Extremely slow printing on a photosmart c4480 connected with a macbook

Question

My printer is suddenly printing really slow. Once I press print  ( one simple a4 document) it pulls the paper  in, it prints a little bit it stops for a minute or 2 then prints another small bit, then stops and restarts after a while and so on. takes ages to print on a4 simple page but in the end it prints the page. Same problem when I photocopy.
Strangely enough it printed in perfect speed the test page when I held cancel and start copy simultaneously.
I 've done all the normal  troubbleshoot  stuff taking off the powercord do a semi reset  from the front panel,even removing the software and reinstalling it, but the problem persists.
Does anyone have any ideas? Could this be a mechanical problem that needs a technicial and therefore money so more expensive than buying a new one? I only bought this printer a year and a half ago.
I would really appreciate any help.

Answer 1

There may be a driver setting that is causing the slow speed. I have seen settings like 'Print after RIP', which means the first page doesn't start printing until the entire print (spool) file is received.
I would also check that you are not printing at a very high resolution, like 1200dpi. This would increase the amount of processing required by the printer.
If you are printing from Acrobat, open the print dialog and click the Advanced tab. Ensure 'Print As Image' is not checked.
Could you also explain how your Mac is connecting the printer. Is it via IP, AppleTalk or some other connection?
PaHu