Re: so, if you had a....

[Wolfgang Bechstein bechstein@xxxxxxxx]

"William Allen"  wrote:

> So, if you had a Brother MFC-8300 laser printer that you bought for the
> convenience of a combo printer, fax, and copier...

What a coincidence: just last night, I brought home a Brother
MFC-4340 that is just such a beast, and suffers from the same problem.
However, at least as far as that model is concerned, it's more than
just a question of finding suitable drivers for XyWrite, because that
printer seems to be unable to print *at all* in DOS, no matter
whether it's a DOS box under Windows 98 or straight-booted DOS. (I
tried various Brother drivers from the TTG web site, and if only the
printer driver were wrong, there still would be garbage of some form
coming from the printer, but I get absolutely no response.)

I intend to call Brother here in Australia on Monday and ask them
about the DOS compatibility of that particular model, but I am not
optimistic. And it's my own fault, too: the specs for the printer
clearly said "Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, or NT". The sales person was
clueless, and I blithely assumed that "Windows" would include the
capability to print from a DOS box under Windows, but apparently it
doesn't (for some other printers, "DOS" is listed explicitly). And
yes, I did try fiddling with the DOS spooling options found buried
somewhere in the Windows printer driver properties, to no avail.

Fortunately, I do have a solution of sorts: it's called XyWrite for
Windows, which I never use to do any actual writing, but which is
perfectly able to print out a file created with XyWrite 4 for DOS.
When I select the Windows printer driver, it works with the Brother,
which is why I intend to keep it (the printer, and XyWin, I mean).

Wolfgang Bechstein
bechstein@xxxxxxxx