Hamilton, Ontario
95 September 05
 
>LaserROM - GPF's when I try to run it.
>           (Strangely enough, it works under NT though you can't print)
>
>  Jeff Lindberg, Information Technology Coordinator
 
Jeff,
 
There is an inconsistancy between the NT 3.50 & 3.51 Print Manager and the Print
Manager Interface which comes with HP's LaserROM.  Basically what it comes down
to is the the LaserROM PM interface will allow you to change the name of the
printer to something other than that which the NT PM has in the registry.  When
this happens the print feature of LaserROM simply does not work.  It goes
through all the motions (sometimes) and produces nothing, or you get a curious
error message saying tha the printer dosen't exist.
 
This problem is possibly the result of the change from *.INI file configurations
to full registry implementation.  The LaserROM product just dosen't "KNOW" about
the registry and NT PM either dosen't care about the WIN.INI entries made by
LaserROM or can't resolve them if the names differ.
 
The only cure is to double check your NT PM names and make sure that the name in
the LaserROM Printer Manager Interface is exactly the same.  Do not use the
LaserROM PM interface to handle your printers, only use it to define what it is
you wish to print and it appears to work reliably enough.
 
Regards,
Jim
 
PS
 
As a member of the MS DN LII I have been using WinNT 3.51 and Win 95 FBeta since
late May (I think ...time gets fuzzy on me when I switch to PC mode) .  In any
case, if you have the hardware (16+ MB of RAM, 750+ MB HD, CD-ROM and at least a
486DX66) then I would strongly recommend NT 3.51 over Win 95.  In my opinion NT
is the better bet, both now and in the long term.  MS has been very clear with
its developers that Win 95 is viewed strictly as a "bridge" from Win 3.11 to Win
NT and is provided to allow the limited hardware capablity of the installed base
time to upgrade while encouraging (forcing) the development of 32 bit windows
applications.
 
Market forces can change all sorts of things including the market leader's
plans, but in this case I believe that MS is indeed providing a path from which
there is only one exit, WinNT.
 
JBB