MS Excel Printing Problems

Environment is WinXP Home printing to an HP Laserjet 2420 (PLC6 drivers) via USB. The printer is shared on our internal network (using the subject machine as the quasi print server). A DOS accounting program (Lincoln Data) requires port pooling to link the lpt1 port to the DOS4_001 port the printer is on. We also run a second accounting program (The Mortgage Office) that accesses a database file on a local file server. When we print from this program, the application opens a Word .dot file, fills the template out using VB Script, and prints the result.

Here's the problem: When we start the machine, all three programs will print correctly. However, if we attempt to print from Excel after we have printed from The Mortgage Office, the Excel document is sent to the spooler and disappears, without actually printing. Then, if we print to a different printer from Excel, then change the printer back to the Laserjet, the issue resolves itself.

I've tried changing most of the variables with the printing system, all without effect: I've tried running a .bat file at startup with a NET USE command to direct the lpt1 port to the USB instead of using port pooling; I've tried not spooling the documents and printing directly to the printer; I've tried changing to the post script drivers. It seems that The Mortgage Office is fouling up the printing system in some way, but I don't know enough about the internals of printing systems to know what might be going wrong. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

--Aaron

 

Errgh, I know of a program that will work with this, but, my memory is shaky.

Only thing I can come up with now:

http://www.dos2usb.com/

 

Just now got a call from a friend, that I called about this situation.

The program that works (not free) is:

http://www.dosprn.com/

 

We can print fine from the DOS program (using either port pooling or a NET USE command). The problem is printing from Excel after we've printed from the other accounting program (not DOS). I mentioned the DOS program just because it's one more weird thing we have going on with the printing environment, which might be having some effect. However, I have tried removing the port pooling and the NET USE command (taking the DOS program out of the loop) to see if that would have any effect, and it didn't. Do you still think the "DOS to USB printing" apps you reference would solve the problem with Excel?