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PC Crashes while printing

Forum Computer Peripherals : Printers - PC Crashes while printing

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cyberbart   05-16-2001 at 07:20:57 PM

I bought a new pc about 3 months ago now and my pc always hangs when I want to print. I have an AMD Thunderbird 1 Ghz with 256 MB of Ram-Memory inside. My printer is an HP Deskjet 710C with a parallel connection. In the BIOS, My parallelport mode is set to ECP/EPP because everybody said it has to be like that because I've also a parallel scanner ( Scanjet 5100 C) of HP.

I asked a few friends what I could do with this problem and they said it has to be with that "extremely high speed" parallel port. But what could I DO TO SOLVE that problem?

My friends said to try an usb connection but a converter cable is expensive. Is buying an USB-Printer a solution and won't it happen then anymore?

It is a problem with Win95, Win98 and Me. I almost tried everything to solve it but I don't know what to do now. I will try it with W2K Professional but I think it will not solve the problem.

I hope you can help me,

Kind regards

- Bart
homepage: http://barttops.hobbiton.org (still under construction)

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hammerhead   05-17-2001 at 11:55:56 PM
- 0 +

Your printer is connected via the scanner to the same parallel port (LPT1)?

I've always found this kind of setup to be problematic. I doubt the speed of the parallel port has much relevance.

If you have a spare ISA slot, the cheapest solution is to get a second parallel port on an ISA card. In the UK these cost about £9.

Just get them off the same port, whatever solution you use to achieve that should work fine.

Reply to hammerhead
cyberbart   05-18-2001 at 12:50:29 PM
- 0 +

I'll try it, but are there some cards with parallel ports on PCI-busses?


- Bart

Reply to cyberbart
hammerhead   05-18-2001 at 10:47:00 PM
- 0 +

Yes, but in the UK at least they are expensive (£40-£50).

A better alternative would be a USB interface (either printer or scanner, whatever is possible).

Expensive of course, it has the advantage of not requiring an IRQ though.

The cheap ISA solution needs an IRQ, and it probably would have to be IRQ 5.

Reply to hammerhead
Anonymous   06-07-2001 at 10:55:12 PM
- 0 +

First off, you defintly want to NOT share a parallel port between a printer and any other device. It just causes problems most of the time.
Second, if you can change your port mode to ONLY epp, that is better. ECP requires DMA and tends to cause more problems than it is worth. If that doesnt work, you might want to even bump the port down to bi-directional, but thats only a last case scenario.
Also, parallel to USB converters tend to also be very problamatic. Your best bet is to either get a USB printer or get another Parallel port if you have the slot for it.

"He not busy being born is busy dying."
-Dylan

Reply to Anonymous
Anonymous   06-20-2001 at 01:17:06 AM
- 0 +

Does the pc you got have a usb port?, if so then all you need is a cable, if not then you need a card which are about $50 aust, which is about $20 US, if youre thinking of another parallel port then forget it and go usb, its newer technology and is hot swappable, which parallel is not, also you can plug 128 devices into a single usb port, and if in the future you get a digital camera which a lot of people are, then you will need a usb port anyway to enable you to download piccies into your pc, the other way is a card reader but they are usb anyway.
USB cards fit into your pci slot on the mobe

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Anonymous   06-20-2001 at 09:54:00 PM
- 0 +

My guess is his printer doesnt have a USB port. Hence the converter he mentioned. The mjority of older printers dont haave them. (older meaning 1999 and before).

"He not busy being born is busy dying."
-Dylan

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