Ref: 03190009
Title: Fixing Print Queues After Powering off Parallel Printers
Date: 12/21/90

Copyright 3Com Corporation, 1991.  All rights reserved.

Sometimes when a parallel printer is rebooted, it will hang after being
powered back on.  The problem is caused by line 1 of the parallel cable
being held high while the printer recycles, causing it to get stuck in a
warmup state.  On a Laserjet printer, the specific error is "02 warming up".
This problem exists for 3+Open 1.0 and 1.1.

It is best to avoid cycling power to the printer when print jobs are queued.
Or, you can put the following line in the STARTUP.CMD file of the server's
root directory:

   C:\OS2\MODE LPTx: ,,p

where x is the number of the print queue.  This will cause the queue to
repeatedly retry the printer for approximately two hours.  (It is not an
infinite retry.)

After adding this statement, if the printer does get stuck, you can delete
all jobs in the print queue and recycle power to the printer, or you can
reboot the server.


Removing or Powering Down a Printer Without Losing Queued Jobs

To make it easier to schedule to remove or power down a printer, there is an
archived package of files on the Ask3Com forum, Patches and Fixes library.
The archived package is called PRINTQ.ZIP.  It can be unarchived with
PKUNZIP.EXE.

PRINTQ.ZIP contains five files:

   PRTSHTDN.TXT
   PRTSHTDN.CMD
   PRINTFIX.CMD
   PRTQCTRL.CMD
   README

With these files, you can create an additional print queue for each
parallel printer.  For installation instructions, see the README file.

After you have set up the second queue, use the AT command to schedule when
to turn your printer off and on.  For example, if you want to turn the
printer off at 7:00 PM and turn it back on at 8:00 AM, use AT to hold the
original print queue at 7:00 PM.  At the same time, the AT schedule will
release the second print queue and it will print a text page informing you
that it is all right to turn off the printer.  Then it will put the second
queue in a hold state also.

Jobs will continue to be queued, but no retry will be attempted because the
print queue is not active.  At 8:00 AM the next day, the AT schedule will
release the original print queue.  If the printer is not yet back on line, it
will continue to retry for two hours (during which time you can power on the
printer).

Even if jobs have sat in the queue over night, they will print successfully
the next morning.
