parallel to USB adapter question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike Hollywood
  • Start date Start date
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Mike Hollywood

I have an old parallel printer, and a new laptop, without a parallel port,
that I want to use together.

The laptop is running XP home SP2.

Can anybody tell me if these cables really work?

Googeling around I found them from $10 to $70, and flavors for Macs and
PC's. "you can usually download drivers from the manufactures' website"
loomed up, and "it gets its power from the USB bus" has me a little
concerned because I have a cheap laptop without a lot of juice. Does XP
need special drivers for the cables? And will a compaq V2311US laptop have
enough power to run it?

Thanks for any ideas on this,

Mike
 
They do work, and all XP needs is the original printer drivers. I'm a bit
dubious about the powers the printer from the USB port tho. It probabley
means the cable gets its power from the usb port, and you'd still have to
plug you printer into the power as normal. If this is the case everything
would be ok.
Rob
www.Totally-Hardware.co.uk
 
Mike said:
I have an old parallel printer, and a new laptop, without a parallel port,
that I want to use together.

The laptop is running XP home SP2.

Can anybody tell me if these cables really work?
Click to expand...

Sure. There's a little controller chip in there that handles things; it
isn't just 'wires'.
Googeling around I found them from $10 to $70, and flavors for Macs and
PC's. "you can usually download drivers from the manufactures' website"
loomed up, and "it gets its power from the USB bus" has me a little
concerned because I have a cheap laptop without a lot of juice. Does XP
need special drivers for the cables?
Click to expand...

Probably. No big deal and if you're worried whether the drivers are 'there'
on the web site then try downloading them before you buy.
And will a compaq V2311US laptop have
enough power to run it?
Click to expand...

They take such little power I doubt there'd be a problem.
 
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