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OS/2 Shareware BBS: 36 Tips
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1995-01-01
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149 lines
OSPRDOS - COMMON PRINTING PROBLEMS IN DOS APPLICATIONS
12/06/94
================================================================
COMMON PRINTING PROBLEMS IN DOS APPLICATIONS
================================================================
1. DOS application print job spools but does not print. (Green
arrow still points to document in job object found in the
print object).
The DOS application has not closed the printer data stream.
If the DOS application is printing using BIOS interrupt 17h,
then use the PRINT_TIMEOUT DOS Setting to force the data
stream closed. You may be able to determine if the
application is using int 17h, as opposed to int 21h, by the
destination name. LPTx in Win-OS/2 uses int 17h while
LPTx.OS2 uses int 21h function calls. Parallelx in DOS uses
int 17h. LPTx in DOS can be either one, older versions of
applications use int 17h. The PRINT_TIMEOUT setting, by
default, is turned ON and set to 15 seconds. Wait 15 seconds,
if the job doesn't complete spooling, then the DOS
application is not using int 17h (See discussion
below on lptdd.sys).
----------------------------------------------------------------
2. DOS application print job is split into several spool files.
If the DOS application opens and closes the printer data
stream for every character, line, or page, you need to
disable the spooler for that printer to correct this problem.
An alternative may be to upgrade the application. Contact
the manufacturer. If the problem occurs with complex
printouts, you may need to increase the DOS Settings
PRINT_TIMEOUT value.
----------------------------------------------------------------
3. The DOS application print job does not begin printing until
the application is ended.
The DOS application has opened the data stream and sent the
print output but has not closed the data stream. If the
application is printing using int 21h, then use the
DOS_DEVICE DOS Setting to load the c: OS2 MDOS LPTDD.SYS
device driver to convert the int 21h calls into int 17h
calls. The PRINT_TIMEOUT DOS Setting can be used to close
the print job.
----------------------------------------------------------------
4. My security device attached to the parallel port doesn't
work. Any of my DOS applications that use the security
device can only be started from one DOS session. An error
message appears when trying to start additional copies
of this application.
Press Ctrl+Alt+PrtSc simultaneously to have the security
software release access to the parallel port software before
starting the second copy of the DOS application.
----------------------------------------------------------------
5. After printing from one DOS application and then trying to
print from anywhere else within OS/2, nothing prints. When I
end the DOS application, other printing works fine.
The DOS application you are initially printing from is
accessing the parallel port hardware directly. OS/2 prevents
two or more applications trying to access the same parallel
port hardware simultaneously by preventing the second access
until the first DOS apulication ends. This happens even if
the second application is the OS/2 print object.
----------------------------------------------------------------
6. I have a PS/2 system that supports a DMA parallel port. Can
OS/2 take advantage of this?
The current systems with a DMA parallel port include PS/2
models 56, 57, 80-A21, 80-A31, 90 and 95. If you have one of
these systems, ensure that the built-in parallel port
arbitration level is set to SHARED7 (DMA is enabled). OS/2
automatically takes advantage of this feature; no
additional setup is required. OS/2 1.3 customers with CSD
5054 or greater can reenable this feature. Use the reference
diskette shipped with this system to view the system
configuration (setup).
----------------------------------------------------------------
7. My printer does not have a supported OS/2 PM printer driver.
You printer may not be one of the 200 supported printers.
Determine if your printer supports a more common printer
emulation mode and install the printer driver that supports
your printer in the emulation mode.
----------------------------------------------------------------
8. My printer has a supported Win-OS/2 printer driver but not a
PM printer driver. How should I configure my system?
If you are doing primarily Win-OS/2 printing, setup the
proper Windows printer driver in the control panel. Setup
the OS/2 print object with the IBMNULL printer driver. You
should be able to print from Win-OS/2 without problems.
Contact your printer manufacturer to get an OS/2 printer
driver or to determine what other printers your printer
emulates.
----------------------------------------------------------------
9. Printing from Win-OS/2 is very slow, everywhere else is okay.
If printing from Win-OS/2 and Print Manager is specified for
the printer, you may need to set the Print Manager Options
menu to a higher priority than what it is currently set to.
----------------------------------------------------------------
10. My system has an AT bus (ISA) and my parallel printer prints
slowly from anywhere under OS/2, DOS, or Win-OS/2 sessions.
Your parallel port address and hardware interrupt levels are
not set correctly. Valid parallel port combinations include
3BC/IRQ7, 378/IRQ7, and 278/IRQ5. Turn off your system,
remove the parallel port adapter and configure the adapter by
adjusting the DIP switches and/or jumpers to set the parallel
port to one of these industry standard combinations. Make
sure that other adapter cards are not interrupting on the
same interrupt levels. Sound, MIDI and serial cards can
share these same hardware interrupt levels.
----------------------------------------------------------------
121 Printing works just fine in DOS, but after installing
OS/2, printing does not work.
If the print output can be seen in the print object (if
spooler is enabled), then the problem is most likely either
the cable or the hardware interrupt level. See the solution
above for directions to configure your parallel port. Some
signals used to transmit data under OS/2 are not used when
printing under DOS, some cable manufacturers do not wire
these signals. You may need to purchase a new cable. Some
older parallel port adapter cards do not interrupt properly,
since DOS did not use this feature you may not have seen this
problem. You may need to upgrade your parallel port adapter.