Date   : Sat, 23 Mar 1991 13:38:55 GMT
From   : zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!reed!campbell@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Chris Campbell)
Subject: Osborne Executive printing problems

I've been having a major problem with my Osborne Executive since I acquired
it about three years ago.  I had been able to work around it for awhile,
but about two weeks ago said problem became very pesky, and the other
people using the machine haven't been able to work around it since then.
(I've been separated from the machine by an ocean and one and a half
continents for about two months.)

The problem is this: printing.  The Executive (ROM 1.21, BIOS 1.2 Enhanced)
had never properly loaded the printer information on boot-up from SETUP.COM.

Specifically, what was connected to the CENTRONICS port: no matter how it
was permanently saved, it would respond NONE when I asked to see what the
settings were in memory.  (When I asked it to show the settings from drive
A, it would invariably inform me that the printer was connected and was
presumably ready.)

As a result, whenever I wanted to print, I would have to exit the program
(usually WS), load SETUP, load the information from the drive into memory,
exit SETUP, reload the other program, and print.  This would work for as
long as I did not reset or shut down the computer.  This worked for quite
a while, and wouldn't waste much time.

However, this doesn't work anymore.  Now, after twiddling with SETUP so that
it recognizes the printer, the Executive will refuse to load any other
program, and will crash violently.  (This problem began with PrintMaster
(which could be worked around) but spread to WordStar (fatal).)

I've tried to fix the original problem many times, playing with SETUP, alt-
ernating BIOS versions (despite the other printing problems, such as
the notorious "Unassign this device?"), and am now at wit's end.

Any suggestions?

Chris Campbell
campbell@reed.bitnet
campbell@reed.edu