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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.novell
Date:         Tue, 29 Sep 1992 17:16:03 GMT+1000
Reply-To:     Novell LAN Interest Group <NOVELL@SUVM.BITNET>
From:         Jon Symon <JON@PSYCHOLOGY.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU>
Subject:      Weird printing problem - NW3.11

Fellow networkers,

    I have three printers attached to two separate fileservers that
behave rather strangely at different times.  All may well be the same
problem wearing a slightly different mask.  Can anyone suggest a
possible solution?

Background : Both fileservers are running 3.11.  Both are using
Pserver.NLM version 1.22 and Rprinter version 1.21, and I have tried
a variety of other versions of each with no change.  Both are 33Mhz
386's, and have 300Mb SCSI drives.  One has 8Mb RAM and has Netware
for Mac ver 3.011 loaded, the other has 16 MB RAM and does not use
Netware for Mac.

Printer #1 :

    This is a TI Microlaser connected to LPT1: on the fileserver that
uses Netware for Mac.  It services a queue that is available to both
Macintosh and IBM users.  Occasionally it 'looses' a print job or
two.  By 'looses' I mean it does receive the job from the queue, but
doesn't actually print anything - it behaves as though you have just
sent it a text file rather than a postscriot output file.  I have
actually copied a job out of the queue before it got to the printer,
watched it as it was sent to the printer, watched the printer not
print it, and then sent the same file back to the queue with NPRINT,
and watched it print perfectly.

    This behaviour is not consistant, nor is it related directly to
either the Macintosh workstations or the IBM workstations.

Printer #2 :

    A Toshiba Pagelaser 8 connected to LPT1: of a workstation
running Rprinter serviceing an IBM only queue from the same
fileserver as printer #1.  It does the same thing, only it has only
'lost' one job out of about 100, where printer #1 'looses' maybe one
in three.


Printer #3 :

    A Panasonic 4450 laser (not postscript) connected to LPT1: of a
workstation which services a queue from the other fileserver.  This
printer prints garbage over the first page of some jobs, again on a
fairly irregular basis.

    When I first connected this printer I tried to use COM1:.  When
connected to COM1: the printer took more than 10 minutes to print
four lines.  This problem is not related to the cabling as far as I
can tell - the printer works fine under DOS using the MODE command
and directly from WordPerfect with the printer port selected as COM1
- it only has problems with RPrinter.

    I guess what is happening is that somehow part of the postscript
file gets garbled on the way to the printer, so that the printer
doesn't know it is postscript any more.  In the case of the non
postscript laser, some of the text gets garbled in the same way.  I
have tried a variety of printer cables and printer ports all with no
sucess.

    What have I done wrong?  And why is it only these three printers -
there are three other postscript lasers connected to these
fileservers with Rprinter and they all work fine.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated - this is slowly driving me
insane!

-+*+- -+*+- -+*+- -+*+- -+*+- -+*+- -+*+- -+*+- -+*+- -+*+- -+*+- -+*
Jon Symon,                         |  jon@psychology.newcastle.edu.au
Computer Systems Officer,          +  Phone +61 49 215 950
School of Science and Maths,       *  Fax +61 49 216 905
The University of Newcastle,       +
AUSTRALIA.                         |
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Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU