USB printer speed

[Don Phillipson]

I am rebuilding an old Compaq Presario 7000CA
(bought cheap off the back of a truck . . . ) which
to my surprise turned out to have only USB version
1. I shall certainly instal a USB.v.2 card if I can
see how also to connect the front-panel USB jacks
to it -- but am undecided about connecting a printer
to its OEM USB.v.1 jacks. Does USB version make
a difference to normal printer operation?

1. Will a printer run slower if connected to a USB.v.1 jack?
2. Would a scanner connected to a USB.v.1 jack be crippled
by its slow data speed?

 

[Warren Block]

I am rebuilding an old Compaq Presario 7000CA
(bought cheap off the back of a truck . . . ) which
to my surprise turned out to have only USB version
1. I shall certainly instal a USB.v.2 card if I can
see how also to connect the front-panel USB jacks
to it -- but am undecided about connecting a printer
to its OEM USB.v.1 jacks. Does USB version make
a difference to normal printer operation?

USB 1.1 Full-speed is 1.5 megabytes per second, more than fast enough
for typical printing.

1. Will a printer run slower if connected to a USB.v.1 jack?

Not unless the printer has a USB 2 Hi-speed port. Maybe not even then;
depends on what you're printing.

2. Would a scanner connected to a USB.v.1 jack be crippled
by its slow data speed?

If the scanner has a USB 2 Hi-speed port, and actually sends data faster
than 1.5 meg per second.

 

[Barry Watzman]

In general, EVERYTHING will work with the USB 1 port, it will just be 40
times slower. For many things that doesn't matter, but for disk drives,
it's a huge difference (some operations on an 80GB or larger disk drive
could take days). For a printer, it's a non-issue.

 

[ato_zee]

I shall certainly instal a USB.v.2 card if I can

For printers 1 or 2 won't make a lot of difference for
text pages. Large embedded graphic in web pages
may show a difference.
Front panel USB connectors are generally terminated
in a single motherboard connector..
USB cards, in USB connectors,
4 on the backplate, 1 or 2 on the board.
USB2 support also needs drivers compatible
with the installed OS.
For XP these should come with the card.
If you are thinking of Win9x or Linux, or
a Linux web/mail/firewall server,
check driver compatibility.
USB2 comes into it's own with large
USB external backup drives, even then
the drive speed/data rate can be an issue,
external SATA being better.

 

[measekite]

Why waste your time with junk.  You can get a new modern mb with a core 2 duo and a case for around $200.00.  Add an inexpensive hard disk and a dvd writer with 1 to 2 G memory and your set.

Don Phillipson wrote:

I am rebuilding an old Compaq Presario 7000CA (bought cheap off the back of a truck . . . ) which to my surprise turned out to have only USB version 1. I shall certainly instal a USB.v.2 card if I can see how also to connect the front-panel USB jacks to it -- but am undecided about connecting a printer to its OEM USB.v.1 jacks. Does USB version make a difference to normal printer operation? 1. Will a printer run slower if connected to a USB.v.1 jack? 2. Would a scanner connected to a USB.v.1 jack be crippled by its slow data speed?

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Most printers are not adversely altered in speed y a normal USB 1.1 port
running standrad work through it.

The scanner may be slowed down. Mine tend to slow when scanning an
image with high res setting (in terms of data transfer), and this may be
in part the general traffic flow, but I assume the data flow might be an
issue at USB v1.1 cabling.

Art

 

[Andrew Gabriel]

I am rebuilding an old Compaq Presario 7000CA
(bought cheap off the back of a truck . . . ) which
to my surprise turned out to have only USB version
1. I shall certainly instal a USB.v.2 card if I can
see how also to connect the front-panel USB jacks
to it -- but am undecided about connecting a printer
to its OEM USB.v.1 jacks. Does USB version make
a difference to normal printer operation?

1. Will a printer run slower if connected to a USB.v.1 jack?
2. Would a scanner connected to a USB.v.1 jack be crippled
by its slow data speed?

In addition to the other comments, I have found that an
HP C6180 will not fall back to USB 1.1 operation at all.
My guess is that manufacturers probably don't test their
newer products with old USB ports anymore.