MICR Check Printing not working on Windows-7

Question

I maintain a PowerBuilder Classic 12.5 application which has functionality to print checks on a Source Technologies MICR printer. The application has been running fine in a Windows XP environment. We are trying to move to a Windows-7 operating system and the check printing no longer works.

Here is the issue. PowerBuilder issues a PrintOpen followed by several Print commands to send command strings to the printer to unlock MICR mode and various secure fonts:

il_job = PrintOpen( )  
Print(il_job,'&%STF[password]$')  
Print(il_job,'&%SMCPFFFF$')    
Print(il_job,'&%STP10003$')    
Print(il_job,'&%STP10002$')    
Print(il_job,'&%STP10001$')    
Print(il_job,'&%1B$&u600D')    
Print(il_job,'&%1B$*t600R')   

This works fine on XP, and if you redirect the printer to "print to file", you can see the command strings right there in the file.

In Windows-7, the printer does not recognize the command strings, and in fact, just prints the commands on the check stock. If you do the same "print to file", you can see the commands in there, but each character in the command string is separated by other characters.

The following is a sample taken from the "print to" file, and you can see the string '&%SMCPFFFF$' by looking at each character that precedes an asterisk (*).

*p171Y&*p50X%*p100XS*p150XM*p200XC*p250XP*p300XF*p350XF*p400XF*p450XF*p500X$   

This would seem to be a print driver issue, and in fact, Source Technologies now provides a "Universal Print Driver" which we have been told to use. Our PC support person was able to get the check printing working temporarily by re-installing the old print driver that we used on Windows XP, but as soon as the printer is turned off and on again, it resets to the new universal driver.

I tried using PrintDefineFont and PrintSetFont, to set the font to Courier Regular 8pt (which is what the Tech Support guy at Source Technologies told us we needed), but that didn't help:

PrintDefineFont(il_job, 1, "Courier", -8, 400, Fixed!, AnyFont!, FALSE, FALSE)  
PrintSetFont(il_job, 1)   

Can anyone help me with this issue? Or suggest where I might get help.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Try this: Add a new printer. Select the port your printer is connected to. Select Manufacturer: Generic, Printer: Generic/Text only. When you print to this printer it should send exactly what's in your Print statements to the printer.

Answer 2

Thanks Hugh, I tried your suggestion which sounded good, but unfortunately it had no effect.
As it happens, as of yesterday I did resolve the last of the printing issues. I had to address each of the special fonts (micr line, signature, check amount etc.) individually, and used a combination of using PrintDefineFont/PrintSetFont, embedded printer command strings to reset the font, and changing a Column control in the datawindow to a Text control (a printer command string is moved into this field as well as the data, and the one worked, the other didn't).
Appreciate your help.
Les

Answer 3

Please right click on your software and go to compatibility mode and select "Windows XP with SP3" in it, click APPLY and OK.

Confirm if the software now send print commands perfectly?