HP LaserJet 4 Plus Explorer README.TXT file.

This file has descriptions of the HP Explorer software programs and 
instructions for installing the HP Explorer software. 

CONTENTS:

    A.  HP EXPLORER SOFTWARE
           WHAT IS IT
           WHO NEEDS IT
           SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

    B.  TRAVEL GUIDE
    C.  REMOTE CONTROL PANEL
    D.  STATUS MONITOR
    E.  SETUP

TECHNICAL NOTES:

    F.  HP EXPLORER SOFTWARE REQUIRES DIRECT CONNECT BI-TRONICS

    G.  UNLOADING THE STATUS MONITOR
    H.  POSITION OF STATUS MONITOR IN YOUR AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE
    I.  POSSIBLE SOFTWARE CONFLICTS WITH THE STATUS MONITOR
    J.  RUNNING THE STATUS MONITOR AND THE REMOTE CONTROL PANEL

    K.  IF YOUR MOUSE IS NOT WORKING
    L.  FASTMODE FOR FASTER BAUD RATES 


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A.  HP EXPLORER SOFTWARE

WHAT IS IT:

    The HP Explorer software consists of four sections:  Travel Guide,
    Remote Control Panel, Status Monitor, and Setup Program.

    The Travel Guide will help you explore the new world of your HP
    LaserJet 4 Plus printer.

    The Remote Control Panel is a DOS-only program that lets you control
    your HP LaserJet 4 Plus printer settings from your PC.

    The Status Monitor is a DOS-only program which displays messages from
    the HP LaserJet 4 Plus printer on your computer screen.

    The Setup program provides step-by-step instructions to help you
    install the HP Explorer software on your hard disk drive.



WHO NEEDS IT:

    If you use DOS applications, you will want to load the HP Explorer
    Utility.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

    An HP LaserJet 4 Plus printer, a DOS (version 3.31
    or later) system computer with an Intel compatible 80286 or greater
    microprocessor, high density floppy disk drive, 640 Kb RAM (450 Kb
    available), and 2.8 MB of hard disk space is needed to install the
    complete HP Explorer software.  Both text and graphics modes are
    supported by the HP Explorer software, however to display in graphics
    mode a VGA or better graphics adapter is required.  The Travel Guide
    only works with a VGA or better monitor.

    NOTE:  The Remote Control Panel and the Status Monitor will only work
           with a direct connect Bi-Tronics parallel port.

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B. TRAVEL GUIDE (For DOS or WINDOWS)

The Travel Guide is an informative guide to the features of the
LaserJet 4 Plus printer.  The main areas you will find include Printer
Overview, Printer Control, Type, Printing Tasks, and Solving Problems.

This software program is designed to help explain the features of your
HP LaserJet 4 Plus printer, give you step-by-step instructions for
completing common tasks, and give you quick answers to frequently
asked questions regarding the HP LaserJet 4 Plus printer.  Even if you've
used an HP LaserJet printer before, you'll enjoy the Travel Guide.

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C. REMOTE CONTROL PANEL (For DOS)

The Remote Control Panel brings most printer control panel functions to
your computer screen.

Now you can change your printer settings without having to leave your 
PC.  If your PC is directly connected to your HP LaserJet 4 Plus printer, 
you can view and update the settings of your printer from your PC 
screen. 
 
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D. STATUS MONITOR (For DOS)

The Status Monitor is a terminate and stay resident (TSR) program that 
will alert you to any changes in the status of your HP LaserJet 4 Plus 
printer from within any non-Windows program.  These include, for example,
paper cassette empty, paper jam, and door open messages.  

During software installation, you can tell the installation program
to update your computer's AUTOEXEC.BAT file to load the Status Monitor
automatically whenever you turn on your computer

If you choose not to set up your computer to load the Status Monitor
automatically, you can load the program into memory at any time by
type STAT4PL at the DOS prompt.

If the Status Monitor is loaded into your computer's memory, you can
view the Status Monitor screens by pressing a hot key combination
within DOS applications, or from the DOS prompt.  The default hot key
combination for viewing the Status Monitor screens is 
[Ctrl] + [Alt] + [E].  (While holding down [Ctrl] and [Alt], press
[E].)  This allows access to the Remote Control Panel and the Travel 
Guide from within most DOS programs.

If the Status Monitor is interfering with one of your other software 
applications or if you need to free the memory it uses (less than 12 Kb),
you can unload it from memory by typing ULOAD4PL at the DOS prompt.

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E. SETUP

The Setup program will aid you in correctly configuring your PC to work 
with your Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4 Plus printer.  If your configuration 
changes, or if you want to delete a portion of the HP Explorer 
software from your hard disk, just run the Setup program again by 
typing SETUP4PL from the HP Explorer directory (for example, 
C:\EXPLORER.4PL>) and follow the instructions. 


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                            TECHNICAL NOTES
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F.  HP EXPLORER SOFTWARE REQUIRES DIRECT CONNECT BI-TRONICS

In order for the Remote Control Panel and Status Monitor to work 
properly, they must be able to receive status information back from an 
HP LaserJet 4 Plus printer.  Most devices (for example, switch boxes) 
connected between the HP LaserJet 4 Plus printer and the PC will prevent 
the printer from sending data back to the PC.  

The Remote Control Panel and Status Monitor will not work with most 
hardware print spoolers (and some software print spoolers), and some 
switch boxes.  The Remote Control Panel and Status Monitor also will 
not work with a network printer since the printer cannot send 
information back to the PC over the network.  The Remote Control Panel 
and the Status Monitor only support a direct connect Bi-Tronics parallel
port. 

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G. UNLOADING THE STATUS MONITOR

If the Status Monitor is interfering with one of your other software 
applications or if you need to free the memory it uses (less than 12 Kb),
you can unload it from memory by typing ULOAD4PL at the DOS prompt.  The
Status Monitor unloads itself if possible (see note below).  This disables
the Status Monitor functions.

NOTE:  Computers unload memory-resident programs in "first-in, last-out"
       order.  If you have loaded other TSR programs into your computer's
       memory after loading the Status Monitor, you must first unload 
       those more-recently-loaded programs.  Then you can type the command
       to unload the Status Monitor.

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H.  POSITION OF STATUS MONITOR IN YOUR AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE

The Explorer SETUP4PL program will automatically place the call to the 
Status Monitor last in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This will usually work
correctly.

For example, since the Status Monitor (STAT4PL) uses the computer's 
file system, all disk caching (e.g. SMARTDRV), disk compression 
(e.g. STACKER), and LAN software (e.g. NOVELL), must load before the 
Status Monitor in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.   

On the other hand, if you load a DOS "shell" program (e.g. DOSSHELL 
or Norton Commander) from your AUTOEXEC.BAT, it must be last. Commands 
after the shell program will not execute until you exit from the shell.

If you upgrade your version of DOS or install other software applications,
your AUTOEXEC.BAT file may get modified. Make sure the commands are still 
in the right order after the upgrade.

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I.  POSSIBLE SOFTWARE CONFLICTS WITH THE STATUS MONITOR

The HP Explorer Status Monitor program is a TSR which monitors the 
printer status continuously while it is loaded. It watches for other 
programs which may be using the printer's parallel port at the same time, 
and avoids conflicts with programs which access the ports via BIOS 
services. Some programs access the port hardware directly for 
performance reasons and cannot be detected. These programs may 
conflict with the Status Monitor operation, and vice-versa. The user 
should be aware of this and, when possible, set up all software to use 
normal BIOS services. Software configuration may allow a setting such 
as "Print through the BIOS." (that's good) or "Print to hardware 
port." (that's bad). 

Many common DOS programs print in a way which prevents the Status 
Monitor from popping up to report printer messages during printing. In 
that case, the Status Monitor will "beep" its normal sound, but not 
pop up. This occurs in the DOS copy command (to LPT), Microsoft Word, 
and other programs which use the DOS copy command for printing. 

Any program that writes directly to the LPT port hardware will conflict
with the Status Monitor.  Some programs allow the user to change the
configuration to use the BIOS.  This will eliminate the conflict.
If a program does not give the user this option, the Status Monitor
must be de-activated.  (It does not need to be unloaded.)  For example, 
if you are running Borland's Paradox database, the Status Monitor
must be de-activated.

    To de-activate the Status Monitor, follow these steps:
       press the hot-key <Ctl><Alt><E>  (or run STAT4PL)
       select the menu option for Settings
       select De-activate
       press <Esc> twice
       start the conflicting program

    To re-activate the Status Monitor, follow these steps:
       exit the conflicting program
       press the hot-key <Ctl><Alt><E>  (or run STAT4PL)
       select the menu option for Settings
       select re-Activate
       press <Esc> twice

"PrintCache" by LaserTools is a high-speed print buffering program 
which writes directly to the LPT port hardware. While the current 
version of PrintCache is fully compatible with the HP Explorer Status 
Monitor, using older versions with the HP Explorer Status Monitor will 
cause conflicts and abnormal operation. Although PrintCache can be 
configured to use the BIOS (avoiding conflicts), performance will 
suffer. Please call LaserTools at (510) 420-8777 for an upgrade to 
their newest version. Make sure to specify that you are using the HP 
Explorer Status Monitor. 

Other programs may conflict with the Status Monitor in different ways. 
If the Status Monitor pops-up during a data transfer, it may be aborted.  
To solve this or any other problem associated with popping up at the 
wrong time, you may include the name of the program which should not 
be interrupted in the EXPLORER.4PL\STATUS\NOSWAP.TXT file. 

The Status Monitor and the Remote Control Panel cannot communicate
correctly if the DOS VERIFY function is set to ON.  If you have VERIFY ON
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT, you must set it to OFF.  This will not cause
problems on your computer, since the default is OFF.  In fact, it may 
increase the performance of your hard disc.                  

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J. RUNNING THE STATUS MONITOR AND THE REMOTE CONTROL PANEL

Both the Status Monitor and the Remote Control Panel receive status 
information back from the printer.  Therefore, if the Status Monitor 
is loaded into memory, it will be "disabled" while the Remote Control 
Panel is running.  This means that you can still access the Status 
Monitor through "hot keys" but the Status Monitor will not be able to 
notify you of any changes in the status of your HP LaserJet 4 Plus 
printer.  Once you have exited the Remote Control Panel, the Status 
Monitor will be re-enabled and should work as usual.

In some circumstances, the Remote Control Panel may not be able to 
"enable" the Status Monitor and / or reset the printer so that it can 
send messages. If the Status Monitor is not working properly after 
exiting the Remote Control Panel, follow these steps: 

1.  Check the printer's control panel and make sure the printer is 
on-line.  For more information on the printer's control panel, 
refer to the HP Explorer Travel Guide or the HP LaserJet 4 Plus Printer 
User's Manual. 

2.  At the DOS prompt, type STAT4PL and press the [ENTER] key.

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K. IF YOUR MOUSE IS NOT WORKING

If your mouse is not working, your mouse driver program may be 
missing, or not running. 

At the DOS prompt type MOUSE and press the [ENTER] key.

This should load the mouse driver and you should now be able to run the 
Remote Control Panel and the Travel Guide using the mouse cursor. 

If you get a "Bad command or file name" message then your mouse driver 
is missing from the path or is not on your computer. Consult your 
mouse installation documentation to be sure that your mouse is 
installed properly. 

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L.  FASTMODE FOR FASTER BAUD RATES 

FASTMODE.EXE is a command line utility which allows the serial ports 
to be set to any baud rate between 300 & 115200.  Many implementations 
of the DOS MODE command do not support baud rates beyond 19200.  
FASTMODE supports COM1 through COM4, if they are present on your 
machine. 

When a serial printer connection is selected during installation,
SETUP4PL will automatically install FASTMODE.EXE into the HP EXPLORER
directory, and add a command to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file with the
appropriate parameters.


Examples: 

FASTMODE                      This command will give a summary status 
                              of your serial ports.
FASTMODE -v                   This command will give a verbose status 
                              of your serial ports.
FASTMODE COM1 38400           This command sets COM1 to 38400 baud. 

FASTMODE COM2 9600            This command sets COM2 to 9600 baud.

FASTMODE COM3 57600 n 8 1     This command sets COM3 to 57600 baud, no 
                              parity checking, eight data bits, and
                              one stop bit.

FASTMODE -?         Prints the following help screen:

FastMode V2.0 (C) Hewlett-Packard, 1991, 1992, 1993
Usage:
C:\FASTMODE.EXE [ ? | [-v] [comX[:][ b[ p[ d[ s]]]]]] | [add addr]
where:
    comX to display/change port X
    add to add port addr to bios table
    X is the port (1-4)
    b is the baud rate (50 ... 115200)
    p is the parity (none, even, odd)
    d is the bits per data byte (5 ... 8)
    s is the stop bits per data byte (1,1.5(d=5),2)
    addr is the I/O address of the adapter


Caveats:

1) Not all hardware (serial UART chips) on older PCs will support the 
   higher baud rates.
2) FASTMODE is *not* a TSR, and as such, it is not able to set the
   "retry" feature of the DOS MODE command.  To use this feature,
   run the MODE command first with a slower baud rate, then run 
   FASTMODE to set the actual baud rate.  For example:

      MODE COM1:9600,n,8,1,p
      FASTMODE COM1 57600

3) FASTMODE bypasses DOS; i.e., it does not use the interrupt 0x14
   services of DOS to accomplish its task.  As such, programs which 
   use interrupt 0x14 to obtain information about the current state
   of the serial port may not be aware of the changes.
4) Some HP LASERJET printers may not support 115200 baud.

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