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No printing after monitor change

Started by OriAl, 2009.07.03, 01:46:27

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OriAl

eCS 1.2, HP920c.  I had to change monitors (my Viewsonic VX922 had to be sent back.)  When the new monitor (another Viewsonic) was plugged in, all seemed well, until I tried to print.  No go.  Any ideas what I can do to get printing working with this monitor?

Thank you.

ivan

Since the monitor has nothing to do with printing we should be able to discount it.

The most obvious thing is that you have unplugged the printer when you changed monitors and didn't plug it back in - it has happened.  The other thing is that you have moved the printer plug and it no longer makes full contact.  In other words check the printer cable and plugs!

If that doesn't work then more information will be needed.

warpcafe

Hi,

chances are very little that the following may be the case, yet here I go:

If that printer is a USB printer...
...and you new monitor comes with builtin USB hubs (HPs have that for example)...
...and you connected that USB cable from the monitor...

THEN it might be that the monitors built-in USB hub is taking too much power from your PCs USB and while it appears that the PC sees the printer, it wouldn't work.

Okay, as I said, very unlikely... yet one never knows... ;)
Usually I would agree with Ivan to check simple cabling issues first. Especially parallel cables with missing clamps have a tendancy to go loose on one of their sides only - not that obvious unless you have a dedicated look for it.

Regards,
Thomas
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority.
By definition, there are already enough people to do that"
- G.H. Hardy

RobertM

Another possibility is that yuo plugged the printer into a different USB port - which may either not be supported or enabled. I have a board that has different USB chipsets and different ports, and all of the drivers need to be loaded or only one set of ports functions...


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OriAl

It's a serial printer.

I had someone check the connections, and they appear tight.

If the printer is dead (shouldn't be, but anything is possible), any recommendation for an inkjet that works with eCS? 

Pete

Hi OriAl

Quote from: OriAl on 2009.07.05, 04:37:34
It's a serial printer.

I had someone check the connections, and they appear tight.

If the printer is dead (shouldn't be, but anything is possible), any recommendation for an inkjet that works with eCS? 


The HP920C is *not* a serial printer - I recall it as having the choice of USB or Parallel connections. This page confirms my recollections  http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bpd08808&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN#N1148

No idea why changing a monitor should cause the printer to stop working... Might be worth reinstalling the printer driver to see if that cures the problem.

Should you find that the printer has actually died and needs replacing I suggest that you get a printer supported by CUPS  http://svn.netlabs.org/ecups/wiki/CupsPort

Regards

Pete



RobertM

#6
Quote from: OriAl on 2009.07.03, 01:46:27
eCS 1.2, HP920c.  I had to change monitors (my Viewsonic VX922 had to be sent back.)  When the new monitor (another Viewsonic) was plugged in, all seemed well, until I tried to print.  No go.  Any ideas what I can do to get printing working with this monitor?

Thank you.

ok... maybe a better question would be what happens when you try to print? As in (examples):
(a) you get a "Spooler is disabled... (some other message text)"
(b) you get a "_____________ Abort, Retry, Cancel" message (the _____ can be various messages... such as "Printer Offline" etc).
(c) You get no errors and there is nothing in the print queue
(d) you get no errors and there is a document in the print queue

The monitor change is irrelevant... but other things will cause this to happen that may just happen to coincide with the date of the monitor change - such as not enough space on your spool drive, the printer being plugged into the wrong port (serial instead of parallel), the wrong paper selected, the wrong driver being used, etc.

For instance, for (d) above, it can be caused by a forms mismatch (and on some printer/driver combinations, trying "override forms mismatch" does nothing and the document will sit in the queue forever, hanging any new documents added) - or (d) could also be caused by the printer being hooked to the wrong port, in which case the spooler will wait until the printer is connected to the correct port (but it will *usually* give a "Printer not responding" or similar message), or (d) can be caused by the incorrect driver being used. Occassionally, I've had my printer driver switched to another one (the machine in question has had 4 different printers hooked up to it), so, instead of OS/2 using the HP4600PS driver, when I go into it's OS settings I find the Lexmark Z51 driver as the default choice - which creates documents in the queue that do nothing and give no error.

(c) can be caused by a driver mismatch (among other things)... some printers will accept the document and do nothing with them (meaning the print queue gets emptied), others will accept the document and print the code (for instance, a PS "only" printer getting PCL5 code will print the PCL5 code as text as virtually every PS printer supports text mode output - the same is true of some PCL only printers being sent PS code). Other printers will accept the document - and then; either flush their memory and return to ready state (OR) print the printer code as text (in what appears to be a random determination of which they do).


If your printer supports text mode printing, directing something to LPTx from the command prompt should tell you whether or not it is connected correctly and receiving data.


Best,
Rob


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
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OriAl

#7
I meant parallel - don't know why I said serial.

As for all the new software mentioned, I can certainly check them outt, but I unfortunately have learning and retention problems, so I hope I can figure them out. 

If I try to do a "copy test.txt prn" command with spooleer disabled,, I get "The system cannot write to the specified device."  With spooler enabled, I get "One file copied," but no printing, and an error message that tells me the system is trying to print to the wrong printer.

I only have one printer connected with an OS/2 driver, and that driver is default, when I check the printer object .  I also have an HP OfficejJet All-In-One 4315, but no OS/2 driver for it., but that seems to be the printer the system is trying to use

RobertM

Open the Print Queue, try printing, watch the window and see if anything goes into the queue - if so, watch what happens and let us know.

-Rob


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
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Pete

Hi OriAl

Quote from: OriAl on 2009.07.06, 21:13:49
...

If I try to do a "copy test.txt prn" command with spooleer disabled,, I get "The system cannot write to the specified device."  With spooler enabled, I get "One file copied," but no printing, and an error message that tells me the system is trying to print to the wrong printer.

...


The question is: Are you sure that your printer can actually print from the command line? - some, mainly inkjets, cannot.

Try printing your test.txt file from within an editor and see what happens.

Regards

Pete

ivan

Two things spring to mind. 
First; I assume the printer has a print test function, if so use it to see if the printer is working.  If the printer does not print its test page printer is faulty - problem solved.

second;
QuoteIf I try to do a "copy test.txt prn" command with spooleer disabled,, I get "The system cannot write to the specified device."  With spooler enabled, I get "One file copied," but no printing, and an error message that tells me the system is trying to print to the wrong printer.

I only have one printer connected with an OS/2 driver, and that driver is default, when I check the printer object .  I also have an HP OfficejJet All-In-One 4315, but no OS/2 driver for it., but that seems to be the printer the system is trying to use
If OS/2 is trying to use the wrong printer then you will never get it to print.  Assuming the printer is working then you need to MB2 on the printer object in 'connections' - 'printers' and check that 'set default' is set to the correct printer.

OriAl

Printing did work from inside an editor.   Tomorrow, I'll try from a dos app.

OriAl

From the dos app (a word processor, which I've always used), I get the same error message I got when I tried the "copy test.txt prn" - eCS trying to use the wrong printer.  I made no changes to the default printer (I don't know enough to mess with it), so I don't know why this is happening.

RobertM

It's possible then that the printer does not support plain text printing as Pete suggested... in which case, you would need a DOS driver to send it to the printer port...


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
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OriAl

The app has a dos driver - it always printed, for years, until the monitor switch, which, as has been said, should have no effect.  And I don't even have the second printer (actually a printer/copier/fax machine) set up in eCS, as I have no driver for it.  Only the Deskjet 920c has a printer object, using the Omni driver.