PC Hardware Annoyances

PERFORMANCE ANNOYANCES

CLEAR THE QUEUE

The Annoyance:

I had five minutes to print my report, drink my coffee, make a phone call, and get to a meeting across town. Plenty of time. But when I tried to print my document, I got an error telling me that the network printer queue is full.

The Fix:

A full print queue typically means that the maximum number of print jobs is already waiting for the printer. The easiest workaround is to get a second cup of coffee and try the print job again later (once several jobs have been completed and left the queue). If this becomes a persistent problem for you (and other network users), it might be worth increasing the amount of memory in the printer. Busy network printers could also benefit from an internal hard drive. More RAM and disk space will hold more jobs, effectively giving you a larger queue.

GETTING TOP PRINT SPEED

The Annoyance:

I work in a large office and it takes me 20 minutes (okay, 15 minutes) to get from my cube to the printer. However, when I finally reach the printer I still have to wait for my documents to print.

The Fix:

Several important factors affect print speed. The document complexity itself is a big issue. Simple text memos will queue up and print much faster than complex drawings or CAD layouts, which can take considerable time to download from the host PC. If you want more speed from “draft” printouts, simply lower the printing resolution (then restore the original quality levels for your final print job).

For example, open the Printers ...