triple printer bafflement (head scratch mystery)

[vmos]

Ok here goes, i have 3 old dot matrix printers (two panasonic and one epson) they were connected to the old network here at werk which was run off a digital microvax with a few terminals. This network was taken apart and most of it put into storage.
now one of the dot matrix's we're using needs replacement so i dug out the old ones (i think they had been forgotten about) and none of them work.
Mechanically they appear fine, the heads move about when you power them on, they make the usual beeps when you press the buttons and so forth, but they won't print a thing, you press print and a minute later an error message comes back, the printer having done nothing.
i've tried a couple of different computers, win98 and 2000, i've tried a couple of different leads, i've tried connecting to it locally or via a printer hub.
I've tried spooling and not spooling, emf and raw. I've tried asking it nicely and i've tried it standing on my head.
I've tried all of these with all 3 printers
i have run out of ideas.

any clues?

 

[edfair]

First step would be to try with DOS and standard lpt port.
That eliminates a good bit of the windows add in fluff for troubleshooting.
Are they possibly parallel/rs232 switchable?

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Granvillew]

You should be able to get the printers to do a test print at start up. On the Epson to is done by holding down either the "LF' or "FF" buttons (they may be labeled Line Feed and Form Feed). I'm not sure with the Panasonic, but it could be a DIP switch setting.

These tests will prove the internals (motherboard, mechanics, etc) are ok (or not). That will leave you with "just" the comms to sort.

Hope this helps.

 

[vmos]

thanks for that, the self-test worked fine and i discovered that the printers had been set to serial interface mode (i din't even know there was such a thing) I decided to go with the panasonic as it's newer. I downloaded the manual and reset it to the factory defaults, but still no joy.
i haven't tried printing from dos for donkeys years, i tried printing from the text editor, but i get an "error on lpt1" message and windows is still doing the same old thing
any more clues?

 

[edfair]

And what are the factory defaults?

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.