pino@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Jose L. Pino) (05/23/91)
I just learned from HP that the current deskwriter printer driver (2.1) does not support virtual memory. A new driver is in the works but they didn't know when it would be finished. So, to print on the deskwriter in system 7.0 turn VM OFF!! Jose Pino pino@cory.berkeley.edu
neff@hp-vcd.HP.COM (Dave Neff) (05/24/91)
>I just learned from HP that the current deskwriter printer driver (2.1) >does not support virtual memory. A new driver is in the works but they >didn't know when it would be finished. So, to print on the deskwriter >in system 7.0 turn VM OFF!! > >Jose Pino >pino@cory.berkeley.edu Just a couple of comments. The problem is only with the serial version of the driver. The AppleTalk version works fine. The problem is really due to the Mac O.S. not noticing the fact that DTR is de-asserted and insisting on sending many K of data. Although it really seems to be a Mac O.S. bug, there may be a work around in the driver but it may affect the printer driver performance when VM is turned on. I really hope Apple fixes this, but who knows. I kind of doubt supporting the DeskWriter is high on their list of things to do :-). Evidentally it is only a problem for devices using 57.6K baud, and few devices other than the DeskWriter use this baud rate. I have also read on the net that XON/XOFF handshaking also doesn't work very well at 57.6 K baud in pre-system 7 versions (the DeskWriter only uses DTR). The finder icon glitch is also a known problem. Actually, the messed up icons are kind of cute on my 8 bit monitor :-). Definately an HP driver bug that is being fixed. So either turn VM off or use AppleTalk for now. We have had a variety of problems with certain hardware (accelerators, third part VM support, even the Mac portable) causing the Mac to not (or very slowly) notice when we drop DTR. In AppleTalk mode this is not a problem of course. And since I wrote allot of the AppleTalk firmware I know it works flawlessly :-). Sorry, I can't give any dates on when a new driver will be out. I don't know the schedules and HP in general hates to give out dates on anything futures related. I do printer firmware not printer drivers so I really don't even know the release schedule. Dave Neff neff@hpvcfs1.HP.COM