Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!ogicse!plains!schrein@plains.NoDak.edu
From: schrein@plains.NoDak.edu (wes schreiner)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Printing to a COM port: Any clues?
Summary: What kind of status does Windows WANT, anyway?
Message-ID: <9289@plains.NoDak.edu>
Date: 31 Mar 91 23:51:21 GMT
Followup-To: comp.windows.ms
Organization: ..... .... ... .. .
Lines: 26

I can't get Windows to print to a LJII connected to COM3.  Printing from
DOS, in or out of Windows, works fine.  DOS knows the address of the port
and so does Windows.  

I thought it might be an IRQ problem, so I set the card to IRQ5 and told 
Windows about it in WIN.INI.  Same thing, can print from DOS but Windows 
says the printer is "stalled."  I thought it might be flow control, but no 
combination I tried makes a difference to Windows.  Of course the silly 
combinations break printing from DOS too.  

I thought it might be the cable, so I replaced the cable with the 
HP-recommended wiring with a 25-wires straight through cable.  Same result, 
DOS prints, Windows stalled.

Disabling Print Manager just gets me the same error message, slightly
quicker.  I can't move the printer to COM1 or 2 and I don't have another
LPT port.  Printing is fine to the Epson on LPT1.  I swapped the LJII to
LPT1, set up for the parallel port, and everything worked then too.  But I
can't mess around swapping the printers around everytime so I'd really like
to get Windows to print through COM3.  Has anyone tried this?  Any clues?

I know, I should just get a I/O card with 2 LPT ports.  

Thanks for wading through this.

wes		schrein@plains.nodak.edu  |  ...!uunet!plains!schrein