Windows 7 Connect Parallel Printer to laptop USB - Anyone successful?

[wideranging]

I want to connect my Deskjet 722C parallel port printer to my new Windows 7 laptop USB port.    Has anyone successfully connected an old HP parallel port printer to a Windows 7 computer.  If so, what cable did you use and what did you have to do to make it work?  The other posts don't seem to be for Windows 7 and also seem to indicate problems in general.  Apparently it is not as simple as connecting a cable.

[Picardje]

Hello wideranging,

You are very brave in trying this.

First of all i am not sure if there is a driver in windows 7 for that unit. And second, my experiance with these parallel to usb convertor cables is not really good. (actually hopeless). Best bet from my opinion is getting a parallel pci card, if you have a slot available in your pc. But no promises if you can get it to work.

[Bob_Headrick · Accepted solution]

There are two possible issues here.  First, if you are using the 64 bit version of Windows 7 you will need to apply the patch here.  There is a bug in the supplied driver that causes the spooler to crash in x64 versions of Vista or Windows 7, the patch corrects that issue.

Second, as mentioned above the USB-parallel converter cables can be problematic.  Make sure the model you have is supported in Windows 7.  The links here have posts where folks have models of converters successfully used with Windows 7.

[wideranging]

I took theroom's advice and bought  the GWC AP1305-BG USB to Parallel Cable (Bi-Directional) - OEM from Newegg.  I plugged it in and Windows 7 installed the driver.  I then applied the patch that Bob Headrick pointed me to.   So far it's printing fine.  I have a Deskjet 722C and I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.  The printer shows up as Deskjet 720C but that doesn't seem to matter.  By the way, the specs on the cable don't mention Windows 7 but a number of the reviews for the cable on Newegg report also report success with Windows 7.

Many thanks Bob for all your assistance and for tagging the relevant posts which led me to a specific cable to buy.

[pkmusicman]

Bob:

I found one of your other posts helpful in solving a network printer problem after purchasing a new Dell with Windows 7.  We have an HP450C that was formerly the local printer on an XP computer and I am currently trying to run it as a local printer on my new Dell.  Your other post enabled me to print on it over the network by showing me how to get a driver, but I am not having any luck connecting directly to the plotter.  I purchased a USB to RS232 adaptor hoping to accomplish this, but Windows 7 does not recognize the printer.  It shows up as an "Unspecified Device" under Printers and Devices with the notation "USB 2.0 to COM Device".  I have found that simply plugging in the cable yields this message regardless of connection to or powering up of the plotter.  There is also an alert symbol on the device icon which is there because of the absence of a driver.  In following that trail, I have not found the way to bind the driver (to which you led me that worked for the network setup) to the device.  I do see that the device is labelled "Port_#0002 Hub_#0003" and am wondering if I need to set up a port some how.  I have tried to set up a port, but ran into a road block there as well because the driver did not have a digital signature.

You seem like the person that would have the answer for this.  Can you offer any suggestions?

Thanks,

Paul Kennedy

[Bob_Headrick]

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@pkmusicman wrote:

Bob:

I found one of your other posts helpful in solving a network printer problem after purchasing a new Dell with Windows 7.  We have an HP450C that was formerly the local printer on an XP computer and I am currently trying to run it as a local printer on my new Dell.  Your other post enabled me to print on it over the network by showing me how to get a driver, but I am not having any luck connecting directly to the plotter.  I purchased a USB to RS232 adaptor hoping to accomplish this, but Windows 7 does not recognize the printer.  It shows up as an "Unspecified Device" under Printers and Devices with the notation "USB 2.0 to COM Device".  I have found that simply plugging in the cable yields this message regardless of connection to or powering up of the plotter.  There is also an alert symbol on the device icon which is there because of the absence of a driver.  In following that trail, I have not found the way to bind the driver (to which you led me that worked for the network setup) to the device.  I do see that the device is labelled "Port_#0002 Hub_#0003" and am wondering if I need to set up a port some how.  I have tried to set up a port, but ran into a road block there as well because the driver did not have a digital signature.

You seem like the person that would have the answer for this.  Can you offer any suggestions?

Thanks,

Paul Kennedy

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The Designjet 450c does have a serial connection capability, but you are likely to have much better chances of success with a parallel connection.  There are just too many variations in serial connections, not to mention the baud rate and other things that need to be set correctly.  Further, not many folks these days are using usb-serial connections for printers in Windows.  As a result there are less cases to find of success....

I would suggest using a USB-parallel converter.  The links here have posts where folks have models of converters successfully used with Windows 7.

For the Designjet you may have better results posting in the HP Designjet forum here.

[caitlin-lhommed]

many thanks for the patch and the advice, but I still cannot print.  have beat my head agains tthe wall all afternoon on this.  set up is: 64 bit Windows 7 to USB-parallel adapter to parallel printer cable to HP DeskJet 722c.  maybe i need a driver for the USB-parallel adapter?  but i don't know the make or model of the adapter...

[caitlin-lhommed]

update: can now print any color you want as long as it's black or pink.  i think that the problem was that somewhere (sorry, don't know where) the port was set as LPT1, and not as USB0001.  changed that, and now will print black and white fine, color all comes out as shades of pink.  also, don't know if this is a related problem, but I cannot align the cartridge.  trying to do so shuts down IE.  any tips would be appreciated.

[Bob_Headrick]

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@caitlin-lhommed wrote:

update: can now print any color you want as long as it's black or pink.  [snip]

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This issue is caused by a very old color cartridge.  Check the end of warranty date as shown here.  The cartridges do not have an expiration, but cartridges that are very old (years beyond the warranty date) may be missing yellow and/or cyan. Replacing the #23 cartridge with a fresh HP cartridge should resolve your issue.

[caitlin-lhommed]

many many thanks.  i came to the same conclusion.  the patch is wonderful, although i had a few trials getting the whole arrangement to work, it seems to work reliably now.  will probably print some pink valentines before i toss this cartridge.