I would like to connect a Canon BJ-10sx to a Windows 8.1 64bit laptop. The printer has a parallel input, for which I have a USB to parallel converter. The converter works fine for another printer which declares its name.
There is no 64bit driver for the Canon, but I have installed a driver for another printer which should work with the Canon. But as the Canon can't send back data to the computer, the computer can't recognise it to match with the substitute driver, the parallel port LPT1: does not appear in Control Panel, and "No printer attached" appears under Universal Serial Bus Controllers when the adapter is plugged in.
I have had mixed success with usb to // converters.
At a school I worked at I bought one and it worked a treat.
So my boss bought 20. But she bought another (cheaper) brand that didn?t.
Many years later a friend ha a LJ III with a // port and upgraded to a laptop with no //.
I tried the printer with a usb to // on my desktop and it worked a treat.
Took it to hers (same flavour of Windows). And it wouldn?t play.
Fortunately we had some HP network ports in the ?never going to use that again? box at work, so I slipped one of them in the printer and put a crossover between it and the laptop.
Hmm..... there is a thought. You could get a second hand parallel print server for next to nothing if eBay I would think and see if that works.
Dunno if this is any help but, disregarding the serial-parallel issue for the moment, I have a printer that is an absolute sod to connect to Win 8.1 but when I slip a Linux live boot disk in the machine, Linux just finds the driver it wants on-line and gets on with it. Worth a try?
USB to printer connector converters are not USB to parallel port converters.
The difference is, the USB Class driver only runs the converter in one mode, suitable for printers. The other three parallel port modes are not accessible through that driver.
I have a "real" parallel port, and it's on a PCI Express card, and I operated a JTAG scanner off it. The driver in that case supports all four modes. There aer PCI versions of cards like that too. What I lack, is a sample of the USB to printer converter (unidirectional driver).
This means that a printer connected to one of those converters, must be happy to be run unidirectionally.
In Windows, there is an additional ceremony, that involves a relatively large download, containing old drivers for a variety of printers. Using that option, you might just find the correct driver for the job.
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"Open Settings. Click on Devices. Click on Printers & scanners.
Click the "Add a printer or scanner" button.
Wait a few moments. Click "The printer that I want isn't listed" option.
Select the "My printer is a little older. Help me find it" option.
Select your printer from the list. Click the Next button.
Type a name for the printer. Click the Next button.
Select the Do not share this printer option. Click the Next button.
Click the "Print a test page"
Click the Finish button. "
I've not tested this, but multiple people have referred to this method in the past, and they tell me "there is a large download when the old printers come in", so perhaps there will be a delay before one of those steps proceeds.
For one old printer, a dot matrix, if you know the name equivalent, some other dot matrix driver functions as a "generic" and can make your crusty dot matrix work. There's really no limit to the ingenuity people put into this stuff.
If you don't put nose to grindstone, there'll be no result.
There are also universal drivers, one created for PostScript, one created more recently for PCL. Which is another way to get older devices working. I've used one of those for a "Print to File" driver, but the results were less than stellar, as the damn driver used "bitmaps" for the prints. And that's a sucky way to do it (only good for printing, no good for document re-purposement).
It's a DIY group - if someone here can't make it work, then by definition it must be impossible.
I've got two of them and they work perfectly, although slow. They are only 4cm high off the table. I was hoping to use one to print out my gps track on tracing paper after a country walk, to give to interested parties to superimpose on their OS map to see where we'd been.
My USB converter is sold as a USB to parallel port converter - I have to plug it into my Centronics cable to feed the printer. I can't find any unidirectional converters online.
However perhaps my converter is only configured as a printer driver, as why else would it display "no printer attached" if the port is for general use? I have a USB to serial converter which shows as a COM: port when plugged in, but my USB to parallel converter doesn't show as an LPT: port.
My laptop has no facility for plug-in cards.
I didn't notice the Windows Update for more printers, so thanks for mentioning it. I've tried it now but my printer isn't on the list. Neither is the AGFA printer that would be accepted by my Canon.
I've just looked at descriptions of print servers. Although I could indeed drive a printer through the network, my laptop would still demand to know that the expected printer is online, and if my printer won't talk then surely the laptop wouldn't either?
I tried a few generic searches, and Google was its usual helpful self.
I tried tracing a hardware example, and I got a bit more traction that way. The Prolific PL2305 is apparently a chip used in these USB cables.
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"When this cable is installed correctly in Windows 10, it will appear as USB printer support in the device manager, not a standard LPT port."
And Windows would use a generic "USB Class" driver. I've been trying to figure out what the class number is for that, without success.
Now, I'll grab a manual for theirs. It uses a Prolific PL2305.
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Using the chip number, this manual has a few pictures of what Device Manager should show. This is a bit more useful to your situation. There's still a gap though, as to whether Device Manager knew right away (from a PNP perspective), what was on the cable.
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USB Root Hub USB Printing Support EPSON LQ-300+ /II ESC/P 2
When the EPSON driver is installed, there is an "Enable Bidirectional Support" on what they call a Virtual Printer Port, but that won't be exposed for you to tick right away.
I mean, if PNP is to work here, the interface pretty well has to be flipped to Bidirectional by Windows.
And what I've read on this topic in the past, the claim was that the driver "only supported one of four operating modes". I've never seen a more detailed analysis than that, such as someone checking with an oscilloscope, what modes or pulse patterns it might be using. I think the reference to the driver being "only a Printer driver", was to stop people from trying to run their little hardware projects from that cable. Not every hardware feature needed is exposed that way.
I got a printer to work in a similar situation, through chance.
Printer on a network/LPT hub thing, visible in the network. Windows 7 refuses to have anything to do with it, no drivers (HP Laserjet 6P!), can't see the thing, no this will not work, ...
Dug out an old laptop which had drivers for that printer, pointed it at the network/lpt hub, and set the printer to "shared" via the laptop.
Pointed Win7 at the shared printer on the laptop. Win7 mumbles and downloads the previously unavailable drivers and proceeds to Just Work.
Remove laptop, point Win7 directly at the network hub, it continues to Just Work, done.
I did not try to understand why this should work while other methods failed, simply because printers are the work of Stan.
I searched online this morning for a USB to parallel port adaptor that doesn't mention printer, but no luck. I also found some blog reply from 2007 that said there is no such thing as a USB adaptor that shows as a parallel port when plugged in - all adaptors are for printers and show up as USB Printer Support in Device Manager. See
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I came back and saw your posting. Your last link describes exactly what I'm getting. I had also found the Startech cable, but the UK distributor no longer sells it. I notice on your first link there are two reviews. The first says that their HP Laserjet 1100 worked OK. So does my Laserjet 1200! But if your printer isn't in the Windows list then it won't work, like the second review.
Perhaps an interface coud be constructed to look like a parallel port when plugged in. I saw a few interfaces for applications that used the parallel port for things other than printers.
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