Laserwriter printer

I connected laserwriter II NT on my PC. When I send a print job, the green led on the printer(doing job led) starts to blinks but it print nothing. The led stops blinking after few minutes. Any help please.

1. RE: Laserwriter printer
lbyard Dec-28-00 03:51 PM
In response to message 0

start here: http://duxcw.com/digest/Howto/troubleshoot/print/index.html. Larry

2. RE: Laserwriter printer
wally2117 Dec-29-00 10:08 PM
In response to message 1

I've done all the procedure written in your article. Even from DOS, nothings happends with the apple cable I've bought in an apple computer specialist, they told me that the cable works. I've made a cable and with mine, the green led flash at least. The pinout of the RX TX of my cable is the opposite of apple's. DB9 pin 2 to DB25 pin 2, DB9 pin 3 to DB25 pin 3. That's what they call a null-modem cable. I don't understand why the apple cable may works with the RX to RX pin and TX to TX pin together???? I've tried the test postscript that is in the apple manual that I've downloaded from the til.apple.com site.
Thanks
P.S. Next step is to find the schematics of the printer board to troubleshoot.

3. Apple Laserwriter to PC cable, Apple Talk
lbyard Dec-30-00 04:21 PM
In response to message 2

LAST EDITED ON Dec-30-00 AT 04:21 PM (GMT)
That sounds like the old AppleTalk interface. As I recall, from about 15 years ago, when I connected a bunch of Macs and Lisas to a DEC PDP 11/70 Arpanet host, it is a variation of the RS432 balanced voltage interface, but it can also be configured to operate with an RS232 serial interface (that’s what we did). What I think you need is the pin-out for the AppleTalk interface/cable. Here’s one: http://www.tokyopc.org/newsletter/1996/07/Cables.html. Larry

4. RE: Apple Laserwriter to PC cable, Apple Talk
wally2117 Dec-30-00 08:21 PM
In response to message 3

Well, thanks for the link, but I've already found this site and tried this cable pinout. The result is that the green led flash (like it receive data)
but no print at all.
I'll probe some buffers inside to see if they're dead!
Really appreciate your tips
Wish you a Happy new Year!
Regards
Wally
(Congratulation for your site, I notice that you're a really serious guy)

5. RE: Apple Laserwriter to PC cable, Apple Talk
lbyard Dec-30-00 10:27 PM
In response to message 4

You might have to configure the printer for the correct serial parameters (8 bit, no parity) to use with a PC. I saw something somewhere today on sending it a print job which will accomplish that, but don't remember where I ran into it. I probably searched Google with your printer. Larry

6. RE: Apple Laserwriter to PC cable, Apple Talk
wally2117 Jan-05-01 04:52 AM
In response to message 5

HI Larry,
I finally solved my printer problem!
I bring home an apple laptop and plug the printer
with it in appletalk and run Apple Printer utility
software to see the config of this f... printer.
Now let's see. The auto-test page on power-up was
disabled (paper economy I suppose). Since the beginning of my adventure, I've never been able to see the config of the printer that is written on this page.
I've enabled this feature and on power-up it printed me an auto-test page that includes all the port settings, number of copies done,etc.
Surprise! the printer was configured, with the DIP switchs on the right positions before power-up, to RS-232 at a baud rate of "57600".
WOW, what a BOMB!
I've bought this printer used and probably the guy
before me sends a postscript that configure the baud rate at other speed than the 9600 standard.
I knew it was possible to do that and I wanted to do it after I was able to make it works at the 9600 standard. I have the little postscript to make the change.
But what I didn't know is when you use the procedure from apple to reset the printer, the baud rate didn't reset to standard 9600. I've made the reset procedure many times during my troubleshooting sessions and it made no difference at all.
That was my problem! and I
didn't think to change my baud rate on the windows
port to 57600!
That's only what I've done and suddenly my f... printer became my new default printer! It works.
Finally, I wanna thank you for all the help you provide to me and be sure you'll stay in my bookmark list!
Regards,
Wally
P.S. did you received my comment letter that I've sent via your comment page? It returns me a strange page when I clicked the submit button.

7. RE: Apple Laserwriter to PC cable, Apple Talk
wally2117 Jan-05-01 04:55 AM
In response to message 6

I forgot to told you that the printer works with
a hand made cable consisting of RX TX and GND. Pin
2-3-7. That's it! nothing else.