Printing with XP Pro and HP LaserJet

["John H. Kessel" kessel.1@xxxxxxxx]

As I reported in my preceding posting, U2 is now running
in my XP Pro machine. The longest lasting problem in putting it
up was printing. Many of you know all about printing, but I think
the solution that worked for me is worth reporting for several
reasons.

  I was unable to find any useful information in the
Catalog. This is likely due to my inexperience, but if I simply
searched on printing, I got all sorts of things, most of which
were irrelevant to my situation. Whenever I tried to specify a
condition such as printing from XP Pro, I got nothing.

  At least in my case, the solution was specific to the OS,
XP Pro, and to the printer, a LaserJet 1300, If any is working
with any different combination, this won't help. But if you do
have an XP Pro - HP combination, you may want to know about this.

  Microsoft says that the solution I am using will not
work. "Printing from MS-DOS Applications to Local Printer"
(Article ID 109928) recommends a network redirection, and says
"If you are printing from a printer attached to LPT1, the network
redirection must not be LPT1; otherwise the print job will never
be released from the print manager. I should add that a very
patient and helpful Ohio State techie spent a long time with me
creating a network redirection as MS recommends. It work fine for
a week or so, but then suddenly stopped.

  Two or three HP techies worked with me. The successful
solution was based on two things: substitution of a parallel
cable between the computer and printer for the existing USB cable,
and use of a specific HP printer driver. Neither element alone
would permit printing. Together they worked fine. To install the
driver, I was instructed to uninstall the HP printer software, and then to
check to make sure there were no remaining elements. Then I was
told to do a custom reinstallation using only a single HP driver
(in my case lj485en.exe). With this single driver and a parallel
cable installed, XyWrite files print immediately, whether the
command is ty, print, or the Windows CNTRL-P.

  Within XyWrite itself, two printer files are loaded:
POST-HP4.PRN and GENERIC.PRN. I don't know whether one or both of
these files are used together with the HP driver, only that this
combination works.

  Finally, I have a whole series of .PRN files from 1994.
Are there any more recent .PRN files? (I'm just curious about
this. As long as my printer works, I don't want to change
anything.)

John H. Kessel
Ohio State University
kessel.1@xxxxxxxx