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Does anyone know if there are printers around that I can install on real mode DOS? It is an old 386 machine and does not have windows installed. It has a brother multifunction device attached that works but needs to be replaced since the cost of ink for it is high.
Please let me know if anyone has any suggestions other than replacing the machine.
With dos, each application came with its own printer drivers. Thus the word processor had its own driver, as did the spreadsheet and database etc.
Whilst applications may not support the very latest printers (although it is worth checking the web), you should be ok with just about any dot matrix, and early HP lasers. If a later printer has the ability to emulate an earlier one then it will be possible to use.
Hope this helps
Good luck - Keep us posted.
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You may try a used dot matrix printer with a parallel port cable. Those are inexpensive to run and work just fine with all operating systems ,dos or Windows 9X.I work with Panasonic (or clones of this brand like Roland) 9 or 24 pins. You need to adjust the drivers to the machine when you don't have the exact one.Try the IBM or Epson or Panasonic drivers first if there is no exact match and print a few pages for tests.You can also use the self test when you plan to buy a printer: it prints a page without being attached to a computer.Good luck.
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Might I suggest a place to buy refurbished Epson printers. I had an Epson LQ850 many years ago. It was the best Dot Matrix printer I ever had, for an all-around type printer. Wide carriage, and Letter Quality that was as close to Laser quality as you could get with a Dot Matrix printer. For work horse type Dot Matrix printers you can't beat an OKI though.
V-Peace-V
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Thanks a lot everyone! I am going to find out what application I need it for. Also a dot matrix is good enough for printing out reports right?
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If you are mainly doing reports I would
recommend getting HP or HP-PCL compatible
laser printer. LJ-3 or 4 would work.
Some of the newer laser printers are fine.
Make sure it runs in DOS, the cheapest ones
are Windows only. There are also some DOS
ink jets.
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You know already that Brother equipment works. I use a Brother laser printer, and while the toner and drum (if you need to replace it) aren't cheap items, they are cheaper than other brands and the cost per page is about as low as you can get.
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Is it easy to install the driver software for the printers you guys are recommending?
I am comfortable with a command line interface but I haven't written my own drivers yet.
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You don't want to write drivers. You want a
printer that is either compatible with the
existing driver or already has an existing
DOS driver. That is why we suggest older
HP lasers or Epson dot matrices
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The existing driver is for a Brother Multifunction Device.
I doubt an Hp laser or Epson dot matrix is compatible with the brother driver.
I take it that the older HP lasers and Epson dot matrices have existing Dos drivers, but again how hard are they to install?
thanks for all the support everyone!
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The availability of a dos driver(s) for a particular printer to print from a particular application surely has to be your deciding factor here, asto whether you go for that printer.
Dot matrix printers are good workhorses, and as Underdog my favourite is OKI.
They are good for reports and score over laser and inkjet as they can output on multipart stationery and also available as wide carriage.
Good luck - keep us posted.
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I am going to buy an HP Laserjet 1200 and connect it via parallel port. I verified that this printer was not Windows only from HP. I hope it works.
I
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