KR19980023214A - How to install the printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

end. The technical field to which the invention described in the claims belongs

The present invention relates to a method for installing and installing a printer driver in a personal computer in a printer connected to the personal computer through a bidirectional communication interface.

I. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

Provides a printer driver installation method that can use a printer even when the identifier of the printer capable of bidirectional communication is wrong.

All. Summary of Solution of the Invention

When the printer driver is installed in the personal computer, the printer's identifier is reset to the new identifier set in the printer driver, and then installed and set up.

la. Important uses of the invention

It is used to use a printer employing a bidirectional communication interface.

Description

How to install the printer driver

The present invention relates to a printer connected to a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) through a bidirectional communication interface, and more particularly, to a method of installing and installing a printer driver in a PC.

Typically, a printer has a parallel or serial communication interface for sending and receiving data with a PC. The communication interface may be classified into a unidirectional communication interface and a bidirectional communication interface according to the communication type between the PC and the printer. In the past, a unidirectional communication interface has been adopted in printers, but recently, a bidirectional communication interface has been adopted. When bi-directional communication is possible, the PC recognizes the printer status and displays the progress of data processing desired by the user on the monitor.

On the other hand, the PC prints the document to be printed by the printer using the printer driver which is the device software. There are two printer drivers, one for DOS (Disk Operating System) and one for Windows, and printer manufacturers provide printer drivers suitable for each printer. These printer drivers are stored on a driver diskette or compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM) and sold with the printer. If you purchased the printer, you need to install the printer driver on your PC from the driver diskette or CD-ROM.

If the printer is a one-way communication printer, the printer driver can be installed in the PC without connecting the actual printer to the PC. On the other hand, a printer capable of bidirectional communication needs to set up a driver diskette or CD-ROM after connecting the printer to the PC when installing the printer driver. Thus, when installing the printer driver of the printer capable of bidirectional communication, the identifier of the printer (hereinafter referred to as ID) is checked. At this time, if the ID of the printer is different from the ID set in the corresponding driver, an error message (error message) indicating that the printer is the wrong type during setup is displayed on the monitor and the installation is stopped. The printer ID is a unique model name for each printer sold by each manufacturer and is embedded in a nonvolatile memory such as non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) or erasable and programmable ROM (EPROM) in the printer.

As described above, a printer capable of bidirectional communication must be installed with a printer driver after connecting the printer to a PC, and can be installed only when the printer ID is corrected during setup. Therefore, if the printer ID is incorrect, the user could not use the purchased printer.

However, although the printer has a different ID from the printer driver, it may be a suitable model for the printer driver. As described above, the cause of the incorrect ID even in the case of a printer suitable for the printer driver is as follows. In general, although the hardware is composed of almost one kind in printer development, the model name of the printer is divided into various kinds. For example, most printers of the same model are classified into export, domestic sales, and original equipment manufacturing (OEM). In this case, of course, even the same type of printer having one piece of hardware has a different ID. In addition, the ID is likely to change even when data in a specific memory area of the memory in which the ID is stored is damaged.

As described above, in the related art, a user cannot use the printer because the user cannot install the printer driver simply because the ID of the printer is incorrect even if the purchased printer is a model suitable for the printer driver.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a printer driver installation method that can use a printer even when the ID of the printer capable of bidirectional communication is wrong.

1 is a system configuration diagram of a conventional printer;

2 is an installation flowchart of a printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a process flow diagram of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention for achieving the above object is characterized in that the installation of the printer driver to the PC when the ID of the printer reset to a new ID set in the printer driver to install and install.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Many specific details are set forth in the following description, such as specific processing flows, to provide a more general understanding of the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In addition, it should be noted that in the following description, the same components in the drawings represent the same reference signs wherever possible. And a detailed description of known functions and configurations that may obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted.

1 shows a system configuration diagram of a conventional printer to which the present invention is applied, and shows a system in which a printer 104 employing a bidirectional communication interface is connected to a PC 100. The parallel port 102 of the PC 100 provides bidirectional communication between the PC 100 and the printer 104. The printer 104 connected to the parallel port 102 of the PC 100 includes a PC interface 106, a CPU 108, an operating panel (Operating Pannel Equipment) 110, a memory 112, and an engine interface 114. ) And the print engine 116. PC interface 106 provides bidirectional communication between PC 100 and CPU 108. The CPU 108 communicates with the PC 100 and controls the print engine 116 according to various commands input from the PC 100 and the operation panel 110 to perform various functions including printing. The operation panel 110 includes a plurality of keys for inputting various commands and a display device for displaying information according to the operation of the printer 104. The memory 112 includes a conventional read only memory (ROM) and a random access memory (RAM), as well as a nonvolatile memory that stores an ID as described above. The data according to the processing in 108 is temporarily stored. The engine interface 114 is connected between the CPU 108 and the print engine 116 to interface the input and output signals. The print engine 116 includes various mechanisms for conveying and printing paper sheets and is controlled by the CPU 108 to perform printing.

The present invention is to check the ID of the printer 104 when installing the printer driver from the driver diskette or CD-ROM to the PC 100 in order to use the printer 104 connected to the PC 100 is set in the printer driver if it is wrong Install and set up with a new ID. To this end, the printer driver installation software performs an operation according to the flowchart of FIG. 2, and the CPU 108 of the printer 104 performs an operation according to the flowchart of FIG. 3.

2 is a flowchart illustrating an installation of a printer driver according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of the CPU 108 of the printer 104 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

First, when the driver diskette or CD-ROM is inserted into the PC 100 and the installation is started, the PC 100 starts to install the printer driver stored in the driver diskette or the CD-ROM. That is, the PC 100 requests the printer 104 to check the ID of the printer 104 in step 200 of FIG. 2, and waits for reception of the ID from the printer 104 in step 202. Then, the CPU 108 of the printer 104 responds to the ID confirmation request from the PC 100 in steps 300 through 302 of FIG. 3 to convert the ID stored in the memory 112 in step 306 into a PC. Send to 100. Then, the PC 100 checks the ID received from the printer 104 in step 204, and if it is correct, installs the printer driver in the same way as usual in step 210, sets up, and ends.

However, if the ID received from the printer 104 is incorrect in step 204, the PC 100 sends the ID set in the printer driver to the printer 104 in step 206 to request the ID reset ( In step 208, it waits for a reset completion notification to be received. The CPU 108 of the printer 100 then responsively in steps 300 through 304 to store the new ID received from the PC 100 in the nonvolatile memory of the memory 112 in step 308. After setting, in step 310, the PC 100 notifies the completion of the reset and ends. When the ID is reset in the printer 104 as described above, the PC 100 installs the printer driver in the same manner as in the normal case in step 210, sets up and ends.

Therefore, even if the ID of the printer is different from the ID set in the printer driver, the printer can be used by resetting the ID and installing and setting up the printer driver.

Meanwhile, in the above description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Particularly, in the embodiment of the present invention, an example of resetting the ID only when the ID of the printer 104 is checked and wrong is given, but the ID of the printer 104 is unconditionally installed when the printer driver is installed without checking the ID of the printer 104. You can also reset it. In this case, program coding of the nonvolatile memory for storing the ID is simplified. Therefore, the scope of the invention should not be defined by the described embodiments, but should be defined by the equivalents of the claims and the claims.

As described above, the present invention has the advantage that the user can be resolved by using the printer normally even when the ID is incorrect in the printer capable of bidirectional communication. In addition, even when the production of the same model or more in each model does not need to check the printer ID for each model can improve productivity.

Claims (4)

In a method for installing a printer driver of a printer employing a bidirectional communication interface in a personal computer, And resetting the printer identifier to a new identifier set in the printer driver when installing the printer driver in the personal computer. The method of claim 1, wherein the printer driver is installed after connecting the printer to the personal computer. In a method for installing a printer driver of a printer employing a bidirectional communication interface in a personal computer, The printer driver installation method of claim 1, wherein when the printer driver is installed in the personal computer, the identifier of the printer is checked and is incorrect. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the printer driver is installed after connecting the printer to the personal computer.