USB Virtual Printer Port Problems

[Bill Farina]

Is there any way to force a delete of a printer port? I currently have 3
Virtual Printer Ports for USB and a printer that refuses to work. When I
first hooked it up a few months ago, there were 2 VPPs for USB and the
printer would take 5-10 minutes to print. Now there are three of them and I
might not live long enough to see something print.

I've tried uninstalling the problem printer and reinstalling it.

I've tried uninstalling the printer and rebooting multiple times to see if
the ports go away.

I've tried going in and directly deleting the ports from the properties
section of my printer. I get the message: Selected port cannot be deleted,
request not supported.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling USB support in my device drivers.

The machine is a laptop and has Windows XP Pro SP2. The printer is a Canon
BJC-250. Any help appreciated.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

The Canon BJC-250 is an LPT printer and about 12 years old. How are you
connecting it to your PC? With parallel or with a USB to parallel adapter?

 

[Bill Farina]

Sorry about that... I'm using a USB to Parallel adapter.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

It might be easier for you to invest in something a little newer with USB.

If you're looking for something cheap and cheerful, there is:
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4749749?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

A little better (but slightly more)
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5247897?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Better still:
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5290387?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Unfortunately Parallel to USB adapters are very prone to either failure or
not working altogether and it is probably time the poor old 250 had a good
rest.

 

[Bill Farina]

Thanks for looking those up for me. I didn't know (but I should have
guessed) that Fry's had an online presence and that they sell refurbished
stuff. Last time I was in LA, a group of us lost track of time in a Fry's
store and we all missed a flight. Cool place...

Anyway, since I travel a lot and sometimes get stuck with whatever is laying
around the office that nobody's using, it would be extremely useful to
figure out a way to flush all of the unused port assignments out if my
laptop. If you know of a way or know of a reference that I might research,
it would be greatly appreciated. I'm stumped here.

 

[Sanda B]

Hi, pretty late reply but finally got it working. Win XP using a parallel to USB adapter for Canon BJC 250 : manually added the printer on virtual port USB001 then plugged the printer, set properties to print directly to printer not spooled printing and worked ok.
This may come to you too late though...