How to setup a printer in Windows 95 to print from Dos Apps

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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Aw_some
Posts: 2
Joined: 30. Oct 2021, 20:34

How to setup a printer in Windows 95 to print from Dos Apps

Post by Aw_some »

Hey there,

after managing to clone an old w95 machine that is STILL used to do some accounting with the old Dos version of Fortune 1000 from Acomba. The challenge now is only to make the printer work 100% correctly. ( I don't recommend doing this at all btw )

I've already managed to get a good print out the Dos app my friend is using but for some reason it seems like it doesn't fully finish long print task and also has this strange glitch that makes it write "DsDsDsDs" in the left top corner before actually printing everything else. It also seems like we have to manually place the sheet on the right position to have it print from the top of the sheet.

I've hooked it (An Epson LQ-1070+ /ESC P2 Quiet) using a PCI Multi I/O Controller Card and set it up as LPT1: trough COM1 Port using raw data format.

I have tried all the settings combinations both in windows 95 and on the VirtualBox itself and I can't get it to work any other way.

I will eventually make a youtube tutorial out of all this so if you have any idea to help me out, I will gadly try anything and credit you with the solution if it works !

Thanks everyone, any hint is welcome, I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this one but I still don't want to give up without giving a last shot !
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: How to setup a printer in Windows 95 to print from Dos Apps

Post by mpack »

I'm not exactly sure what you are asking.

VirtualBox has no "printer emulation" features. The printer does what it does, all VirtualBox provides is the communications path, i.e. serial or parallel.

Speaking of which what does it mean when you say "set it up as LPT1: through COM1 Port using raw data format". LPT1: and COM1: are separate ports, just as they are in Windows now.

Let's first establish, is that Epson printer serial or parallel? (or both?).
Aw_some
Posts: 2
Joined: 30. Oct 2021, 20:34

Re: How to setup a printer in Windows 95 to print from Dos Apps

Post by Aw_some »

Hey there,

thanks for the hasty reply! To answer your question, the printer is parallel only as far as I know (it has no other plug in the back)

My routing goes trough port: COM1 but I have pointed it to LPT1: in path address and the port mode is Raw which is also what I set it to in The Win95 machine.

I've used a pci card to bring in the signal to the newer host and I've just found out about the usb converters, but yeah I guess my question is simply:

to anyone having prior experience setting up a win95 virtual machine and restoring access to the older printer that was associated with it,

any idea how I could get this to work correctly ? The signals reaches the printer and it does print like I said, it just seems like I may have to set something differently.

I'm thinking maybe I have too much ram allocated or something. I've also noticed the "DsDsDsDs" comes up when I open both the host and the Win95 VM.

My goal is just to get a print out from these old Dos apps, I've been thinking about trying to hook it to a more recent printer but I assume that there won't be any compatible driver for it on Win95...?

Anyway, I appreciate any feedback at this point, and no spending 800$ on the official Acomba solution isn't an option, my friend would rather start fresh on a another software if he has to.
scottgus1
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Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: How to setup a printer in Windows 95 to print from Dos Apps

Post by scottgus1 »

Aw_some wrote:My routing goes trough port: COM1 but I have pointed it to LPT1:
Since LPT is parallel and Com is serial, probably best just let parallel be parallel. Could be that this species-shifting is outside the bounds of what Virtualbox is programmed for.

Enabling and Configuring Parallel (LPTx) Ports

Also, Windows 95 has no idea of USB, so using a USB passthrough filter will work only if the USB printer adapter has 95 drivers.

Setting up the VM: Tutorial: Windows 95/98 guest OSes
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: How to setup a printer in Windows 95 to print from Dos Apps

Post by mpack »

scottgus1 wrote: Also, Windows 95 has no idea of USB, so using a USB passthrough filter will work only
but OTOH, defining a unnecessary USB passthrough filter will definitely stop the host printer working, meaning it won't be available to the guest either via LPT. You effectively assigned USB ownership to a guest OS which has no idea what to do with it.

And bear in mind that Win95 predates "plug and play" by a long way. After enabling LPT1 in the VM you have to "Add Hardware" manually in Win95.
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