Re: Old HP Printer & Win XP


"Mike" <nowhere@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns9B9FA67C7E307nowherezerivonnet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Ian D" <taurus@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:a9edneRA77d1iePUnZ2dnUVZ_s3inZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxx:


Are you sure it's not doing bi-directional printing?
Bi-directional printing is a function of the printer's
firmware, not printer driver, although some printer
driver apps may be able to suppress bi-directional
printing on demand.

The bi-directional support you are referring to is the
bi-directional communications on the parallel port.
The clue is that the setting is in Printers/Properties/Ports.
Have you checked your PC's BIOS settings to make
sure the bi-directional, or enhanced setting is enabled
for the parallel port. It's usually uni-directional by
default.



If it were printing in both directions, believe me I'd know. I've been
through all the port settings in the bios, which on the system it's
plugged
into are SPP, EPP, ECP, ECP+EPP, and Normal. All but Normal supports bi-
directional printing. EPP & ECP will print nothing but garbage characters
when set to either one. SPP mode (which it's currently set to) prints
normal but not bi-directional. The cable is a standard Belkin IEEE 1284
compliant. I don't know what else to try, BIOS, Printer Properties,
Registry.... What else is there to try?

SPP is the standard printer port, which is uni-directional only,
i.e., from PC to printer. It is basically the old Centronics standard.
Bi-directional in reference to the parallel port means data can flow
from the PC to the the printer, and from the printer to the PC. In
this context it has nothing to do with the print head operation.
I would assume that Normal is bi-directional at normal speed.
EPP and above are high speed bi-directional standards, which
your printer obviously aren't compatible with. My old HP 970
Deskjet was happy with EPP or ECP. ECP allows DMA transfers
to the parallel port.

Your printer should operate normally at the SPP setting. It just
wouldn't be able to send any status messages back to the printer
driver, such as low ink, paper jam, etc. If the paper advances
slightly with each head movement in either direction, the printer
is printing bi-directionally.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: HP LJ 4P parallel port problem
    ... where the problem lies. ... I had been using it on the parallel port for a few ... a lot of time to spool up the data before printing. ... It seemed the problem was on the formatter board. ...
    (comp.periphs.printers)
  • Re: Cannot print
    ... > I've just installed apsfilter on the latest FreeBSD 5.3 to print with my ... Is your printer connected via the parallel port? ... line reading "Interrupt storm detected on "irq7: ... Try printing a file from your own home directory. ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: HP LJ 4P parallel port problem
    ... where the problem lies. ... a lot of time to spool up the data before printing. ... It seemed the problem was on the formatter board. ... I suspect there is a problem with connection parallel port. ...
    (comp.periphs.printers)
  • Re: HP LJ 4P parallel port problem
    ... where the problem lies. ... a lot of time to spool up the data before printing. ... It seemed the problem was on the formatter board. ... I suspect there is a problem with connection parallel port. ...
    (comp.periphs.printers)
  • Re: Sharing a Canon i865 - No "preview before printing"
    ... One Printer (Canon i865) ... I have installed on both PCs the latest driver version downloaded from the ... I have no access to the "Preview before printing" option, ... of network printer sharing, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web)