How to use a parallel port printer on a PC without a parallel port?

[rjbull]

Another episode in my ongoing saga of "migrating to Vista" woes.

I have an old but little used Canon BJ-10ex portable ink jet printer.  It only has a parallel port input.  My new Vista laptop doesn't have "legacy ports."  Is there any way to make the printer work with the new computer?  Some way of converting USB to parallel, as it were?

Thanks...

[rgdot]

One possibility
http://www.tigerdire...219598&CatId=471

[mwb1100]

I've seen but never used those USB to Centronics printer cables - I'd guess they work fine as long as you have a Vista driver for the printer.  Sometimes getting a working driver for an old printer can be a problem. Note that this situation was one of the reasons Richard Stallman started the GNU project way back when:

  - http://www.gnu.org/g...u/thegnuproject.html

[Stoic Joker]

I have used one if these Rosewill Single Parallel  (SPP/PS2/EPP/ECP) Universal Low-Profile PCI card Model RC-302 for a client who needed to run a 15 year old unreplaceable (vertical market propriatery) DOS program on a Dell Vostro running Vista Business Edition.

It was one of those really old describe the printer/hardcodded resources type DOS programs.

It's been running flawlessly for about a year sofar.

Note: card configuration utility must be run from a Win98 boot floppy & the documentation royally sucks. but other then that it's a great card.

[MilesAhead]

If you are going to shell out $20 for the cable adapter you might look around for a deal on Epson Stylus C88+ Printer.  It has both Parallel and USB connectors.  The only proviso is the Vista driver is on the machine.  No CD. I have it on my Vista64 machine and it prints from remote Windows7 and XP fine.  As long as you host it on Vista you are good. When you plug the USB cable into the Vista machine it hot loads the driver.

Also you can get rebuilt cartridges on 123injects.com wicked cheap(I'm talking $5 or $6 ea instead of $20.) If you only print occasionally that may be the way to go.  It may be "obsolete" soon but there are so many of that model Stylus in circulation you'll be able to get ink cartridges for the foreseeable future. About the only thing you can't do with it is print on those printable CD/DVD blanks.

edit: btw you can plug it into a Windows Seven or XP machine and it will work.  It just won't serve the drive over the network to a Vista or Windows Seven from XP.  If you're not running a Lan it doesn't matter.

[rjbull]

If you are going to shell out $20 for the cable adapter you might look around for a deal on Epson Stylus C88+ Printer.  It has both Parallel and USB connectors.

-MilesAhead (September 18, 2009, 04:05 PM)

I wondered about that myself, though as I'm in the UK the prices translate into UK pounds plus 

The only proviso is the Vista driver is on the machine.  No CD.

That's part of how they make cheap printers so cheap...

[MilesAhead]

That's part of how they make cheap printers so cheap...

I hear you. It is a nice printer for non-demanding occasional use though. Fine for printing out a photo or a map on plain paper.  I had Stylus C-60 before.  That one had one black cartridge and one color cartridge.  As soon as one color was empty you had to replace the color cartridge.  This one they broke out the colors to all separate cartridges.  As I say though, it works on everything XP or later as long as you are not using a Lan.  The refurb cartridges are the way to go on these Epson Stylus types.  With my C-60 and now this one, out of maybe 50 or 60 cartridges purchased at that site, I think I got maybe 2 dry ones.  For $5 it's just chuck it. Not worth trying to get a credit.  I just chalk it up as the cost of getting the big discount on all the rest.