brother printer won't print thru labview

[jdezman]

I have looked at the two big threads about printing via USB printers, but they don't address my issue. I recently upgraded to Windows 7, and now my report generation code will not work.  Anytime i attempt to print thru LV, the LED on my Brother printer begins flashing red and the print doesn't happen. The troubleshooting section of the manual for this label printer mentions a loss of communication, and connecting to the wrong USB ports. Since the Brother software for printing labels works fine on its own, I figure the loss of communication isn't the issue. I have tried the basic Report Express VI, rather than using the Set Margin VI and others, and that won't print either. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the software, and do not achieve different results.

[Dave-C]

Hi jdezman,

I've got a few questions about the set up.  Are you getting any errors in LabVIEW when this happens?  It might also be helpful in this situation to post the code that's being used here so that we can check if anything needs to be changed programatically. 

I'd also like to check which USB port you're using.  Have you tried using a different port?  I've heard about Windows 7 sometimes handling USB ports awkwardly.  The fact that the Brother software works makes me doubtful that this would change things, but I'd think it would be a pretty quick change to make to see if it makes any changes.  

I also want to verify that this issue has been present since upgrading to Windows 7.  Stated another way, has this code ever worked since the switch to Windows 7?  I'm curious if the dll that LabVIEW is calling to handle it's print has changed in Windows 7 and is causing a problem.

Thanks,

-Dave C

[jdezman]

Dave,

I do not get errors when I attempt to run this code. I have checked the USB ports, and swapped locations, but the results do not change. This code did work prior to the switch to Windows 7, so your thought that the dll has changed will be worth investigating.

[MAltmann]

Hi jdezman,

Are you able to print to other printers?  I am wondering if the issue is specific to the brother printer or if it is all printers in general.  As Dave mentioned before it may be related to a change in a library or the printer driver between you previous operating system and the current one.

[jdezman]

Mike,

I am able to print to other printers. I haven't had time to investigate the dll's or drivers as I've been focused on other bugs lately. I will reply with more info, when I know more.