AST RESEARCH TECHNICAL BULLETIN TB-0029                   7-16-84


                     AST-PCNET PRINT SPOOLER


When  using  the AST-PCnet Print Spooler on a  local  PC  (shared 
printer  attached),   under  certain  conditions  the  SuperSpool 
secondary control commands (/P,  /C /S, etc.) will not work.  The 
specific conditions which cause this problem are as follows:

     1.  The system  board switches are set for less memory  than 
         is actually installed in the computer.

     2.  SuperSpool  version  1.31,  is  resident in the area  of 
         memory  located  above the setting of the  system  board 
         switches.

     3.  A  SPLLINK  version 1.00 command for local PCs has  been 
         executed.

Under these conditions,  attempting to use a SuperSpool secondary 
command  such as "SUPERSPL /P" will result in the following error 
mesage:

     Printer Specification Required.
     ABORTING...

This is caused by the fact that SPLLINK has "stolen" SuperSpool's 
INT 17 interrupt vector, coupled with the fact that SuperSpool is 
unable to locate its own "footprint" in low memory.  It therefore 
assumes  that  it  is  not resident  and  rejects  the  secondary 
command.

If  the  user`s system is configured with more  memory  than  the 
system  switches  indicate  and he needs to  use  the  SuperSpool 
secondary  commands,  the SuperSpool "/DH" and/or "/DNC"  options 
should  be  used when invoking SuperSpool the first  time.   This 
will  restrict SuperSpool to using only the memory located  below 
the system board switches, and the problem will not occur.

Note  that the problem described above does not occur if you  are 
not using SPLLINK.