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MrMcStewey

Laptops & Serial Ports: What, How, and Solutions to Preventing Lockups

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Hello all,

 I recently have fought through my cutter locking up, and have read many posts saying... plug into a serial port. Great.. I have a laptop and dont have that option. Come to find out.. I didn't even have a PCMIA slot. So.. I had questions and did some research, so I am passing my results to you to help those who are in my shoes expedite the issue.

First, many laptops now days do not have a PCMIA slot. They have what is called an express card. There are multiple sizes. 54mm and 34mm are your common sizes. What is important to note is a 34 mm card size will work in a 54 mm slot. A 54mm express card that converts to a serial is hard find and not cost effective. For more details, look here: http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/about.jsp They explain express cards well.

To purchase a card, e-bay has good prices. I also found that Amazon.com had very good prices too. What I did not verify is that if different cards had different speeds. The one I got off Amazon was rated pretty hard. The only downfall I have read about is that you have to log on to get a driver off the web, it doesn't come with a disc. (I can live with that).

Also.. use the cable that comes with the cutter. Long cables will increase chance for lockups.

What I cannot answer is this, the cutters seem to lock up when used with USB ports, especially on laptops. I have the first gen usb ports. It may be less of an issue if you have USB2 or 3. Someone else will have to answer that.

So.. I hope this helps you get back to your larger printing jobs. I am sitting on a clients job waiting for my card to come. I hope this helps some of you.

- MrMcStewey

Impressions By You

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