daviddschool said:
I have a HP 5L laser printer that is my workhorse. Since I have
upgraded my computer, the new mobo doesn't have a parallel port
connection. I went out and bought a PCI card with a parallel port,
but found out the cord was too short for my case and hence I can't use
it. So now I went out and bought a USB to parallel cable.
When I plug in the cable, XP recognizes it. But when I go to print I
either get an error or nothing happens. Any ideas how to fix this?
There is a difference between a motherboard parallel port,
a PCI parallel port, and a USB printer cable.
The motherboard parallel port, likely sits in the I/O space.
Legacy applications back to Adam and Eve, likely work on that
hardware. The SuperI/O chip could be the chip supporting the
interface.
(Example of a SuperI/O chip with a parallel port on it. This is
the chip on my motherboard, and my motherboard has no parallel
port. It means the hardware function still exists, but is not
wired up.)
http://www.nuvoton.com/NR/rdonlyres...2E0-D549FF86663C/0/W83627DHGP_W83627DHGPT.pdf
The PCI card probably supports most of what the SuperI/O chip
provides. Here is a manual for one of those cards, with
examples of things to play with.
http://www.lavalink.com/dev/fileadmin/manuals/parallel_pci_manual.pdf
The USB printer cable is a *printer* cable. Microsoft provides a
protocol stack in the OS, to support that function. The USB printer
cable doesn't support all the operating modes, that the other two
kinds of hardware might have. The problem is the software for
the driver. And I'm not aware of any USB parallel port hardware,
where the manufacturer did write a driver for the job of supporting
all the modes.
There is an example description here, of an installation. It claims
a Windows device driver for the USB printer cable.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16812156012&Pagesize=100
"Pros: Works great with Windows 7 and old HP LaserJet 4, no issues found...
1. Plug in the cable to the PC and let Windows install a device driver
2. Plug in the printer and goto Control Panel/Devices and Printers/Add Printer...
select the HP LaserJet 4 and follow Windows instructions
3. In Devices and Printers, right-click the printer and choose Printer Properties.
On the Ports tab, check the USB002 Virtual Printer Port for USB and click OK.
4. Print a test page to verify operation.
Takes 5 minutes to setup and get working."
Depending on your printer's requirements, it is possible the USB printer
cable isn't going to work. Try the PCI card instead, and see what
you can get from that.
Paul