Printronix L5520 - Manual (Page 216)

Appendix C Host I/O Interfaces
216
Sustaining high communication data transfer rates may require the
host computer to be tuned to meet the printer’s speed
requirements. On mini or mainframe computers, printer
performance problems can usually be solved by having the system
administrator perform one or more of the following:
• assign a higher priority to the print spooler
• increase the size of the host’s output buffer
• dedicate a communication controller to the printer
Solving system performance problems with IBM-compatible PC’s
varies depending upon the operating system (OS/2
® Windows ® or
MS-DOS
®
) and the speed and manufacturer of the PC.
Performance problems with networked printers are best left to the
expertise of the network administrator, since each element between
the printer and the host computer can affect performance.
There are cases where the desired printout is sufficiently complex
to exceed the bandwidth of the controller. This is evident if the
printer is exerting the communication flow control for extended
periods of time followed by a printer pause. Assuming that the
software application has already been tuned for efficiency under
these circumstances, do the following:
1. Check to see if the minimum amount of memory is installed
(see Appendix B, “Specifications”).
2. Try changing the font cache memory allocation based upon the
size of characters being sent. See the “Maximum Cache
Memory” topic on page 93 for details.
3. Set the Image Width configuration menu parameter to the
minimum width required for the print job.
4. Try to minimize the number of font changes per page.
5. Try to decrease the printing resolution (400 DPI to 300 DPI or
300 DPI to 240 DPI).
6. Decrease the complexity and/or number of characters in the
printed output.