I got a Dell XPS laptop running Windows Vista 64 bit. The whole process of printing a document to our network printers works fine. However, the speed at which Vista sends data to the printer is horridly slow.

For example: When I try to print a 4MB pdf file. The print job starts immediately, I can see it uploading the data to the printer, but it transfers at less than 50kb/s. It ends up taking 30-40 seconds just to print one page, then another 30-40 for the next page to come out.

The printers are a Dell Laser 3115cn, and a HP Laser 2605dn. Problem is on both printers. Both are connected directly to our network switch with their own assigned IP addresses.

What I've tried:
Disabling firewall / Virus scanners.

Installing different drivers (pcl vs ps)

Installing drivers differently (manual install, use vistas built in drivers, use print companies auto-install .exes)

Changing just about every setting I could tweak in the printer settings. (spool, don't spool, print processor)

Using hardwire vs wireless network

We had this same problem with Windows XP when printing out long .pdf documents. The solution for us was to go into the advanced print options in Adobe Acrobat Reader and uncheck the option to "print as image".

This is a copy paste from Adobe help:

"Print As Image Prints pages as bitmap images. Select this option if normal printing doesn't produce the desired results. This option is available only for PostScript printers." Adobe Help

Once we did that, the Adobe printed with normal speed. I noticed that sometime the print option reverted back to "print as image" either because a co-worker set it, or as a product of an Adobe update. In any case resetting this option has always corrected the problem.

I hope this helps!

Dwight

Thank You, however
This might help ease the pain of printing on the vista machine. But it seems it not the source of the problem.

I took my XP machine and turn "Print As Image" ON. And the XP machine still printed to the network printer blazing fast. Haven't had the chance to check the vista laptop as it is out of the office but I don't think it will completely fix the problem if it even helps at all.