>I seem to recall there is a way to detect a "printer ready" in FPW2.6. PRINTSTATUS() always returns .T. and SYS(13) always returns "READY". I need to send a CHR(7) to LPT1 to trigger a gate mechanism but if there is no printer on-line on the port I get a "Printer Driver Corrupted" error followed by various other unpleasent messages and finally losing my mouse cursor and having to re-boot - WEIRD !!!
>Any suggestions?

Have you looked at message #231038 .It doesn't look good.