parallel - USB

[Dave]

I have a customer's laptop (running xp pro) with a non-
functional parallel port, i want to use a usb - parallel
cable to print on my printer problems are

A) USB device is picked up when i plug it in. and USB
printer support enabled and working in the device manager.
Printer itself isnt picked up by plug and play etc but if
i set it up manually i can get the drivers installed and
the printer set up.

B) (MAJOR PART) Once i have manually installed the printer
all i get on a test page or a doc is gibberish.

Yes the drivers are the right ones for the printer

The product drivers that came with the usb - parallel
cable are only for 98/me. XP wont recognise them. I am
assuming this means that support has scince been built
into windows for these sorts of products.

I have tried multiple ports lpt1,2,3 USB virtual port 1&2
result is the same

I have tried printing from a win2k pro box
on the same cable same problem.

The printer works fine with a parallel - parallel
connection into the win2k box.

The usb port(laptop) prints fine with a usb - usb
connection into another printer.

have i missed something or should i just give up and sell
the guy 2 usb printers ???? (different worksites)

 

[Alan Morris\(MSFT\)]

When the USB Print subsystem is loaded it is for the Centronics Port at the
end of the cable (there are electronics in the connector that are powered by
the USB bus. Once usbprint.sys and usbmon.dll get loaded, they call PnP to
enumerate the device at the end of the Centronic connector. It sounds like
the cable will not work with this device or there is some software
requirement that is needed for this piece of hardware. The best luck I have
had with these type of cables is the Belkin F5U002 series. There are also
some printers that will not work with these cables. Canon has some info on
their website regarding the printers they do not support in this
configuration.

The port you need to use is the USB001, USB002 port that is created by PnP.

--
Alan Morris
Microsoft Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.