I bought this cable so that my 7-year old HP LaserJet 1100A printer would work with my new HP computer with Vista...even HP told me that there was nothing that would make the printer work! It DOES work and no need to override the printer driver already in the new Vista software! Cables To Go 16899 USB To DB25 IEEE-1284 Parallel Printer Adapter Cable, 6 Feet
My PC recently died and I replaced it with a new iMac with Mac OSX 10.5. I love my LaserJet 4 since it is so reliable and cheap to operate, and didn't want to rely exclusively on my inkjet printer. I decided to give this cable a try since it had good reviews. I took a risk using it on a Mac since it didn't state that it supported Macs, but it ended up working perfectly.
Installation was a breeze. Note that this cable does not plug directly into the printer, but plugs into the computer end of the existing parallel cable. I'm OK with that since it gave me more length. When I plugged it in, the Mac recognized it as a new printer with a generic driver. All I needed to do was change the driver to the HP LaserJet 4 driver and it worked fine.
I initially tried plugging this into a USB hub, but it only worked for a couple of sheets and then gave me a message that the printer was offline. I then plugged it directly into the Mac and it has worked perfectly since then. I also have another Mac and a PC on the network and they recognize the printer and print fine.
This cable is an ADAPTER for your existing printer cable. It will not plug into a centronics port. However, when combined with my existing printer cable, it worked great! I didn't even have to take any extra steps to add my HP Laserjet 6 printer to Windows XP.
I have an HP Laserjet 4L which is about 14 years old and I really did not want to part with it so I bought this parallel printer cable. I have four laptops, three with Windows XP and one with Vista Business. Like a good customer I followed the instructions that came with the cable but I could NOT get anything to print. I did a little research on the web and found the solution:
1. Do not install any printers or drivers or anything. Windows already has the drivers for HP printers.
2. Make sure your computer is turned OFF.
3. Plug the cable into the printer (printer is ON).
4. Plug the USB end of the cable into your computer.
5. Turn the computer on and the computer will do everything for you.
Verify that your printer is installed and print a test page. Set the printer as the default printer if needed. It was that EASY. This worked on each of my laptops. I'm really happy with this product - it was inexpensive, the print quality is excellent, and the print jobs even come out a bit faster!
The best advice I can give someone is to do just what you are right now: read online reviews! Lots of them. Go to the online sellers that have reviews (amazon, buy, new egg). You will eventually have to realize that the well-known name brands are more likely to work, but failures seem to be totally random and unpredictable. So be prepared to return it for a refund. I really think the manufacturers must be aware of the problems and they are choosing not to warn us.
I tried this adapter on four different printers and it only worked on one, which was, luckily, the one I really NEEDED it to work on. I also bought a cheap, no-name adapter off eBay which would not work at all and had to be returned.
I have a PowerMac running Tiger (OS X 10.4) and a Apple Laserwriter. Initially, print jobs would print, but only the first one after powering on the printer; subsequent jobs would fail. This was unacceptable. It turned out, however, that I needed to reinstall and update the OS on my MAC, and after that, printing was just fine with this adapter. There is a freeware print buffer enhancer called 'usbtb' which supposedly assists in this situation; I tried this and it prevented me from printing altogether!
I have a friend who has an iMAC running Leopard (OS X 10.5) and he has 3 HP printers. He and I were hopeful that this adapter would work for him and we decided to test it before he bought one. The Laserjet 2100 would just print blank pages. The old LaserJet 2P+ would not do anything. The LaserJet 4L would occasionally print something, but most jobs would not print and we could not really find any rhyme or reason behind this. So my experience is 25%, but even that is seeing it optimistically.
What's wrong with these things? All I can figure is that printer drivers/firmware at each end of the cable are not all that robust and have some tight communication timings such that an adapter like this will introduce slight time delays that can throw things off.
I purchased a new Dell computer with Vista and was surprised to see that it didn't have the 25 pin printer port as all my previous computers had. I have an HP Laserjet 1100 and didn't want to have to throw it out given it works perfectly fine. This adapter cable was easy to install and Vista had no problems identifying it. The adapter comes with instructions which you must follow to properly install the cable and attach the printer. Worth the money!!! - Cable - Printer - Parallel - Usb'
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