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

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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;606126 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
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.


--
cosmvis
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

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?


--
shirley
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

My cable was a $10 item from 'Emtc - USB to Parallel Adapter Cables'
(http://tinyurl.com/6zy7kz)

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
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com