USB Questions

Ron Eggers

SPFG, Supreme Picture Framing God
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The HP printer I use on my laptop can connect with USB (1 or 1.1) or parallel port. Right now I'm using the latter.

Would I gain anything by re-installing the printer to connect with the USB (other than an open parallel port, which I probably wouldn't use for anything else?) Any speed or performance advantages? I have a powered USB hub, so there's plenty of room.

Also, if I put a USB 2.0 card in my PC, would any of the existing peripherals (prints, scanner, card-readers) gain any performance advantage or just the new peripherals that are specifically made for USB 2?
 
USB 2 has the ability to be considerably faster than 1.x, but the peripheral may not take advantage of it. USB in general is a lot faster than parallel and you'll see a nice increase there.

My concern with 1.x is does it stop working after a while, until you reboot? This is a common issue i've had with printers, digital cameras, scanners, etc. Since I put 2.0 in, all is well.

My advice: Plug it in and try. You'll probably be impressed at the speed of USB.
 
USB 1.x has stopped working on some Windows ME systems, and a reboot doesn't always help.

Sounds like installing the 2.0 card might be a good idea. I have a free slot on my desktop and an open card slot on my laptop. Then I'll switch the printer over. The laptop, in particular, would be a lot more portable if I didn't have to disconnect the parallel cable every time I wanted to move it.

Oh, goody, something to play with this weekend!
 
There were some known usb 1.x issues (there's a thread floating around here somewhere about it) and some motherboard/chipset downloadable patches to correct some of them. I think the links are in the previous thread.

Have a great weekend!

Mike
 
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