OSPRDOS - COMMON PRINTING PROBLEMS 01/25/96 ======================================================================= Common Printing Problems ======================================================================= Please Read Entire Document for Full Explanation of Procedures -------------------------------------------------------------- DESCRIPTION This document contains solutions to common printing problems. RESOLUTION The print job spools but does not print. (Green arrow still points to the document in the 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, use the PRINT_TIMEOUT DOS setting to force the data stream closed. You might be able to determine if the application is using interrupt 17h, as opposed to 21h, by the destination name. LPTx in WIN-OS/2 uses interrupt 17h; LPTx.OS2 uses interrupt 21h function calls. PARALLELx in DOS uses interrupt 17h; LPTx in DOS can be either one; older versions of applications use interrupt 17h. The PRINT_TIMEOUT setting, by default, is turned ON and set to 15 seconds. After 15 seconds, if the job doesn't complete spooling, the DOS application is not using interrupt 17h (see the discussion about LPTDD.SYS below). The 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 the problem. An alternative might be to upgrade the application. Contact the manufacturer. If the problem occurs with complex printouts, you might need to increase the DOS setting PRINT_TIMEOUT value. The 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 interrupt 21h, use the DOS_DEVICE DOS setting to load the C:\OS2\MDOS LPTDD.SYS device driver to convert the interrupt 21h calls to interrupt 17h calls. The PRINT_TIMEOUT DOS setting can be used to close the print job. My security device attached to the parallel port doesn't work. Any of my DOS applications that use the security device can be started from only one DOS session. An error message appears when I try to start additional copies of this application. Press Ctrl+Alt+PrtSc to have the security software release access to the parallel-port software before starting the second copy of the DOS application. 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 from trying to access the same parallel-port hardware simultaneously by preventing the second access until the first DOS application ends. This happens even if the second application is the OS/2 print object. 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, set up the proper Windows printer driver in the control panel. Set up 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. Printing from WIN-OS/2 is very slow; everywhere else is OK. If printing from WIN-OS/2 and Print Manager is specified for the printer, you might need to set the Print Manager Options menu to a higher priority than what it is currently set to. 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 set up the adapter by adjusting the DIP switches or jumpers to set the parallel port to one of these industry-standard combinations. Make sure that other adapters are not interrupting on the same interrupt levels. Sound, MIDI, and serial adapters can share these same hardware interrupt levels. 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 the spooler is enabled), the problem is most likely either the cable or the hardware interrupt level. See the solution above for directions for setting up 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 might need to buy a new cable. Some older parallel-port adapters do not interrupt properly. Because DOS did not use this feature, you might not have seen this problem. You might need to upgrade your parallel-port adapter. ______________________________________________________________________ IBM disclaims all warranties, whether express or implied, including without limitation, warranties of fitness and merchantability with respect to the information in this document. By furnishing this document, IBM grants no licenses to any related patents or copyrights. Copyright (c) 1994, 1996 IBM Corporation. Any trademarks and product or brand names referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Consult your product manuals for complete trademark information.