Raw printing problems.

[much_guest]

Hey guys. :)

I'm experiencing problems getting various Telnet emulation programs that use old HP terminal escape sequences to provide 'pass thru' printing to attached printers (parallel,usb,networked).

The environment these emulators run in is XP.

The problem is that no matter how these laser jets (old and new) are configured, the XP spooler seems to refuse to let them print 'Raw'.

It takes these time tested PCL commands (escape sequences) and converts them to EMF.

It took a while to try all of the configuration combinations in the 'Print Processor' screens, but nothing seems to work in terms of getting the spooler to keep its hands off of the contents.

I've examined the file contents coming from the emulators and everything is OK.

I've taken those files and copied them (in DOS) directly to the printer, using NET USE etc and they print correctly.

I'm looking at other alternatives... but the best fit is to get XP spooling to work correctly.

The box being used to test this is an XP Pro SP2.

Been looking at this (and on the net) for a couple of weeks now...

Can anyone help?

Thanks. :)

Uncheck "Enable advanced printer features" on the Advanced tab of the
printer property.

Also for LPT printers, don't add the printer then the spooler will never
know about it and just write to PRN or LPT1:



--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"much_guest" <much_guest.3o463d@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:much_guest.3o463d@DoNotSpam.com...
>
> Hey guys. :)
>
> I'm experiencing problems getting various Telnet emulation programs
> that use old HP terminal escape sequences to provide 'pass thru'
> printing to attached printers (parallel,usb,networked).
>
> The environment these emulators run in is XP.
>
> The problem is that no matter how these laser jets (old and new) are
> configured, the XP spooler seems to refuse to let them print 'Raw'.
>
> It takes these time tested PCL commands (escape sequences) and converts
> them to EMF.
>
> It took a while to try all of the configuration combinations in the
> 'Print Processor' screens, but nothing seems to work in terms of getting
> the spooler to keep its hands off of the contents.
>
> I've examined the file contents coming from the emulators and
> everything is OK.
>
> I've taken those files and copied them (in DOS) directly to the
> printer, using NET USE etc and they print correctly.
>
> I'm looking at other alternatives... but the best fit is to get XP
> spooling to work correctly.
>
> The box being used to test this is an XP Pro SP2.
>
> Been looking at this (and on the net) for a couple of weeks now...
>
> Can anyone help?
>
> Thanks. :)
>
>
> --
> much_guest
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> much_guest's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/much_guest.htm
> View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/xp-print-fax/1129298.htm
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>

[much_guest]

I've already tried turning off 'advanced printer' features a while back...

During the 'It took a while to try all of the configuration combinations in the 'Print Processor' screens' part of the testing.

No dice.

I just wanted to get back to you, since it has been a couple of days. ;)

I've expanded the scope of the printing testing.

Yesterday, I covered TCP/IP printing... same problem.

I'm going to try a few remaining possible printer/hardware configurations and fold in a couple of more emulators.

Since I posted, I've suddenly become very curious...

I've got a few legacy systems Win3.11/Win95/Win98.

I'm going to figure out when this capability disappeared.

>Also for LPT printers, don't add the printer then the spooler will never
>know about it and just write to PRN or LPT1:

I didn't quite follow your drift here...

I appreciate your help.

Thanks. :)

you do not need to install a printer to write data to LPT1.

As you stated, it's RAW.

take a text file and copy the file to LPT1: or PRN in a command window when
no printer is installed on the parallel port. It still prints.

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"much_guest" <much_guest.3o8evc@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:much_guest.3o8evc@DoNotSpam.com...
>
> I've already tried turning off 'advanced printer' features a while
> back...
>
> During the 'It took a while to try all of the configuration
> combinations in the 'Print Processor' screens' part of the testing.
>
> No dice.
>
> I just wanted to get back to you, since it has been a couple of days.
> ;)
>
> I've expanded the scope of the printing testing.
>
> Yesterday, I covered TCP/IP printing... same problem.
>
> I'm going to try a few remaining possible printer/hardware
> configurations and fold in a couple of more emulators.
>
> Since I posted, I've suddenly become very curious...
>
> I've got a few legacy systems Win3.11/Win95/Win98.
>
> I'm going to figure out when this capability disappeared.
>
>>Also for LPT printers, don't add the printer then the spooler will
> never
>>know about it and just write to PRN or LPT1:
>
> I didn't quite follow your drift here...
>
> I appreciate your help.
>
> Thanks. :)
>
>
> --
> much_guest
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> much_guest's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/much_guest.htm
> View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/xp-print-fax/1129298.htm
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>

[much_guest]

All right, where are we...

I tried grasping at a last few straws...

Installed (auto) something like 30+ updates to XP. It installed correctly and included .Net Framework thru version 3.

I reviewed the MS spooler model docs... Ran a last few tests hoping that the client side spooling model was working... No dice.

Though previous tests were not all inclusive, they left little doubt that the client/printer server model also doesn't work.

The conclusion at this point RAW printing as installed on this XP test bed is simply broken.

It should be noted that these emulators, though legacy applications, are NOT Dos applications. The solution that seems to have been pushed in the past, of directing the output to a disc file, isn't going to fed the bulldog.

The next round of efforts will be to go back till the spooling system works correctly as well as look into the suspect installed printer driver sets.

Right now all fingers point to validly formatted output being handed off by the application layer either being hozed by the GDI or printer driver layers.

I mean exactly HOW hard is it to understand RAW?

LOL :)

Anyone have any bright ideas? ;)