Why does printing make XP drag?

[Guest]

I use XP Pro SP2 and a Lexmark Z52 printer on LPT1. When the printer is busy
printing, it affects my other processing much more than would expect.... like
waiting to update screens and ignoring window scroll sliders. Is this
normal? Background printing is THE multitasking idiom. I have set my BIOS
parallel port mode to EPP, ECP, etc. My print setup usually is "spool first,
then print" (but it also has been "start printing immediately"). It has
never been "direct to printer". Hey, does everyone experience this? Do I
have something set wrong? Let me know.
MP

 

[John A]

This is typical when using LPT1. You will find this doesn't happen
using USB printer

JOhn Allen

 

[Steve N.]

This is typical when using LPT1. You will find this doesn't happen
using USB printer

JOhn Allen

No it isn't. I and many of our users use LPT printing all the time and
on a healthy system this is never the case. This has to do with system
resources, hardware, file system, and/or printer driver issues.

Steve

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

It can be typical but depends on the printer as well as the cable and the
port itself. I have never seen it on a USB printer.