Very, very slow printing with HP LJ on USB

[Asp]

I've been using HP Laserjets for many years now. Currently a HP 2420.

Connected to my XP PC first by parallel port. Later, with a network model, went to ethernet, making it available to laptops and phones.

All worked pretty smoothly. A few months ago, my desk router died. That took the ethernet from the wall socket  to the main router and connected my PC and the printer, gave each a local IP..

So I connected the PC directly to the wall socket but now had no port for the printer, so I got a USB cable and plugged it in to the PC. It detected the printer and I installed the drivers.

"Printers" shows it connected to "DOT4_001" port, "Generic IEEE 1284.4 Printing Support".

Previously, by ethernet or parallel, sending a simple print job took maybe 2 seconds, and it would start printing after another 2 seconds.

With USB, I see on its panel "Receiving data" then "Processing data" then ":Receiving data", "Processing data".... seemingly endlessly.

I stopped and restarted both PC and printer several times. Eventually I tried again and let it go, it took two minutes then it finally started printing.  The page was perfect.

I will replace the router, but in the meantime, why is USB so slow, what is going on? Port settings? Tried different USB sockets on the PC, both USB2 and USB3, no change.

Edited October 16 by Asp

[NotHereToPlayGames]

Not sure if this is going to help you or not but since it is related, I'll offer what I do know.

My HP all-in-one (color printer, scanner, copier) is the PSC 1610.  I've never used it via ethernet (unsure if it is even capable).  It's always been via USB.

I do know/recall that my XP setup did NOT use the HP "software" but the DRIVER ONLY.

And I had to install that driver with the printer TURNED *OFF*.

Then turned the printer on only after the driver was installed and the driver installation only continued after that first turn-on of the printer.

Unsure if that helps.  All I can suggest is to make sure you use the DRIVER ONLY from the HP support web site.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

And if it were me, I would use the OLDEST XP driver-only that I could find.  Yes, the OLDEST.  Or at the very least, go by FILE SIZE and use the SMALLEST.

[Multibooter]

I assume your HP Laserjet 2420 is a black and white printer of the the year 2004. I have a color Laserjet 2605 of the year 2006 and have used it also via IP. Fiddling around with it is very time-consuming.

Suggestions and thoughts, maybe they help:
- reinstall the printer driver + create a NEW printer icon in Printers and Faxes
- installing the older driver from the original driver CD had worked for me,
  but not a more recent driver downloaded from HP
- I started to install the driver from the CD WITHOUT the printer connected
  during the installation a window came up: "Connection Type" -> Directly using a USB cable
  then a window came up "Connect your device Now -> power on the printer -> connect the USB cable
- IEEE 1284 is Centronics [=slow parallel], the USB printer icon created for my HP2605 was originally named "HP Color Laser Jet 2605dn_2605dtn PCL6"

Edited October 16 by Multibooter

[user57]

so it was on a  ethernet cable or parallel "printer" cable?

maybe the printer has a bad usb performance, are patched files involved (the PAE 128 GB extender has other usb drivers for example from vista)

therefore you should repeat that usb performance test with a different OS, but maybe the same hardware of the computer

[jumper]

My color HP 656c printed quickly via USB from Windows 98 in 2002. I second the recommendation for trying the oldest available drivers. Try the default PCL5 drivers first:

1. Back up your system
2. Uninstall/remove all drivers and software related to printing
3. Backup/create a new restore point
4. Attach printer and scan for new hardware
5. Select any Laserjet that uses PCL5 drivers

If this solves the print delay problem, install updated HP drivers if you want more features.

 

[Asp]

Tried a few things. Booting to Mint, it detected and set up the printer by itself and I could print a page within 2 seconds. So, the cabling and hardware is all good.

Back in XP, tried to print again. It took about 4 minutes, the status panel kept going to "receiving data" to "processing data" over and over.

Looking at the print queue, (screenshot) I see that the print file is 276 kB, and after 3 minutes it has only sent 256 kB.

I don't know why it stalls or finally gets over the hump, but it does, and the page looks perfect. So the drivers are good.

I have never used a USB printer on XP before, (plenty of other USB devices) so I suspect that is the issue.

Should it really be "Generic IEEE 1284.4 printing support"?

 

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Asp

[NotHereToPlayGames]

Try disabling "bi-directional printer support".

[NotHereToPlayGames]

Also, several HP support forums suggest that most anti-virus programs seem to be okay.

But that MALWARE SOFTWARE (ie, Malwarebytes, Bitdefender, Avast One Essential, ESET Essential, Emisoft) are known to cause printing delays.