NO COMMUNICATION zebra z4mplus doesn t communicate with pc on lpt1 port

I am guessing that you are using Windows 7. If so go to Control panel 'Hardware and Sound' Printers and select Remove a Printer. You may then unplug the printer usb connection and restart your computer. When the computer has restarted , you may go to the link below to download the most current drivers and install them .
Do not plug in the usb connection until you are told to do so. Also, the printer may select a default connection to LPT1 , which is a parallel port connection (apparently this printer likes to do so , and this will give you your "communication error" ). If it does, go to printers in control panel (see above) , right click on the icon for your printer , select "properties" , and left click on the " ports " tab. Make sure that the port selected is USB001 or similar and NOT LPT1.
Epson Stylus Photo R280 Ink Jet Printer

This is the communication port with which the cable plugs into instead of using for example an ethernet port. Not sure what you are meaning with just the reference LPT1 but this is simpl;y the port the cable plugs into

Make sure the serial port parameters match between the printer and the usb-serial driver. The Zebra printer is usually set to 9600 baud, 7 data bits, Even parity and 1 stop bit. The serial driver is probably different. The mismatch will prevent communications.

Hope that helps !

AN IEEE 1284 port is a parallel port protocol. Lpt1 is a physical port on the PC that attaches to the printer.

Basically, the PC is telling you that it expects the printer to be connected to the LPT1 port on the printer and that it is expecting the printer to be conversant with the IEEE1284 protocols.

Given what you have described, you should not be having a problem connecting the PC to the printer.

Please let me know what the exact failure is and the make and model of the printer that is causing the communication between the PC and printer to go "Toes Up."

Don

An unorthodox solution is to install an old driver. Another solution is to use with Codesoft the driver from www.seagullscientific.com, and with Zebra Designer, the Zebra Designer driver. If the printer is connected to the serial port, speeds up communication.
Roberto Martinez

Try changing communication cable and verify that the driver has correctly set the port used (LPT, COM, etc).
Roberto Martinez

BBlock is BOOT Block. The printer is not booting up the settings completely. Probably got corrupted. You will need to download the bootblock version for this printer & upload it via either USB or LPT1 port. You should contact Zebra so they can direct you to the proper Zebra site for the download & instructions. The process of the upload is no more that 15-20 minutes.
Zebra phone # is 847-913-2259 I think option 2 is tech support. be sure to have s# of printer & tell them you need to find the boot block & installation info for the S4M. Good luck.

HI Les1810,

You should be printing faster with Zebra fonts.
Which driver are you using? Version?
I strongly recommend the Zebra Designer V1.3.08, available at Zebra.com

To isolate the problem, capture the output to a file.
Define a local port as C:\output.txt and set that as the port in driver properties.
Now print your document. The printer commands will be in C:\output.txt.

Send c:\output.txt directly to your printer.
For LPT1, use the DOS copy command to send the file. (Copy C:\output.txt LPT1)
For serial connections, use Hyperterm to send the file.
For network connections, use ftp.
No easy USB method is readily available.

Does this print faster than printing the original document from Word through the driver?
If yes, then update your driver.
If no, debug your communication to the printer (LPT1, serial, network, etc.)

The printer is installed on the PC using a specific port. If it's installed on the USB port, it won't work on the parallel port. Do you have this printer installed 3 different times? Need more details such as how was it installed the first time? And if it's working on the other 2 ports, why does it have to work on the parallel?

Ok,

This machine has a parallel port. Try to print via parallel cable. If it works, consider staying with it. Serial ports are a pain to manage.
If you absolutely have to do it via rs232 though....
Question 1. Has it ever printed?
If yes, Go into Windows Printers and Faxes control and select the Zebra or whatever printer that you are using. Right click on it and you should get a menu that at the bottom say "Properties", select that, then you should get a new window with tabs at the top. You want the tab for "Ports". Select it and you will see all of the different output ports that you can direct your printing. RS232 is a COM port. So start at COM1, check it and try to print. If that doesn't work, go to COM2, etc.

Last resort, If you can't get control via the printer driver program, you will have to try redirecting the print manually (now you will understand why I said to stay with parallel output).
What you have to do is redirect your printing via the dos "mode" command.
Under "Start Menu" goto "Run" and put in "CMD" and click "OK".

This opens a black square window with a cursor blinking. Type in this:
mode com1:9600,n,8,1 (enter)

mode lpt2=com1 (enter)

Tell your program to use LPT2 if you can and see if it works.
By now a parallel cable instead of RS232 should be looking really good.
Good luck!