This topic contains solutions to common problems that you might experience with printers. This topic has been divided into three sections to help you find the appropriate solution.
Mainframe jobs that print to a network laser printer print garbage
Incorrect page formatting when printing to a parallel-attached IBM 6400
Cause: When you choose to receive data as Binary (raw) it is given the data type .bin. This data type is not the native format understood by the Barr spooler (file type .tnj). Files of type .bin must be sent to a printer that has the Special: Pass data to printer without conversion option selected. If a binary file is directed to a printer that is not configured in this manner, you will receive a Bad data type error.
Solution: Add the Data Set Header Internal Custom Section, NDHBDTYP - Data type field to the Spool Window to verify that the file format is .bin. Then, on the Advanced Printer Options dialog box, change the spool printer setting to Special: Pass data to printer without conversion.
Solution: If the data is plain text, it does not need to be received as a binary file and passed directly through the Barr spooler. Data received in the appropriate format will be given data type .tnj, and can be printed without the Special: Pass data to printer without conversion option.
See also: File and record formats
Cause: The Barr spooler cannot access the Windows Spooler to automatically recover from some printer errors. Occasionally, you will need to resolve these problems manually.
Solution: Complete the following steps to flush the memory buffers and recover from a printer error.
Allow jobs currently printing to finish. Do this by stopping each printer currently printing a job. The state of the printer will change to draining. This will automatically disable the printer upon completion of the current job.
Stop the BARR SpoolCore service. Any resulting message boxes can be ignored or canceled.
Open the \\Winnt\System32\Spooler\Printers folder and delete all files in the directory.
Restart the Windows spooler service.
Restart the BARR SpoolCore service. You will now be able to resume printing.
Cause: Data sets are being spooled by the Windows Spooler. Barr uses the Windows printer structure, which passes data from the Barr spool through the Windows Spooler. To get accurate printing feedback, make sure the Windows printer is configured to print directly to the printer.
Solution: Enable the Print directly to the printer setting.
Cause: The option Special: Pass data to printer without conversion is selected. When this is selected, the entire data file, including the NJE wrapping Equivalent to the NJE format at the mainframe. The data is typically EBCDIC and is formatted as NJE records, with NJE record headers and NJE file headers., will be sent to the printer. The printer restarts because it does not understand the NJE format and sees it as bad channel data. This option must only be used for printers which are not using a Barr printer driver.
Solution: Cancel the Special: Pass data to printer without conversion selection. Complete the following steps.
Open the printer configuration using one of the following methods.
Right-click the printer in the Spool Window and select Configure. To access this option, the printer must be disabled and you must have the Configure - Printer and Disk Settings user access right.
Open the Configuration Utility. From the Spool Printers tab, select the spool printer, and then click Modify.
Click Advanced. The Advanced Printer Options dialog box displays.
Clear the Special: Pass data to printer without conversion selection.
Cause: Corrupt FCBs will cause forms to print incorrectly. They can cause printers to drop bytes of data from each record, or even restart. This will change the offset to the DJDE Acronym for Dynamic Job Descriptor Entry. A set of instructions within the data stream that tells the printer what forms, fonts, and graphics to print for Xerox centralized printers. statement within the data, preventing the DJDEs from being processed, and causing them to print on the page.
Solution: Remove the corrupted FCBs, and download them from the host again. If the FCBs are still corrupted, the corrupted ones must be deleted and valid FCBs need to be created manually using the Make FCB utility.
Cause: Barr File port cannot write to the root of a NetBIOS An application programming interface (API) that can be used by application programs on a local area network consisting of IBM and compatible microcomputers running MS-DOS, OS/2, or some version of UNIX. network directory. (for example, \\Hostname\Sharename\)
Solution: Create a subfolder in the root of the network share and configure the Barr File port to write the file to that subfolder (for example, \\Hostname\Sharename\Jobs\).
Cause: Barr File port cannot write to the root of physical drive or mapped network drive (for example, C:\, Z:\).
Solution: Create a subfolder in the root of the drive and configure the Barr File port to write the file to that subfolder (for example, C:\Jobs\, Z:\Jobs\).
Cause: The Sun operating system checks the peer port number A number that enables IP packets to be sent to a particular process on a computer connected to the Internet. to see if it is in the range 512 through 1024 (Windows LPR uses 512). If the number is not in this range, it does not accept the print request. BARR/SPOOL does not set the source port number for the LPR port monitor Program that monitors Windows printer ports. Used when files are directed from the Windows Spooler to a destination device., it is selected by Winsock. Winsock selects port numbers in the range 1025 through 5000.
Solution: When the option is added, complete the following steps to configure the LPR printer correctly.
Open the Printers folder.
Right-click the LPR printer and select Properties.
Select the Ports tab and click Configure Port.
Select the Advanced tab.
Select Restrict to 512-1024 range.
Cause: Microsoft Windows returns this error when a channel-attached printer is not ready. This could be because the printer is offline Logically (or physically) disconnected and unable to communicate with the host computer., there is a paper jam, or the printer is out of paper.
Solution: Check the physical printer for errors. Once the error has been cleared and the printer is ready to print, the error message will disappear and the Barr printer state will return to Printing.
Cause: Data received with the Barr Spool port will only be encoded in the Barr NJE file format if the Barr EBCDIC driver is used. If you do not use the Barr EBCDIC driver, you will receive an "Invalid SRCB" error, indicating BARR/SPOOL attempted to print a job that was not received in the Barr NJE file format.
Solution: Use the Barr EBCDIC driver with the Barr Spool port when the final destination is a channel printer. For more information, see the Printing to a channel printer topic.
Cause: When printing a binary file to a Barr spool printer, BARR/SPOOL must be configured to pass data to printer without conversion.
Solution: Select the Pass data to printer without conversion option on the Advanced Printer Options dialog box.
Cause: Data files need to be received in Binary (raw) format and passed through unmodified to the printer.
Solution: Changes must be made in both the LPD queue settings and the spool printer settings.
LPD: Modify or create an LPD print queue, preferably not the <Default> queue which is typically reserved for ASCII text, and change the default LPD file type to Binary (raw) on the Format tab.
Spool: Select the Pass data to printer without conversion option on the Advanced Printer Options dialog box.
Cause: The LPD queue name is incorrect or does not exist at the IP address Short for Internet Protocol address. A 32-bit (4-byte) binary number that uniquely identifies a host (computer) connected to the Internet to other Internet hosts. specified in the Barr LPR port. To print from a Barr LPR port to an LPD queue, the correct IP address and LPD queue name must be specified in the LPR port definition.
Solution: Set the correct values for IP address and LPD queue name fields on the LPR port. See the Modifying a printer's port settings topic for more information. The IP address and LPD queue name fields are found on the Job tab. The LPD queue name value must match the name of an LPD queue that is defined at the specified IP address. Your network administrator can provide the correct IP address and queue name.
Cause: The User ID that is used to start the BARR SpoolCore service is not a valid user on the Novell Server to which the File port is sending files.
Solution: Change the User ID on the BARR SpoolCore service to a valid user on the Novell Server. The user must have the appropriate rights to the directory to which you are writing. The steps vary depending on your operating system.
Stop the BARR SpoolCore service.
Select the BARR SpoolCore service.
Select Action | Properties on the menu bar. Select the Log On tab.
Under Log On As, select This Account, and then click Browse to browse and select a valid domain user on the Novell Server. The user must have the appropriate rights to the directory to which you are writing.
Enter and confirm the users password in the Password and Confirm Password fields.
Click OK to close the dialog box.
Start the BARR SpoolCore service.
Cause: There are known problems between Novell Client version 4.11 and the Barr Enterprise Print Server software.
Solution: Upgrade to Novell Client version 4.6 or Microsoft Client.
See also: Printing to a Novell print queue
Cause: A protocol error occurred and the stack in the host computer (the Barr Enterprise Print Server computer) aborted the TCP/IP connection. The Xerox DP65 network printer utilizes a UNIX-based server to drive the printer, which will not accept print jobs sent to queue names in uppercase. It will only recognize lowercase queue names. When this occurs, error 10053 will appear in the Operator Console.
Solution: Modify the LPR printer port definition to change the queue name to lowercase.
Cause: The Barr software attempts to match the assigned header field value (such as the form name) with a file of the same name in the specified overlay folder. Unless an appropriately named overlay file has been created in the overlay directory, no form overlay will be applied. For more information, see the Working with overlays topic.
Solution: Verify that a form overlay file with the correct file name was created in the specified overlay directory. If necessary, create the form overlay file.
Cause: This document error can appear in the Spool Window if you attempt to write a non-BARR/TRAN job to the Barr File port using the Barr file transfer file format. The Barr file transfer format is used to convert a BARR/TRAN job to its original format.
Solution: Create a Barr File port printer and select the appropriate file format (i.e. ASCII). It is common to receive both BARR/TRAN jobs and regular ASCII jobs, but they will usually be sent through different streams. For example, BARR/TRAN jobs are generally sent to PU1 and other jobs are sent down PR1, PR2, etc. If this is the case, you should create two printers and use routing criteria (such as Class) to direct the jobs to the appropriate Barr File port printer.
For more information about BARR/TRAN, see the Using BARR/TRAN topic. For more information about routing BARR/RJE jobs received from the host, see the Receiving jobs from the host topic.
Cause: This error will occur if the logon name and password do not match those established on the main computer. The Barr software is installed in a workgroup network environment and the computer is attempting to write jobs to another computer using the Barr File port. The computer that is attempting to write, does not have the correct logon name and password for the computer it is writing to.
Solution: Enter the correct logon name and password when installing the Barr software or configure the service to log on as a user account.
Cause: A shared Barr Spool port installed on a Microsoft Windows XP operating system is not sending header information with jobs printed from Windows 2000. The Barr Spool port does, however, send the header information correctly on jobs received from other Windows XP systems.
Solution: The Barr Spool port printer key in the registry does not have the appropriate permissions set for Windows XP.
On the taskbar, click Start | Run.
Type REGEDT32, and then click OK. The Registry Editor displays.
Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | SOFTWARE | Barr Systems | Barr Spool Port.
Right-click Barr Spool Port and select Permissions.
Change the appropriate permissions to Full Control.
Exit Regedt32 and restart the computer. All of the field values will now be sent correctly to the job and data set headers.
These
steps require you to use the Windows Registry Editor. The system registry
contains information about how your computer runs, and your computer might
not work if there is an error in your registry. If you are unfamiliar
with the Registry Editor, we do not recommend that you perform this procedure.
Please contact Barr Systems
Technical Support and reference this topic to be walked through this procedure.
Cause: The Print directly to the printer setting is not selected. When this is not selected, the job will spool out to the Windows Spooler for that printer, where it will remain until it is finished printing to the File port. During this time, the file cannot be accessed by other programs.
Solution: Enable the Print directly to the printer setting.
Cause: The extra blank line (0x0B) is inserted because a top margin is sent by the Windows GDI Acronym for Graphical Device Interface. In Windows, a graphics display system used by applications to display or print bitmapped text (TrueType fonts), images, and other graphical elements..
Solution: The Barr ASCII printer driver has a mechanism to prevent adding 0x0B to a data file. Configure the Barr ASCII driver. Setting the Top Margin value to Off will force the Barr ASCII printer driver to ignore the top margin of a page and not insert a 0x0B.
This frequently happens every 66 lines when there are
no form feeds (for example, Skip to Channel 1) in a print job and the
Barr printer uses the default (STD) FCB which forces a form feed every
66 lines. To change the default FCB see the Advanced
Printer Options dialog box topic.
Cause: The Windows Generic/Text Only driver truncates data at 80 characters (in portrait mode) or 120 characters (in landscape mode).
Solution: Follow these steps to select a different printer driver, such as the Barr ASCII - Printer Driver. The steps vary depending on your operating system.
Open the Printers folder.
Right-click the printer and select Properties.
Select the Advanced tab.
From the Driver drop-down list, select a different driver such as the Barr ASCII - Printer Driver.
Click Apply to change the printer driver.
Select the ASCII printer type.
Cause: Only Barr Spool port printers that use the Barr EBCDIC printer driver can support multiple copies.
Solution: Configure the Windows printer using the Barr Spool port to use the Barr EBCDIC printer driver.
Cause: The Barr ASCII driver may have page breaks disabled.
Solution: Complete the following steps to change your page breaks settings. The steps vary depending on your operating system.
From the Printers folder, right-click the desired Windows printer and select Printing Preferences.
Select the Advanced tab.
Expand the Document Options tree and set the Page Breaks value to On. This will force the Barr ASCII printer driver to apply page breaks.
Cause: An incorrect escape sequence is being sent to the printer, and the printer does not identify the sequence as a page break command. This is usually because a generic printer type was selected for the Windows printer using the Barr ASCII printer driver.
Solution: Change the Printer Type setting to the printer model or the model the printer is emulating. See the Selecting the ASCII printer type topic for more information.
Cause: The Barr Enterprise Print Server will not apply banner page settings when receiving and printing pass-through / binary data.
Solution: If jobs must be sent and printed as binary data (because of special embedded printer commands, and so on), then the host must include the banner page when it transmits the data to BARR/SPOOL. If, however, the data is text, or if BARR/SPOOL can be configured to transmit the appropriate printer commands through an overlay, then select one of the non-binary options on the Format tab. This will allow the inclusion of the banner pages.
Cause: The data set copies field (NDHGDSCT) is set to the desired number of copies. If this field is used to generate multiple copies, BARR/SPOOL will send the overlay at the beginning of the job. It then treats the multiple data sets as part of the same job and prints the correct number of copies. Finally, it sends any ending overlays that are specified.
Solution: To send the overlay at the beginning (and end, depending upon the settings) of each copy, do not use the Data set copies field (NDHGDSCT). Instead, use the # Copies field from the Job Header information (NJHGJCPY). This will still provide the appropriate number of copies, and send the overlay information for each copy that is printed.
Cause: You are using a network printer with a Windows printer driver. The problem occurs because the Windows printer driver formats the data passed to it from Barr Enterprise Print Server with its own PCL Acronym for Printer Control Language. Hewlett-Packard uses this language in its LaserJet, DeskJet, and RuggedWriter printer lines. codes and doesn't process the PCL codes embedded in the data. The Barr ASCII printer driver is designed to process the PCL codes and format them properly for any PCL printer.
Solution: Use the Barr ASCII printer driver.
Copy the Barr ASCII printer driver (ASCIIDRV.DLL) to the server that controls the shared network printer. The driver can be found in the \\Winnt\System32\Spool\Drivers\W32x86\2 folder on the workstation with Barr Enterprise Print Server installed.
If the file does not display, you must configure Windows
Explorer to view these file types. Open
Windows Explorer. On the menu bar, select View | Options.
From the View tab, select Show all files, and then click OK.
Configure another shared printer using the Barr ASCII printer driver as the device driver. Change the Printer type to PCL.
Cause: The printer has been configured to write print-related informational events to the system log.
Solution: Complete the following steps to disable the writing of informational messages.
Open the Printers folder.
On the menu bar, select File | Server Properties.
On the Advanced tab, clear the Log spooler information events check box.
Click OK.
Cause: The Spooler service is stopped.
Solution: Start the Windows spooler service.
Cause: Some network-attached Xerox printers do not accept the control file first. The Barr software continues to try sending the control file first and if it continues to be rejected, it will try to send it last. This is the cause of the delay on the spool screen.
Solution: The Barr LPR port can be configured to send a control file first or last. When printing to a Xerox network-attached printer, the control file must be sent last. To send the control file last modify the printer's Barr LPR port settings by selecting Send control file last (-E) on the Job tab.
Cause: By default BARR/SPOOL automatically sets Pad Zero Length Skip to Channel 1 to Yes. This can cause problems because a hexadecimal 89 20 (write-and-skip-to-channel 1 followed by a space) is sent to the printer instead of an 8B (skip-to-channel-1-immediate). The printer does not recognize a resource if it does not begin on line-one column-one.
Solution: Disable skip to channel 1 padding by setting the NDHBPAD1 field to N or C.
Cause: A firewall Combination of hardware and software that provides a security system, usually to prevent unauthorized access from outside to an internal network or intranet. may have security set to limit the LPR port range, or the operating system might have options set to restrict the LPR port range.
Solution: Check to see if a firewall or operating system has its security parameters set to restrict the LPR port range.
First, modify the Barr LPR port settings for the Windows printer. On the Advanced tab, make sure the check box Restrict to 512-1024 range is not selected.
Next, open the network TCP/IP Protocol configuration. On the IP Address tab, click Advanced. The Enable Security check box is not selected by default. If it is checked, however, click Configure. With the first column you can restrict TCP/IP ports, which could also restrict the LPR ports.
Finally, check the security parameters on any system involved in the internetworking between Barr Enterprise Print Server and the mainframe.
Cause: Windows stores network printer information in the registry under HKEY_USERS. This causes the network printer information to be specific to the user that was logged on when the printer was created. To allow other users to access network printers, Barr assigns the user account designated during installation to be the logon account for the BARR SpoolCore service.
The user account designated during installation, the BARR SpoolCore service account, must create the network printers. Once this is complete, any user that has valid Barr user rights can log on and the network printers will be available in Barr Configuration Utility. However, these printers will not be visible from Windows unless you are logged on as the BARR SpoolCore service account. This is because users, other than the BARR SpoolCore service account, essentially have two log ons. The first is the normal user that logs on to Windows and the second is the BARR SpoolCore service that logs on when you start the Barr Enterprise Print Server. Because the later account created the network printer, when you start the Barr Enterprise Print Server, the network printer will be visible from the Barr Configuration Utility.
Solution: The user account designated during installation, the BARR SpoolCore service account, must create the network printers. If other users create the printers, the printers will not appear in the Configuration Utility. If you are not sure of the user account designated for the BARR SpoolCore service, complete the following steps.
Open the Services utility.
Select the Barr SpoolCore service.
Open the properties dialog box.
Select Action | Properties on the menu bar. Select the Log On tab.
The account named in the This Account box is the user that must create the network printers. We recommend that the account designated during installation be a generic account and not a user account. This account is granted special rights and policies that are different from those set for typical users.
Cause: There may be a conflict between the GDI printer driver and the way the Barr software is attempting to send FCB information detailing the number of lines per page.
Solution: Complete the following steps to clear the If FCB is not found, use default FCB named 'STD' check box.
Open the Configuration Utility.
From the Spool Printers tab, select Add. The Printer Properties dialog box opens.
Select Advanced. The Advanced Printer Options dialog box opens.
Clear the If FCB is not found, use default FCB named 'STD' check box.
Cause: The BARR SpoolCore service is configured to use a system account and therefore lacks the correct network access rights.
Solution: Configure the BARR SpoolCore service to log on as a user account, assign the printer rights to the user account, and restart the BARR SpoolCore service.
Cause: The Windows printer is configured with an incorrect printer driver.
Solution: Complete the following steps to set the printer driver correctly. The steps vary depending on your operating system.
From the Printers folder, right-click the desired Windows printer and select Properties.
Select the Barr ASCII printer driver from the Driver list.
On the Advanced tab, select Device Settings.
Select Printer Type in the Printer Driver Device Settings tree and confirm Generic is selected for the printer type. Expand the Document Options tree and select Page Breaks. Set Page Breaks to On.
Restart the BARR SpoolCore service.
Cause: An incorrect printer driver is selected. The Barr Jobs to Mainframe driver is selected as the printer's driver. The Barr Jobs to Mainframe printer driver can only be used to send data to the host by an NJE connection and cannot be used to send data to an actual printer or to a file.
Solution: Recreate the printer and choose the appropriate printer driver.
Cause: Generic is selected as the printer type; therefore, the wrong device setting is being used to print to the printer. Escape sequences are required before the job is sent, so the printer will know the number of lines-per-page and the number of lines-per-inch the job should print.
Solution: Complete the following steps to set the printer type correctly.
Open the Printers folder.
Select the printer, right-click, and then select Properties.
From the Device Settings tab, select Printronix P6000 for the printer type.
Cause: If a file's copy count is greater than 1, DOS LPR will send that file multiple times. If those files are being sent with a DOS header to an LPD that is processing the header, then the multiple files will be received and the copy count will be extracted from the DOS Spool Header.
For example, a DOS file has 3 copies specified in the header. DOS LPR will look at the copy count and send the file three times. However, the copy count in the header remains 3, so when LPD receives it, each copy of the file will still have a copy count of 3 resulting in 9 files printing on the printer.
Solution: Create an override table using the following parameters.
Condition: The data set copy count is greater than 1.
Action: Set the data set copy count to 1.
Cause: The top margin setting of the Barr ASCII printer driver is enabled.
Solution: Configure the Barr ASCII driver. Setting the Top Margin value to Off will force the Barr ASCII printer driver to ignore the top margin of a page and not insert a 0x0B.
Cause: The FCB length is incorrect. When jobs are printed through Barr Enterprise Print Server, an FCB is used to process the job and add page breaks. If the job's FCBNAME matches the name of an existing FCB, this FCB's settings are used to print the job. Otherwise, the 'STD' FCB's settings are used. The default page break setting for the 'STD' FCB is 66 lines per page.
With BARR/PRINT390, although the FCB record is sent to channel printers, the Barr Enterprise Print Server does not add page breaks to the data for these printers. The Barr software, however, processes the FCB to insert page breaks in jobs directed to all other output types.
Solution: Create an FCB with the FCBNAME value and correct page length, or modify the 'STD' FCB to the correct page length.
Cause: When data is received from the BARR/PRINT CHANNEL software, the FCB received from the host is embedded in the spool file. If an FCB is not received, Print Channel embeds the last FCB it received at the beginning of the file. When the job prints, the embedded FCB is used to print the job, regardless of the associated FCBNAME. If the host sent an FCB with the printable lines-per-page less than the actual lines-per-page in the job, page breaks will be inserted too early. If the job already had page breaks in the correct locations, they will be applied as well.
Solution: Have the host send an accurate FCB with each job. If this is not possible, the Barr software can be configured to override the embedded FCB using the NDHBOFCB header field.
If an FCB is not embedded in the data, the FCB specified in the job's FCBNAME field or the STD FCB, if the FCBNAME field is blank, will be used by default. This means that you must use the Make FCB utility to verify that the FCB is correct, or the same situation can occur.
Cause: Océ (Siemens) printers have a backspace option that can be performed if a printer error occurs. With the Barr DOS product, the printer clears its page buffer and requests that the Barr software perform a backspace. This prevents data loss when the printing restarts. BARR/PRINT390, however, does not currently support backspacing.
Solution: Set the reprint range in the Viewer.
Cause: When multiple spool printers are configured to use the same physical printer or port, documents must sometimes wait until the shared physical printer or port becomes available.
Solution: When the shared device is a physical printer, documents and spool printers will appear in the Ready state until the physical printer becomes available. When the physical printer finishes printing its current document, the next available document will route successfully.
When the shared device is a port, documents and spool printers will display a Printing state; however, data will not be transferred until the port becomes available.