|
I have done some more research on this
problem.
First what I have discovered is that if you have a
windows printer set-up to use the LPT1 port, and then define the PrinterComPort
as LPT1 in the registry then windows will spool the output before sending it to
a the printer. If there is not printer defined to use the LPT1 port then the
BallotStation will print directly to the port. You can observe the
difference in how long it takes to the ReportDlg to print the report (not
actually how long the report takes to print.) If the print job is being
spooled the ReportDlg 'prints' quickly, whereas if the print job is not being
spooled it takes a much longer time to 'print'.
As for the problem being reported, that is the
printer stops printing. If the print job is being spooled you will get the
error message Steve reported. This is from the Windows NT Print
Manager. If the print job is not being spooled you will get the
message "Failed writing to printer device". In either case the printer has
stopped working. It will take upto 90 seconds (the timeout value on
the parallel port) before you see this error message after the printer stops
printing. If you try to print again you will get nothing from the printer and a
repeat of the previous message.
I have no idea what is causing the problem.
The unit I was testing on failed once, and then worked correctly after a
complete shutdown (just rebooting did not fix the printer). I have not
tested it again. Also the unit I have has the white four pin connector on the
transition board.
What I do know is that it is not caused by the
application since I can print successfully from my Win NT system to an Epson dot
matrix printer connected to the parallel port. Nor is the problem related to
filling the printers buffer since that happens after about 2 seconds of printing
any yet the hang-up did not happen until after about 40 seconds of
printing.
Ian, could you organize to have someone down there
do some more testing to try to track down the problem?
Tab
|