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HP LaserJet Series II - Baud Rate 19200
DocumentID: 644876
Revision Date: 29-Feb-96 8:19:01 PM

The information in this document applies to:
WordPerfect® 5.1 for DOS

Problem

Symptoms: The customer is trying to print at a baud rate of 19,200, but WordPerfect won't do it. The printer works just fine at 9600 baud. Solutions: Development feels that if the customer cannot get 19200 baud, then this is a hardware problem with the computer. WPCorp only supports the IBM PS 2 enhancement specifications for 19200 baud rate control. Any other machine that handles this enhancement differently will not get 19200 baud.

Technically: If the port selection in WP is set serially when the file is printed, WP will call interrupt 14. This allows WP to initialize the port using a service call. This initialization is done through registers. For any baud rate of 9600 or less, only the AX register is used. This register is two bytes long. The high byte is used for service calls, and will determine how the low byte is deciphered. In the initialization state, the second byte contains information for the parity, stop bits, baud rate, and other settings. This is standard for all IBM's and compatibles. However, because the second byte was not big enough to allow for any additional baud rates (i.e., 19200), a service call of 4 in the high byte of the AX register was added for all IBM PS 2 models and compatibles. This call allows the initialization of the port to expand from only the AX register, to the high and low byte of the CX and BX registers. These four additional bytes will contain the character length, baud rate, parity, and stop bits. If the print BIOS does not recognize this call, or handles the call differently, they will not get 19200 baud. Also, WP will be adding an enhancement on the 06/29/90 release: Print to hardware port. This will bypass the print BIOS and let WP manage the output to the printer. This means the user will be able to get 19200 baud through WP if they couldn't before, but only if the printer is capable of receiving the data at that high of a rate. This is limited to only those programs that do not use a capturing type program to print (i.e., LaserMaster, Networks, Powerpak, etc.)

Answer:

Details:


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