Microsoft KB Archive/97812

= How to Default an HP IIIsi Printer to PostScript or PCL5 =

Article ID: 97812

Article Last Modified on 9/30/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft LAN Manager 2.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft LAN Manager 2.1 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft LAN Manager 2.1a
 * Microsoft LAN Manager 2.2 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q97812



SUMMARY
An HP IIIsi printer that supports PostScript and PCL5 and is hooked up to a LAN Manager server that also is running LAN Manager Services for Macintosh sometimes does not complete PostScript printing jobs for the Mac. This condition can be avoided by &quot;misinforming&quot; OS/2 about the number of configured printers, then adding some code written by Microsoft to ensure the printer defaults to the correct setting after each job.



MORE INFORMATION
The HP IIIsi driver used by Windows 3.1 workstations resets the printer to the appropriate mode (PCL or PostScript) before beginning a print. Some MS-DOS applications do this, too. But not all clients--even when using the Windows 3.1 IIIsi driver--switch the printer back to default mode after a job. Windows generates a piece of code at the end of each job to do this, but it doesn't always work. This means the printer sometimes is left in PCL mode, so PostScript jobs sent to it are not printed.

If you try selecting two drivers for one printer (MSNULL and PSCRIPT) then create a queue for each driver with the usual print separators to swap things back and forth, the MacPrint service will not initialize on the NULL (that is, the non-PostScript) driver.

OS/2 does not allow you to define two printers connected to the same port, but you can &quot;misinform&quot; OS/2 there is only a PostScript printer attached to LPT1 on the server. This leaves only one network print queue on the server, so you can connect LPT1 to the print queue and then define two Windows printers, both connected to LPT1: an HP LaserJet IIIsi, and an HP LaserJet IIIsi PostScript.

Microsoft has produced two small pieces of HP printer control language code that serve as page separator for the print queue. One resets the printer to PostScript between jobs (guaranteeing that PostScript Mac jobs print in the instance described above), and the other forces a reset to PCL5. If you want to use page separators, insert the code at the beginning of the page separator file, but make sure to end it with a linefeed ONLY. If you use a CR/LF it won't work.

Additional query words: sfm 2.00 2.10 2.10a 2.20

Keywords: KB97812

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