TITLE: PNW Printing, Possible Solutions DOCUMENT ID: TID1200864 DOCUMENT REVISION: 0 DATE: 19JUN95 ALERT STATUS: Yellow README FOR: NA NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION: PERSONAL NETWARE V1.0 ABSTRACT: NA --------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER: THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL. NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEAN TO VERIFY THIS INFORMATION. HOWEVER, THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR YOUR INFORMATION ONLY. NOVELL MAKES NO EXPLICIT OR IMPLIED CLAIMS TO THE VALIDITY OF THIS INFORMATION. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ISSUE: PERSONAL NETWARE V1.0 PRINTING, POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS ***** WARNING ***** The following information is about printing problems you may encounter. Though every effort is made to confirm these solutions, they may not work in every case. With the variety of possible causes of print problems, Novell cautions you to make a backup of your data before trying any of these suggestions. PRINTER DEFINITION DELETION A possible solution is to physically delete the network printer files and network printer definition and recreate the definition. Do the following steps to make the necessary changes: 1. Go to DOS and make sure that you are on your C: drive. 2. Change to the ROOT directory by typing CD\ 3. Change to a hidden directory called NWCNTL by typing CD NWCNTL. 4. There will be a directory for each printer on your machine. Delete the contents of the directory, then delete the directory. (The name of the directory may be SLPT1, SLPT2, SLPT3, SCOM1, or SCOM2.) The following are examples of how to delete the files and directories: Using Novell DOS 7.0: XDEL SLPT1 /RSD Using MS-DOS 6.xx: DEL SLPT1\*.* RD SLPT1 NOTE: Do not delete any files in the NWCNTL directory. Only delete the files in the directories for the printers as outlined above. 5. Change back to the NWCLIENT directory by typing CD \NWCLIENT 6. Type NET ADMIN. The network will need to be running (Server loaded and supervisor logged in) 7. Type

8. Delete your network printer. 9. Recreate your network printer. (See the printer setup below) 10. Exit the NET ADMIN utility. 11. Capture your network printer. 12. Print a file from DOS with the network loaded (COPY C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT LPT1). 13. Print a file from your application. PRINTER SETUP If you are having printing problems, Novell presumes that the Network Printers are not setup properly. Because this has been the source of some confusion, it is necessary to check this information first. To do so with the Network running (Server loaded and supervisor logged in), do the following: 1. Type NET ADMIN 2. Type

3. If a printer does not exist, do the following: a. Press the key. b. Enter a printer name. (Novell recommends using a name that will identify the printer such as HP_LASERJET_III.) c. Select the port to which the printer is physically connected. d. Select the Server where the printer is physically located. 4. The next screen shows default information for the printer. At this point you can press for information and details of each option. 7. You may now escape out of NET (press several times until an EXIT message comes up); EXIT; and reboot your server. After you are back up and running, you can issue your NET CAPTURE statement to specify the port and printer name and any other valid capture parameters. (See the Personal NetWare user guide for details on NET CAPTURE; or at the DOS prompt, type NET CAPTURE ? for help information. Additional printing information can be found in Fax Document 1200863) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q1. How do I eliminate the banner page at the beginning of each print job? A1. The Banner default is set to y(yes). Eliminate the banner by putting the following command in your Net Capture statement: B=N Q2. Each print job ejects a blank page when it finishes. Can I eliminate this wasted page? A2. Yes. The formfeed default is set to y(yes). Turn it off by putting the following command in the Net Capture line: F=N Q3. Can I capture to a printer on my Client only machine? A3. No. You can only capture to a Server or Server-Client. Q4. I have two people sending print jobs at the same time. When the files print they get mixed up. Some part of each job prints on the same page. How can I prevent this? A4. Make sure you are not printing directly to the printer port. The default is NO; however, it can be set to D=Y. When the default is set to yes, it sends the print job as soon as it gets it in the buffer and does not wait until the entire job is buffered. This first portion may print out, then the Server must wait for the rest of the job. A second job that is sent directly may print part of its job and start mixing the two together. The jobs in turn wait for the rest of the print job from the sending application but continue mixing up the printing. If this is seen, do not use D=Y command. Q5. How come my printing comes out with just a few lines per page? A5. This can be caused from too small of a buffer size, wait time specification, or both. * First, increase the w=xx parameter in Net Capture. The default is 10. However, if the print job is large or has many printing codes, graphics or postscript, the system may need more time to send the job to the buffer before the "Wait time" is exceeded and the system assumes that the last of the job has been sent and issues an end of file to close the job. If this happens, you may see the job split up into several jobs in the NET utility. * Second the print buffer may need to be increased by doing the following: To do so with the Network running (Server loaded and supervisor logged in). 1. Go into NET ADMIN 2. Press 3. Select your Server. 4. Select Configure 5. Select Advances settings 5. Increase the Print buffer size in the Future column. 6. Press , Press again, then again. Press . Exit the NET ADMIN utility 7. Reboot the system for the changes to take effect. NOTE: Do not use D=Y and W=0. If you set W=0, it will rely on the application to close the file. If it does not, then no printing will occur and the print job will remain open until it is closed explicitly. You will need to do this manually by sending a ^L to the port. (Hold down the key and press key) Example: ECHO ^L >lpt1 Q6. When sending a print job, only a few pages print out, then the printer stops, and then machine with the printer attached to it locks. What can I do to prevent this? A6. First check the WAIT parameter. Try increasing W=xx in NET CAPTURE. Also check for the presence of Caching utilities. Make sure only one is loaded. Two caching utilities loaded at the same time will conflict with each other and cause unpredictable results. If the problem persists, remove all caching and any TSRs loaded, other than the Personal NetWare files. Q7. The system sent a message displaying "Printer off line" or "Printer out of paper;" however, neither case is true. There is plenty paper, and it may continue printing without problem. How can I resolve this issue? A7. Increase the Error wait time by 10 to 15 seconds by doing the following: 1. Run NET ADMIN 2. Type

3. Add 10 to 15 seconds to the current Error wait time. Q8. The Server locks up intermittently when printing or the print job just disappears without printing. What can I do to prevent this? A8. Make sure there are no hardware conflicts. If using LPT1, do not use a network board set at I/O address of 360. The size of the address overlaps with the LPT1 port address of 378. If you use LPT2, do not use interrupt 5. See Fax Document 1200452 for more information on resolving I/O and IRQ conflicts. Q9. What is a typical value to set for "Characters per second"? A9. Normally, the default of 16384 is sufficient. If it is set high, then DOS will be interrupted more often to retrieve characters from the print buffer. If the printer is a serial printer or a slow machine, increasing this parameter may not affect the speed of the printer; however, it can affect the DOS foreground process. A good rule of thumb for setting "Characters per second" for serial printers is the printer baud rate divided by 10. Example: 9600 baud / 10 = 960 This parameter is a value you may need to experiment with and do some fine tuning. Q10. My application is setup to output to a COM port. How can I CAPTURE the port and send the print job to a printer on my Server? A10. Personal NetWare will not CAPTURE to COM ports. If the application is hard coded to print to a COM port, you will need to work that out with the application manufacture. If the application configuration can be changed to output to an LPT port, then do so and CAPTURE the LPT port. This may be the problem if you get redirect errors. As a alternative, if the application allows printing to a file, print to file LPTx.DOS. Example: If printer LaserJet is attached to the Server and the CAPTURE command is executed from a client, the following will occur: Net Capture COM1 Laserjet (Will not work, an error will be returned) Net Capture LPT1 Laserjet (Will capture the clients LPT1 port and send the print job to the LaserJet attached to the Server machine) Q11. I run Personal NetWare and Windows and other various applications. When I send a print job from the application, it will go on hold until I exit out of Windows. Then it prints without flaws. What causes it to hold until I exit Windows? A11. First, check the Windows SYSTEM.INI file in the [shell] section. If the application is listed there, remove it from this area and try again. Q12. All print jobs are printing extremely slow. A12. First, try printing from DOS without any Personal NetWare files loaded. In most cases, the slow down is related to bad or conflicting hardware. Check for the use of any A-B switches or multiplexor hardware connected to the port. If any of these items are in use, remove them and try printing. If it is still slow, the problem may be that the port itself is bad. If it prints fine without Personal NetWare but as soon as Personal NetWare is loaded the slow down occurs, you may need to adjust the print buffer size and try fine tuning the "Characters per second" parameter. (Additional printing information can be found in Fax Document 1200863) Q13. Can I set up my printer on my Server-Client machine as a Personal NetWare printer and print to it using Net Capture as well as use it as a DOS printer? A13. No. If the printer is set up in the NET ADMIN utility as a Network printer and Server is loaded, then Personal NetWare has control of the printer; and it is no longer available to DOS. Be sure to NET CAPTURE the port first, then you may print to it. If you print directly to the printer without capturing, you may corrupt the print job. Q14. Can I NET CAPTURE a nonexistent port such as LPT2 so I can use LPT1 for DOS printing. A14. Yes, provided your machine is not a Server as was covered in the previous question. Example: Net Capture lpt2 Laser (If LPT2 does not exist and applications send their print output to the LPT2 port, the print job will be redirected to printer Laser that is attached to a Server machine, and LPT1 will be free for DOS use.) Q15. I can have Net Capture loaded but cannot do a print screen or redirect an ASCII file to the LPT port. Also, some applications do print okay while others do not. What causes this? A15. This may happen if the printer can be set to different print modes. Example: A HP Laserjet IIIsi can be set to PCL or Postscript mode. If the previous mentioned problems occur, check the printer and make sure it is not set to Postscript. The reason some applications work is that they may have been sending Postscript print jobs. If you are sending Postscript, make sure the NET CAPTURE contains the following parameters: * b=n (no banner) * t=0 (no tabs) * f=n (no formfeed) * s=default (the default setup string should not have any values when used for postscript printing) Q16. After sending a print job the client loses capture settings and the print job does not print. In some cases small jobs will print without problem, but after printing large jobs the client will lose the capture settings. A16. Check for available disk space on the Server. A print job is spooled to a directory on the Server hard drive. If the Server is experiencing a "disk full" situation during printing, the client may lose it's capture setting. Files will need to be removed or moved to another drive freeing up additional disk space on the server. Q17. I have print jobs still being corrupted and have followed virtually all options in the previous questions with no results. Now what should I do? A17. It is possible that after all options have been explored and printing is still corrupt or garbage, that you may have some corrupt Personal NetWare files. SERVER.EXE could be the main problem. Simply, reinstall Personal NetWare from the original diskettes and try printing gain. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Any trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners. Consult your product manuals for complete trademark information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------