NewDeal Hot Tip 1809

[Hot Tips for...] Printing

Screen Savers and Printing

Pause for Screen Saver

QUESTION:
When I print a long document and my Lights Out screen saver becomes activated, the printer will pause until I remove the screen saver. Is this normal?

ANSWER:
You can stop this by selecting Reduce Priority under Preferences, Lights Out. This will let the printer take priority over the saver.

Screen Freeze While Printing

QUESTION:
Why is that when printing a document with the parallel port set to DOS, my screen freezes when I run out of paper or I forget to have the printer on line?

ANSWER:
The freeze is caused by the error routine in the print spooler that is handling the printer communications. Consider what would happen if it didn't freeze. You might never see the error message and would wonder why the document didn't print. This is especially a problem if you're on a network and the printer is down the hall. Remember, there is no printer application running, just the multitasking spooler and driver, neither of which has a Man-Machine interface. We decided it was best if the message was the top priority, to call your attention to it.

Return to Index

Last Modified 6 Mar 1999