Troubleshooting Printing Problems
Many of the printing problems reported to Microsoft Product Support Services are actually hardware or configuration problems not related to FoxPro or Windows. This section provides tips for general troubleshooting for printing, then provides solutions to some specific problems related to printing in FoxPro.
If you have problems printing, begin with these steps to isolate the problem.
- Make sure you can print from MS-DOS.
- Check the printer's cable connections.
- Make sure your SET TEMP= statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file is pointing to a valid directory. Do not point SET TEMP to the root directory of the drive.
- Make sure you are using the correct printer driver. This is set up in Control Panel, Printers.
- If you print to a COM port, you might need to configure the COM port with the MS-DOS Mode command or with Control Panel settings. (See section below on Printer Time-Outs)
- Check the communication settings for serial printers.
- Make sure you can print from Write in the Accessories Group.
- Select a different printer driver (ex: Generic/Text Only) in Control Panel, Printers and/or reinstall the printer driver from your original diskettes.
- Select a different video driver (ex: VGA), from the Windows Setup icon in the Main group or reinstall these drivers from the original diskettes.
- Check the font you are using in the Control Panel, Fonts icon to see if it has become corrupted. You can do this by double clicking on the font name in the Installed Fonts box. If the font does not display correctly in the sample box, reinstall the font files from the original diskettes.
- Printer switch boxes must not be used with Windows versions.
- "Combo" printer/fax machines are NOT supported and do NOT work well with MicroBiz Windows software
Printer Time-Outs
If you receive a "Printer not ready. Retry? (Y/N)" message, the time-out for the printer may need to be increased. A time-out is
the amount of time that any program waits for the print device to receive a character.
FoxPro for Windows has an item called TIME that can be adjusted to increase the amount of time FoxPro has to send
characters to a print device. The default for TIME is 6,000.
To change the TIME item:
- In some text editor, open the CONFIG.FPW in the main FoxPro for Windows directory.
- Add in a line that reads TIME=999999.
- Save the file and exit the text editor.
- Restart FoxPro for Windows.
Many times, the print device needs to be correctly configured for the operating environment of the PC. To do this, a MODE
command may be used. MODE is used in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file of your computer.
For a parallel printer, you might use a similar command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT:
mode lpt1:,,p
This command lets the operating system know that a print device is on LPT1. Also, the operating system should perpetually retry to send output to the print device.
For a serial printer, you might use a similar command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT:
mode com1:9600,N,8,1,p
This command specifies 9600 as the baud rate, no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, and perpetual retry for sending output to the print device.
See your MS-DOS User's Guide and Reference for more information on configuring print devices and the MODE command.
Have a question about point-of-sale hardware or MicroBiz software? Visit the MicroBiz WebBoard.
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