USB to Parallel connection problem to HP LJ 5

[WesleyVista]

I have an older Laserjet 5 black and white printer that only has parallel or serial ports on the back. I wish to connect it to a new Dell 420 Vista 64 machine that only has USB ports. I purchased a Sarbrent SBT-UPPC USB to IEEE 1284 parallel printer cable. It came with drivers that do not apply to Vista, or so it says.

I attached the new cable to the printer and computer and powered up the printer. Computer says the drivers were installed properly. I installed the printer via control panel and it says the printer installed successfully. However, neither the test print page nor a word document will print to the printer.

I have restarted the computer (hard boot) and done a cold reset of the printer, but still nothing. The document(s) show up in the printer dialogue, but there is no acknowledgment by the printer (such as getting out of standby mode) from any action.

There is a second USB printer attached to the Canon Pixma iP8500 and it works fine. I tried switching it off when trying to print to the HP LJ 5 but no luck.

Thanks for any help!