Slow Printing to Hp 6540

[tinyueliu]

tech level = kind of beginner-ish

iBook G4
Mac OS X 10.3.9


hi,
i've been having problems with the speed that files spool(?) to my printer. when i first bought the printer (1yr ago) it was all nice and fast, but now it's frustratingly slow.

(the only thing i tried was running an auto maintenance check thing on it - but i think that was all to do with print heads etc. the print quality is fine.)

it is particularly slow when printing pdfs from Adobe Acrobat. it will take about 10 mins to spool a 2 page text only document to the printer. once at the printer, on fast draft, it churns them out fairly quickly.

the other application that is driving me nuts is printing from Word for mac. a simple text document, printing on fast draft will take about 1.5mins/page. it will spool a bit, print a bit (like a paragraph) then spool a bit, then print a bit.

what's worse is if you're printing copies of a single page doc. for each and every copy it will still stop, look like its spooling (like flashy lights and everything) then print a bit, then stop a bit, then print a bit.

i'm working on my dissertation and am constantly needing to print off drafts, and the docs will only get longer. so the print speed is kind of something i need! especially when i start needing to draft up my entire manuscript!

i'd really really appreciate some help! any suggestions?

thanks,
Tin.