Installation of parallel printer card

[GeoWash]

I have a Pavilion P6000 Prod# BK456AA#ABA and wish to install a parallel printer output card such as the Startech PC/1PM.

I wish to do this so that I can improve the printing speed of my Designjet 450C printer which is now connected thru a USB/parallel adapter cable from the USB001 port.  Data trnasfer is extremely slow and seems to be sent in "packets". I want to try a parralel hookup thru LPT1 to see if this improves the print speed.  I have plenty of memory in the printer (It worked great on an older HP WinXP machine}.

The location of the expansion slot is such that the card edge cannot be inserted into it . Is there some sort of cable hookup I can use between the two?

I am using Win7 / 64bit.

Thank you

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

The StarTech card that you are looking at is PCI and not PCI-E x1 that is supported on your motherboard so it's not going to work.

The HP DesignJet 450c doesn't have Windows 7 support software. 

Look for a PCI-E x1 parallel port card that has Windows 7 64 bit drivers. Even if you can find the right card, you will most likely be stuck with the support that is offered by Windows 7.

[GeoWash]

Thanks, I'll try the correct PCI-Ex1 card. It might help. I'm aware of the lack of driver support for the Designjet 450C from HP. After a long search, I located one which appears to work (non-HP). Thinking that this non-HP driver might be the cause of  the speed problem, I ran the printer as a 430 model (black/white) using the Win7 supplied driver. No change in speed. I'll let you know of the results.

Thanks again 

[GeoWash]

I installed the correct PCI parallel port card but got no change in printing results. Thinking that the non-HP driver for the DesignJet 450C might be the problem, I installed the printer as a model 430 for which there is a system supplied Win7 driver.  No change.  The documents eventually print but in fits & starts (3 second print - 15 second wait)? The same thing happens when I use it as a model 450C. Any thoughts? Thanks

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

You might try turning off spooling for that device.  Bi-directional printing might also be something to try.