UPGRADING REPAIRING PCs

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Chapter 7—Parallel Ports, Printers, Scanners, and Drives
Table 7.4 Printer Interface Standards and Recommended Uses
Continued
Interface Type
Required Benefits Drawbacks Operating System
USB Faster than most parallel Driver problems Requires
port modes. Devices can causing difficulty Windows 98,
be daisy-chained through for many USB- Windows 2000,
hubs in any order. Hot- based2 printers, or Windows Me1. swappable; printer can be especially certain
moved to any USB-based
system. Many devices are
cross-platform–compatible
with both PCs and Macs.
HP inkjet models.
PC Card Provides power to printer; Fragile PC Card Varies with printer.
no electrical cord needed. can be broken or
Allows design of very damaged. Printers
compact printers for use with this interface
with notebook computers. can’t work with
desktop computers;
might need to
remove a PC Card
from the notebook
computer to enable
printing.
Network Enables sharing of a single, Requires network Works with any
high-performance printer cards and config- network operating
among many clients. Fast uration. Low-cost, system; check
networks allow printing host-based printers printer for
about as fast as local
printing. Can “print”
offline to queue and
release when printer
becomes available.
can’t be networked. limitations.
1. Windows 95 OSR2.1 also includes USB support, but many USB devices will not work with that
version. Windows Me can use Windows 98 drivers, but a different driver is required for
Windows 2000. More USB devices support Windows 98/Me than 2000.
2. I recommend you purchase printers that can also be used with parallel ports in case of problems
with USB sIupport.
Printers also can be interfaced by IEEE-1394 and SCSI ports, but
these implementations are used primarily by Macintosh systems
with high-end inkjet or laser printers in graphic arts environments.
Use Tables 7.5 and 7.6 to help you keep your printer running reliably.
Hewlett-Packard PCL Versions
Use Table 7.5 to determine which printer control language (PCL)
features a printer offers, based on the version of HP-PCL it supports.
You also can use this table to choose compatible printers in
case you don’t have exactly the right driver for a given HP-PCL
printer or compatible.