NetWare 4.1/9000 Print Services

A-14
Setting Up and Servicing Printers
Troubleshooting Printers
printer that you tried the first time.
• If a dot matrix printer shuts down and recovers frequently, it may be having
problems with its “thermistor”. A thermistor is a device used to keep the printer
from overheating. Try replacing this part before you replace the entire print head.
• Some printers can be set by dip switches for unidirectional or bidirectional
printing. Bidirectional is normally faster, but might cause problems with graphic
output for some combinations of applications and printers. If you suspect this
problem, reset your dip switches for unidirectional printing.
• If your output is double-spaced when you expect single-spaced, you may be
getting an extra Carriage Return and Line Feed at the end of every line.Reset the
dip switch(es) controlling this.
• If your print quality is poor, first check the ribbon for wear. Also examine the
print head spacing. Your head may be too far away from the platen for your
current paper thickness. If adjusting the spacing doesn't solve the problem, clean
the print head itself with a cotton swab dipped lightly in alcohol.
Troubleshooting Network-Related Printer Problems
The following information may be helpful in resolving printer problems. For
a comprehensive discussion of printing troubleshooting, see Appendix D,
“Troubleshooting Printing Problems.”
• If a network printer sometimes goes off-line for no apparent reason and works
fine when it is reinitialized, you may have a static problem. Large amounts of
static can be generated by certain special papers, such as carbonless forms. Make
sure your printer is properly grounded.
• Plotters need to function much as printers in order to accept a job to plot, but
plotters can have no direct interaction between themselves and the application.
For example, the AutoCAD application talks directly to a COM port, then waits
for a reply from that port. Since NetWare® software only redirects printing to
LPT ports, AutoCAD ends up waiting for COM port activity when there won't
be any.
You can handle this problem by saving a print job to a file and then using
NPRINT or PCONSOLE to print the job. An alternative would be to plot to a
file named “LPT1” after capturing the device LPT1 with the CAPTURE
command.