed OK. >Does anyone know what is going on? Is Windows 3.0 bypassing the INT17 call >used by DOS? Could it be going to the port directly? >Please EMAIL me or post. Inquiring mind want to know %-) >Brad Wow. I went through this with MS just Friday. How timely. I just decided to use a different cable. Apparently, Win3 is more particular about the wiring of the cable than DOS. The MS tech said that I could try a different port setting that would use a more DOS-like driver. I had to add a line to my WIN.INI file under the [ports] section: LPT1.PRN= Note: there is no ':' like the others in your WIN.INI. I never tried this, but you might give it a shot. Now that I think about it, this looks like it would print to a file called 'LPT1.PRN'. Maybe you'd have to use the DOS PRINT command to print it later. I did have a print file set up and had told the tech so. Maybe this is a special name that actually uses DOS to copy the file to the printer. Hope this helped! Marshall -- Marshall L. Buhl, Jr. EMAIL: marshall@seri.gov Senior Computer Missionary VOICE: (303)231-1014 Wind Research Branch 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401-3393 Solar Energy Research Institute Solar - safe energy for a healthy future