What is wrong with the parallel port on this printer? Brother claims it is ECP, but I can't get ECP mode to function fully. I was using it in fast SPP mode and then noticed that while it is spooling a large file my CPU usage is 100 percent, so decided to switch to ECP since that uses DMA and this printer supposedly supports it. I went and spent 20 bucks on an IEEE 1284 cable since my current one is not (reason why I was using SPP before). I tried both ECP and ECP+EPP modes in my bios. I tried all the interrupt settings in the windows ECP driver. Nothing worked. I tested by making an 18 meg tiff file and printing it. Any setting I used I would get the same print time and 100 percent CPU ussage.
I then decided to try out the USB port and printing was twice as fast for the test file and there was almost no CPU usage. An ECP printer port should have almost no CPU usage also. The problem with USB is that it totally screwed up my system after the one printout and now I have to reinstall to get any printing at all since the spooler dies on startup. Also, I have no free ports, so I will have to go back to using the parallel port.
Can anyone with this printer or similar Brother lasers confirm that these printers do not really support true ECP mode with DMA assisted transfers?
Is there some setting I have to set in the printer? I tried ECP with this printer on two different computers with mother boards from different companies, so I am sure it is not a bios problem. Also I am running W2K SP2, so the ECP problems in the original W2K are fixed.
Now I am thinking i should have gone with the HP model. HP and Microsoft invented ECP, so I probably would have had more luck there.
I then decided to try out the USB port and printing was twice as fast for the test file and there was almost no CPU usage. An ECP printer port should have almost no CPU usage also. The problem with USB is that it totally screwed up my system after the one printout and now I have to reinstall to get any printing at all since the spooler dies on startup. Also, I have no free ports, so I will have to go back to using the parallel port.
Can anyone with this printer or similar Brother lasers confirm that these printers do not really support true ECP mode with DMA assisted transfers?
Is there some setting I have to set in the printer? I tried ECP with this printer on two different computers with mother boards from different companies, so I am sure it is not a bios problem. Also I am running W2K SP2, so the ECP problems in the original W2K are fixed.
Now I am thinking i should have gone with the HP model. HP and Microsoft invented ECP, so I probably would have had more luck there.
Facebook
Twitter