USB-to-parallel cable

Hi all,

to be able to print to my HP Laserjet 5L printer with my new notebook
(that has no parallel port), i bought a USB-to-parallel cable. There
came no drivers with it and i thought for XP/Vista no drivers were
necessary.

But now i am not able to set the correct port for the printer. Un/Re-
installing the USB-Root-Hub and the printer drivers did not help. When
connecting the cable, an unknown USB device is installed.

Has anyone managed to print over a USB to parallel cable?

Thanks in advance,
Dieter

On Sun, 6 Jan 2008 04:01:24 -0800 (PST), Dieter.Molle@gmail.com wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>to be able to print to my HP Laserjet 5L printer with my new notebook
>(that has no parallel port), i bought a USB-to-parallel cable. There
>came no drivers with it and i thought for XP/Vista no drivers were
>necessary.
>
>But now i am not able to set the correct port for the printer. Un/Re-
>installing the USB-Root-Hub and the printer drivers did not help. When
>connecting the cable, an unknown USB device is installed.
>
>Has anyone managed to print over a USB to parallel cable?
>
>Thanks in advance,
> Dieter
YES drivers are still necessary, especially for printers that are not
common enough for MS to include them in the OS. Sounds like your is
not "in there" and you will need to go to HP and download the drivers.
My buddy has the same cable you do and his new printer prints fine, so
it is not the cable.

You may need a driver for the chip system inside the USB to Parallel
cable -- can you see the cable in Device Manager? Check all the
different devices and networks.

Did you get any software disk with the cable? Any instructions?

What make and model is it?

>
> to be able to print to my HP Laserjet 5L printer with my new notebook
> (that has no parallel port), i bought a USB-to-parallel cable. There
> came no drivers with it and i thought for XP/Vista no drivers were
> necessary.

The converter would report itself as a Virtual USB Port.

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[cosmvis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dieter.Molle@gmail.com

Hi all,

to be able to print to my HP Laserjet 5L printer with my new notebook
(that has no parallel port), i bought a USB-to-parallel cable. There
came no drivers with it and i thought for XP/Vista no drivers were
necessary.

But now i am not able to set the correct port for the printer. Un/Re-
installing the USB-Root-Hub and the printer drivers did not help. When
connecting the cable, an unknown USB device is installed.

Has anyone managed to print over a USB to parallel cable?

Thanks in advance,
Dieter

I had the same problem (use an HP LJ5L with Vista), and solved it by:
1- disconnect all printers, reboot, then add back the LJ5L on its USB cable.
2- look in Control Panel, Printers to see if it shows up. If not, unplug and replug in different USB port; make sure printer is ON; try a USB-to-36-pin Centronics/IEEE1284 cable instead of 25-pin Parallel plug.
3- when you get the printer to show up in the Printer list in Control Panel, try sending it a plain text page from Notetab or similar program. If it works, you can try more complex and longer files.
4- if it does not print the simple page, do this:
open Control Panel/Printers and rightclick on the printer and select Properties. In the Ports tab, try unselecting the bidirectional and pooling. In the Advanced tab, select Print directly to the printer. Under Device Settings tab, make sure the amount of memory is correct for your printer (do a printer self-test to see the amount).
5- Making the above changes one at a time, and testing between changes, may show you which is the crucial item.
Once you get it running by itself, try adding back any other printers one at a time, to make sure it continues to work.

[shirley]

I am excited to hear that you solved the problem.

I am using an IOGEAR Model GUC1284B USB-to-Parallel Printer Cable trying to get my Windows Vista Acer Notebook PC to print to our HP LaserJet 5L printer. I followed the instructions and the driver installed correctly, but it would not print the test page. I called the IOGEAR support people and a tech worked with me. He had me perform all the steps you described in your e-mail, but in the end the printer still did not print. The tech finally concluded that this IOGEAR cable is not supported by or compatible with an HP LaserJet 5L.

Would you be so kind as to tell me what brand and model USB-to-Parallel Printer Cable you are using? Or do you have any thoughts that I may not know about?

[cosmvis]

My cable was a $10 item from Emtc - USB to Parallel Adapter Cables

It came with a CD of drivers, but not for Vista. I think if you use Vista, you are better off not installing old WinXP/98 drivers. Let Vista try to work it out.

I also found it necessary sometimes to select a different printer as the default in Control Panel/Printers and then select the LJ5LXtra again. You don't actually have to print a page to the other printer. (I do have a second printer on tap that was designed for USB and always works. Don't know if that matters or not.)

Another "trick" that works for me is to unplug the USB cable and plug it in again, in the same socket. If you hear the Windows "connect/disconnect hardware" signal, you know at least some of the machine is recognizing the printer. If you don't hear it, you need to play around with settings until you can hear it being plugged in.

Finally, I find that I periodically have to go thru the whole rigamarole again, because the computer and printer have ceased to communicate again. It's a hassle I'd like to end, but until Vista or HP does a better job of re-writing the driver for the LJ5L/5LXtra, we'll just have to live with it. Or buy new printers.

Good luck!

[cosmvis]

Sorry I omitted that the cable is the USB to IEEE1284 model, not the 25-pin model. It connects directly to the printer's 36-pin Centronics connector, not to an intermediary cable.