USB to Parallel Printer Cable

I thought that our old parallel port label printer was going to have to go to the electronic scrapheap in the sky when we upgraded our computers for Windows 10. However, this simple cable extended it's lease of life for a bit longer. The cable works perfectly and Windows recognises the printer fine. The only caveat is that you must follow a specific order for setting it up or it won't detect the printer. You must plug the cable into the USB slot on your computer first and allow Windows to install the driver for the adaptor. Then, when that is complete, you can plug it into your printer. Follow these steps and all should be fine.

I have been trying to get my venerable HP Deskjet720C working with a new Win7 64 bit PC. This is the second USB-Parallel converter I have tried, and the first to work. Initial impressions were not good. Firstly it was branded the same as the first, USB/D-Type, converter that I tried that didn't work. So I plugged this USB/Centronics converter into my USB hub (the lead isn't very long and the hub buys me another 50cm) with little hope. Windows didn't recognise it. Then I plugged it into a USB socket on the PC, and the driver installed without trouble. Back to the socket on the hub and this time Windows was happy. The printer was listed correctly, but that may have been from the attempt with the first converter. I tried to print, and nothing happened. Seeing I now had two USB virtual printer ports, I tried both. No joy. I thought maybe the attempt with the previous converter was interfering in some way, so after a bit of unsuccessful tinkering in the registry to remove the two virtual printer ports, with the converter unplugged I tried deleting the printer and then deleting USB Printing Support in Device Manager. Then I plugged the converter back in again, and Windows discovered both converter and printer. This time the printer printed both test page and a random PDF. Hooray!So it required a bit of groping around in the dark, but I got there in the end. I would have given it a five star rating but I'm dropping it to four stars because the lead is rather short. I suspect my problems arose from the previous converter. Apart from that, it's a neat solution, and very cheap.One other thing. HP's 64 bit driver for this printer doesn't work and you do need to patch it (I had already done this before trying out the first converter) - see:[...]

Purchased this from OBOZZO Ltd on Amazon. They dispatched immediately on Friday 15/06/2012 by 1st class Royal Mail.However their excellent fast dispatch was undone by Royal Mail as they did not deliver until Wednesday 20/06/2012!I bought this printer cable to connect my old Hewlett Packard Deskjet 1120c to my Packard Bell EasyNote TJ65 Windows 7 laptop.Attempt 1I followed some of the reviewers advice and connected the USB end to my laptop first without it being connected to the printer.Laptop detected cable and said ready to use. It then tries to find the printer, so I connected it to my printer and switched the printer on. It did not find it.Attempt 2I connected the cable to the printer (the printer was switched on) and then connected the cable to the laptop. It still did not detect my printer.Attempt 3I connected the cable to the printer but with the printer switched off, then connected the cable to the laptop. Then I switched the printer on. It still did not detect my printer.Attempt 4I switched my laptop off and turned it back on. With the cable already connected to the printer (printer on)I plugged the USB end into a different USB port (my laptop has 4 ports). The laptop detected the cable as it did with my first attempt, but this time it detected my HP printer and automatically downloaded the driver for it.Success! I made it my default printer and I then tried printing a raw image taken from my compact camera.It looked like it was going to work but then a printer error message came up.I tried another photo and the same message came up. Disappointed I tried a different picture that had a much smaller file size (the other raw image files said 16mb) and amazingly it printed out.Consequently I am very pleased with my purchase and now have my old printer useable on my laptop.I don't know much about computers, but maybe my printer or this cable could not cope with big photo files? So I would suggest try printing out smaller files first before dismissing this cable.You can always make a COPY of a large camera picture by saving a copy as a lower quality jpeg file and try printing that (t worked for me).Hopefully this information may be of value to those that thought their cables did not work?

It arrived on time and it works.I am using it to connect a laptop running Vista to a HP LaserJet 6L. It works OK, but you have to make sure the printer is awake before trying to print on it. The 6L puts itself to sleep if not used used for a period of time. If it is in this state then sending it a print job does not work. I believe this is probably due to Vista.Also the USB connector is live. If the laptop is booted without the mains connected, it appears to think that the printer is an unauthorised power supply and gives several rather alarming warning messages. So, boot the laptop first, power up the printer and then connect it. Print before the printer puts itself to sleep.One problem with the cable is that it is only 1 metre long. 2 (or 3) metres would have been a lot more helpful.