neufeld@physics.utoronto.ca (Christopher Neufeld) (01/20/91)
This is a nuisance problem I've had ever since I bought my GS. When
printing pictures, or text in bit-image format (such as is produced by
MultiScribe, now BeagleWrite), the printer adds unwanted stuff to the
printout. This has happened with every driver from ProDOS16 up to 5.0.4.
It's happened with my AE GS-RAM card, and my present Chinook4000.
If the image is full-sized, taking the whole of the page, then more
often than not the printer will produce a solid grey band at the bottom
of the page. This band is printed over and over again, and if it happens
while in the middle of printing several pages, it never gets to the
other pages at all. The printer just sits there halfway through the job,
colouring paper. If I have a colour ribbon, the band is sometimes from
one of the colours, but never from more than one (ie. the printer makes
only one pass on each line, and doesn't change colours from line to
line). The problem is stopped if I hit <OA>-., but that, of course,
terminates the whole procedure. The printer then feeds to the TOF, and
sits there smugly as if nothing has happened. It is perhaps a clue that
this rarely happens if the bottom of the image it is printing out is
white. The grey seems to come when it finishes a page with a line which
contains at least one pin strike.
With the newer drivers I can make a half-sized image. In this case
the problem can also be manifested on the right half of the page. The
band it produces seems to be just a repetition of the rightmost column
of the screen, repeated across the part of the page which should be
blank. If the rightmost column is blank, it doesn't colour the page.
What's going on here? I know it isn't a software problem. Nobody else
seems to have these problems with DeluxePaint and BeagleWrite, which are
the two principal offenders merely because I have few other programs
which are capable of bit-image printing. Is there something funny going
on in my printer port or the printer itself?
Configuration: when the problem first manifested
ROM01 GS with AE GS-RAM and 768kB, for total of 1MB.
One 3"1/2 disk, one 5"1/4 disk, RAM disk on min:0, max:800kB
ImageWriter II (no buffer attached) (in printer port, fake slot 1)
Present Configuration:
ROM01 GS with Chinook4000 RAM (fully populated)
One 3"1/2 disk, one 5"1/4 disk, RAM disk on min:800, max:800kB
Apple DMA SCSI card with Dynatek 45MB cartridge removeable drive (slot 7)
AE DataLink2400 (slot 2)
ImageWriter II (no buffer attached) (in printer port, fake slot 1)
Control panel settings on printer port at default, or with buffer
active, it makes no difference.
While I'm at it, I'll make a self-test on the ImageWriter: power up
with "print quality button depressed"
LOOP TEST
ROMREV(04)
DIPSW1(00000100) DIPSW2(1100),'1=ON,0=OFF'
RAM= 0 KB AT=OFF
LOOP BACK TEST FAILS
This last looks threatening. Could it have to do with the fact that the
printer port is not activated? No, I just printed out a page with Kermit
and then powered down the ImageWriter to make the test, and the same
thing happened.
Help, anyone?
--
Christopher Neufeld....Just a graduate student | "Shtarker! Zis is KAOS!
neufeld@helios.physics.utoronto.ca Ad astra! | Vee do not 'yippee yo
cneufeld@{pnet91,pro-cco}.cts.com | kye aye' here!"
"Don't edit reality for the sake of simplicity" | Siegfried of KAOS