Printing trouble in MS-Dos (Win95 OS)

[poohbah515]

I have two DOS programs that I am trying to run on WIN95B. If I launch them in full MS-DOS mode, I can't print to my dot matrix printer. If I run them from windows, one will print after a delay (sometimes a minute delay) and the other one won't print at all. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[SubZero]

Is the printer connected to LPT1? Is the program configured to print to LPT1? Cables securely plugged in?

[poohbah515]

In Windows, yes the printer is on LPT1. And, yes, the programs are configured for LPT1 to print to. MS-DOS does not recognize LPT1. Do I need an autoexec.bat file or something?

[SubZero]

One way to test your dos printing is to type DIR > LPT1 at a command prompt. In DOS, you shouldn't need anything special to print to LPT1 - your default printer in DOS.

[poohbah515]

Sure, if I go to MS-Dos prompt and type dir>lpt1, it prints fine. I can print from wordpad or other windows applications. But, when I reboot computer in MS-DOS mode or configure a dos program to launch in full MS-DOS mode, it won't print nothin'.

[SubZero]

Did you try it in DOS mode?

[poohbah515]

I guess I should explain one more thing. I have to be in full MS-Dos mode in order for my modem to work. One of the programs is a credit card depositing program and it has to dial to authorize and deposit cards, then it prints a report. When it goes to print, it gives me an error printing to LPT1. Something like "device not found".

[SubZero]

In some old dos programs, you have to specifically tell it what type of printer you are using. Check into that. It seems like it's looking for a specific printer(device)

[KWB Teck]

Originally posted by poohbah515:
I guess I should explain one more thing. I have to be in full MS-Dos mode in order for my modem to work. One of the programs is a credit card depositing program and it has to dial to authorize and deposit cards, then it prints a report. When it goes to print, it gives me an error printing to LPT1. Something like "device not found".

By any chance your not refering to PC Charge are you. If so they have a win version of the prg out that would probably solve your problems.

[ShadowWynd]

What type of printer are you using? Some of the newer inkjet/laserjet printers will not print from straight DOS. I started noticiing this several years ago. If the drivers are loaded through Windows, it prints fine, otherwise, won't print.

When this started becoming trendy, some of the printer manufactorers had a DOS TSR that handled this for you. However, most of them faied to do this. Try a different printer, such as a Panasonic KX-1123 or a similar dot-matrix printer.

[SubZero]

He is using a dot matrix printer. He stated that in the original post.

Originally posted by ShadowWynd:
What type of printer are you using? Some of the newer inkjet/laserjet printers will not print from straight DOS. I started noticiing this several years ago. If the drivers are loaded through Windows, it prints fine, otherwise, won't print.

When this started becoming trendy, some of the printer manufactorers had a DOS TSR that handled this for you. However, most of them faied to do this. Try a different printer, such as a Panasonic KX-1123 or a similar dot-matrix printer.

[poohbah515]

I appreciate the attempt to help. I finally kicked Win95 to the curb and fdisked and installed Win3.11. Now everything works beautifully. These programs are SO much easier and faster to use than ANY windows95 or newer programs of the same type. Sometimes older is better!

Mikey ;)

[apelsystems]

Just a word of advise. How do you have the printer port setup in the bios.