Paralel port or USB for printer? What´s your opinion?

[Helevitia]

I may be a little late here, but one of the main reasons to use USB over Parallel is the speed. Parallel ECP port has a maximum throuput of 1-2Mbps and USB has ~12Mbps. Of course, the printer has to be able ot use the speed so it may be a moot point depending on the printer. If you have too many devices on your USB ports then you may want to use the parallel port just to save on bandwidth. ECP parallel ports are designed fairly well, it's kind of like a poor man's SCSI port without the hardware chip to do all of the work. Anyway, my 2 cents.

Dave

[Nuno]

Paralel port or USB for printer? What´s your opinion?

I bought a new HP 930C a decent and cheap printer. I can use USB or LPT1. Any differences in performance I can expect?

I have it working with usb under win2k and it seems to be fine. I would try to install it with the paralel cable, but I´m afraid to screw up with drivers, and really would like to read your opinion about it.

USB, paralel, or it just doesn´t matter?

[Jorden]

I don't think there's much difference between the parallel or USB port at this time. But for that you're not using an IRQ if you don't use the parallel port (is this still the same in Win2k?).

I've seen USB printers and scanners do their thing faster than their parallel counterparts, but at the same quality (or worse !!).

I don't think you'll screw up much if you disconnect from USB and install the parallel cable. The drivers will see this. Especially the HP drivers, which are renowned for this

Just try out what you feel is the best. Until USB 2.0 or 2.1 comes out you won't notice much of a difference, IMO.

Jord.

[SCompRacer]

USB allowed me to eliminate a switch box for my two printers. I have an HP 970Cse via USB and a Laserjet 6P on parallel. Before with two parallel, had to manually switch to correct printer.

Since the Deskjet was an upgrade, it is faster but it could just be the hardware compared to the older printer it replaced. Just follow HP's procedure for removing/installing drivers. They have an uninstall utility on the CD while the later drivers have the uninstall listed in Programs. USB driver install procedure is slightly different.

Initially, the drivers seemed poor, but the third revision works alot better. They had three revisions fot the 970 in a short period of time, so check for updates for yours at the HP site. http://www.pandi.hp.com/pandi-db/home_page.show


[This message has been edited by SCompRacer (edited 29 May 2000).]

[2K]

I have a HP 970Cxi via USB. The USB driver installing procedure is kind of strange, but once you get used to it there's no problem.
I never tryed it on parallel, maybe because I wanted to disable the printer port (using win98).
If you don't have other use for the USB port, leave the printer on it

[Nuno]

Hey, thanks for the replies guys!

I use win2k, I installed HP win2k native drivers (had to dowload them. They haven´t no setup file, only a .inf file. Guess what? The same .inf file works for usb or paralel, and the same utilities are installed. How practical and how far from the oximoronic win98 usb install. (I only find unforgivable the lack of the ink indicator win98 drivers have - how difficult could that be to implement?)


Not a final veredict: LPT seems slightly faster printing text, USB seems slighly faster printing graphics. Go wonder.

So usb it is for now. Actually it have a more sofisticated look, having the printer connected to the pc by a such strange cable

Jorden: I actually don´t have an IRQ advantage using LPT ot USB. I need the paralel to use my zip100 and I need USB to use my scanner. But with ACPI IRQ´s are less of a pain now

To Scomp and 2K: How do you like your 970? I considered it, but I read a review that gave the 930 the best buy: Not that slower than 970, same quality, lacking automatic 2 side printing, but for almost half-the price, who´s complaining...

[2K]

It does a great job, but yes, the 930 is the best buy

[Nuno]

Seems that everyone is satisfied about their HP, then

[2K]

It tends to eat much from the black cartrige (don't know if other inkjets do that, since this is my first printer, didn't need one till some recent problems), on both text and graphics, but everything else is fine.


[This message has been edited by 2K (edited 30 May 2000).]

[Nuno]

Are you using the small ("ligth user") or big cartridge?

[Rick]

Got my HP connected through the USB cable. Don't know if this is a USB thing, but I don't even need to turn it on in advance. Just press print and it turns itself on.

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ASUS P3V4X,Celeron 366@555, 2.25v, 128mb PC133 Crucial RAM, G400 DH, Maxtor 7200rpm 10GB, 4.3GB Fujistu, Creative 24x, Creative X-Gamer, D-Link NIC, ISA Modem

[2K]

Never mind, the pictures had many black in them, most of them were like the one from the link below http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/...ntent/0014.jpg
after printing around 25 pics like that, I think it's normal for it to eat between one third and half of the cartrige.
me stupid :O sorry

(Is it normal ? don't want to remain stupid )

[Snake-Eyes]

Yep. That's normal. I have an Epson Stylus Color 740 instead of an HP, but as far as I know, both use the black cartridge for "true blacks" in images. I haven't been printing a lot of images lately, but my wife has been helping make up the difference by printing lots of documents and web pages. She finds coupons online and prints them out, among other things.

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Ace

[2K]

Say Nuno, didn't knew there were different cartridges. On HP's site they only say of one type, for both black and color
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printer....html#P71_1830

Ace: thanks (makes me feel better)


[This message has been edited by 2K (edited 30 May 2000).]

[Nuno]

Rick: I still haven´t noticed that the printer would turn itself on if it is on usb. Cool thing

2K: I´m pretty sure there are two types of black cartridges: a 21ml and a 40?ml one. The 21 ml has written in the box something like "for ligth users", and of course, is cheaper.