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Printer slows my computer down

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18 replies

by simon.leggett

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I have a P133 and 48MB PC and just got a new printer (HP Deskjet890cxi) and when i print 20 to 30 pages it slows down so much it is un-usable. I have changed the printer port to ECP and changed it in printer settings to ECP but not a lot changed. Will more RAM sort it out or will i need a faster processor.

18 replies

by vue

Try changing the printer's spool setting, it might help. Good luck.

by crazy.spirit

You may also need to re-install your printer drivers so that your printer may be able to queue better than what is already

by fellico

Printing takes a lot of your computers resources and cpu usage. I have a 600mhz w/ 64mb of ram and when i print 30 pages, it slows wayyyy down. so, with your computer, it would be normal to be almost at a stand still. Since most home user printers, such as the one you have, don't have a large RAM capacity (used to store information that is being printed), the computer must then send only small parts of the document to the printer at one time. 30 times for 30 pages. so, during the whole printing you must just wait. there is no conventional solution. sorry :(

by jwl0306

Hiyas, well, I am assuming that you print
alot of reports. Adding more ram always help
especially when it comes to these type of
printers. But have you considered purchasing
a small yet efficient print buffer box, that
way, it should use the buffer box and allow
you to use your system normally while it is
printing.Well,hope this help you any. Best of
Luck.

by baziite

Make sure that in printer properties / spool settings , you have not sellected " Print directly to the printer " . Use the " start printing when first page is spooled " setting , this will only send one page at a time to the printer buffer and therefore will not use up too much processor time . You can consider adding additional buffer space on the printer if it supports it , this will free the processor faster .

Much luck !!!!

by baziite

OR if you have two harddisks you can either shift your swapfile to the second harddisk or you can shift the spool folder ( in the registry ) to the second harddisk . This way your read/write from the spool will not interfere with the read/write of the swapfile ( which is quite frequent ) , thus improving response time .

by tjc

I think your own comments say it. If your printign that much you may just want to get a faster computer with more ram. Also as a side note try only printing 10 pages at a time and see if it doesn't slow down so much.

Also think of it this way. With a Second computer you could make this one a print server and make your new computer FLY when printing!

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