How to avoid reboot to access printer?

I have eCS 2.0 RC2 installed on a TPad T60 that does not have a parallel 
port.  But, I have a docking station that does have a parallel port.

If I boot the system in the dock, I have no problems printing to my 
Lexmark Optra laser printer.

OTOH, if I boot the system, not in the dock, and then put the TPad in 
the dock, it appears that the parallel port is sorta ignored.  I can 
print to the printer device, and the status shows it trying to send the 
data to the printer.  But, eventually it times out with the status 
message in the printer queue indicating that the printer is offline or 
out of paper or...  I have found nothing that will satisfy this 
condition.  Not powering the printer off/one, not ready/not-ready, 
nothing, not unplugging/plugging in the cable, nothing!

Is there some command or action that can be taken to make the driver 
revisit the port and see that the printer is now there?  [If not, is 
sure seems like there should be!]

I should also mention that, quite often when this happens, I also am 
unable to clear the file out of the printer queue.   It just sits there, 
hung, waiting for the printer.  Yes, there is a reference to a message 
to reply to, but there is no message box.  The bad part of this status 
is that, trying to reboot the system to gain access to the printer, is 
also unsuccessful.  There is a !@#$!@# message box from ShutDown that 
says there is a file in the Spooler, but no option is provided to Kill 
it, ignore it, requeue the file, etc.  Once this happens, the only way 
to reboot is to either Power off/on, or Alt-Ctrl-Del to get the A-C-D 
Popup and then force a Reboot.

Just an aside, I've also tried going into the SPOOLER/Printer directory 
and deleting the file(s).  Sometimes this works; mostly it does not.

This is a clear case where eCS needs some human factors and some error 
recovery work to be a viable GA-level system.

TIA,

A possible solution is to buy and install a cheap used printserver.

On 03/31/08 06:36 pm, Franz Bakan wrote:
> A possible solution is to buy and install a cheap used printserver.

Any suggestions for a good eCS compatible unit? Even a new, not so 
cheap...?  I will likely have it for a while, so unless it is 
outrageous, I'm not overly concerned about price.

BUT, part of the problem is that this printer is already on a printer 
sharing device; shared between this eCS system and a 12+ year old Dell 
that is running Warp4 [FP12 or FP13, I don't remember when I stopped 
adding service.]  The old system is used almost exclusively as a Fax 
Server and Copier via a scanner and PMFax.  It just runs and runs, so no 
real urgency to upgrade it.  Yes, it can access the Internet via a local 
LAN connection, but no Peer-to-Peer, sharing or any such function.

Thanks,

On Tue, 1 Apr 2008 19:13:40 UTC, Carl Gehr 
<Carl.Gehr.ButNoSPAMStuff2@MCGCG.Com> wrote:

-> On 03/31/08 06:36 pm, Franz Bakan wrote:
-> > A possible solution is to buy and install a cheap used printserver.
-> 
-> Any suggestions for a good eCS compatible unit? Even a new, not so 
-> cheap...?  I will likely have it for a while, so unless it is 
-> outrageous, I'm not overly concerned about price.
-> 
-> BUT, part of the problem is that this printer is already on a printer 
-> sharing device; shared between this eCS system and a 12+ year old Dell 
-> that is running Warp4 [FP12 or FP13, I don't remember when I stopped 
-> adding service.]  The old system is used almost exclusively as a Fax 
-> Server and Copier via a scanner and PMFax.  It just runs and runs, so no 
-> real urgency to upgrade it.  Yes, it can access the Internet via a local 
-> LAN connection, but no Peer-to-Peer, sharing or any such function.
-> 
-> Thanks,
-> Carl

If it is just a single parallel port printer, I have had success with 
a Netgear PS101 mini print server which I am using with my Epson 
Stylus Photo 820. I've seen it as cheap as $20.  It works fine with 
the SLPR driver in eCS.  

Mark

 
-- 
From the eComStation of Mark Dodel

 Warpstock 2007 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada: http://www.warpstock.org
 Warpstock Europe - Valkenswaard close to Eindhoven, the Netherlands: 

Carl Gehr wrote:
>> A possible solution is to buy and install a cheap used printserver.
> 
> Any suggestions for a good eCS compatible unit? Even a new, not so 
> cheap...?  I will likely have it for a while, so unless it is 
> outrageous, I'm not overly concerned about price.

I don't know if it's good unit, perhaps there are better ones, but
this is the used printserver I bought and it works well with eCS.

  http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290218814838

(the price was about 12 EUR plus 9 EUR for shipping)