HP 5N Printer slowing system

[capncaption]

I have an HP 5N printer hooked up via parallel cable to a desktop computer running XP Pro and if I have the printer on, it slows the response time of my computer. Particularly when I'm printing PowerPoint slides, the computer becomes so slow that I have to stop the print in order to continue working. I have previously had an HP 5 (non-network) hooked up to this system and didn't have this problem. I've downloaded the latest drivers, but I'm struggling with this. I've also been told that the printer is so old that it won't work well with XP Pro. Does that make sense?

Thanks

 

[IslandCustom]

Hi, Capncaption. In the past I had used an HP LaserJet 5 printer via parallel cable with XP without a problem. I can offer two suggestions.

First, there are different types of parallel ports. The type of port you have is set in BIOS. There is PS/2, EPP and ECP (read about them here:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?dn=TT1029214#B

). You might try entering Setup when the PC starts and look to see if you can change the LPT type and see if that alleviates the problem.

Second, the printer itself can be set to allocate its memory for different purposes. If you purchased the printer used, maybe the former owner made adjustments. I would use the printer's front panel to set the printer back to factory defaults to see if that helps.

Good luck,
Kevin