Setting Printer Timeout

[Keith E. Black]

What do I need to change on this to make the printer time out
shorter (from 45 seconds to 10 seconds)

PErrorTrap:
DEF SEG = &H40
PRN& = PEEK(9) AND 255
PRN& = PRN& * 256 + (PEEK(8) AND 255) + 1
DO
IF t% = INP(PRN&): E% = 16
IF (t% AND 16) = 16 THEN PRINT "Printer Online": E% = E% XOR 16
IF (t% AND 32) = 32 THEN PRINT "Out of Paper": E% = E% OR 32
IF (t% AND 128) = 0 THEN PRINT "Printer Busy": E% = E% OR 128
IF E% > 0 THEN
PRINT "Fix Printer and try again."
WHILE INKEY$ <> "": WEND: WHILE INKEY$ = "": WEND
END IF
LOOP WHILE (E% > 0) AND (INKEY$ <> CHR$(27))
'_|_|_| end

[Lance Edmonds]

Here is the sub I use - I save the original value to reset it later on. To cut the retries down to 10 sec, set NewTries% = 4

If you are working with a networked printer, or a "virtual" port like LPT4 or above (under Windows), then there are other solutions such as editing entries in SYSTEM.INI.

sub SetPrinterTimeout(byval Port?, SaveTries%, NewTries%) local public
  local RetryAddr%
  ' default for SaveTries% = 20 as set by DOS
  if Port? < 1 or Port? > 3 then exit sub
  RetryAddr% = &H477 + Port?              ' LPTNo = 1 for LPT1, 2 for LPT2, etc
  def seg = 0                             ' For the peeks and pokes that follow
  SaveTries% = peek(RetryAddr%)           ' Save the current setting
  poke RetryAddr%, NewTries%              ' Set to 1-255 retries, 0 = infinite
  def seg
end sub

' **************************************************************************

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>