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XPS-8500 USB printing support
Hi all,
Apologies if this is a stupid question, but I'm trying to connect an old Centronics parallel laser printer using a Centronics<>USB cable.
The printer is a Brother HL-1240. OS is 64-bit Win7 Home Premium.
Plugging in the cable creates a "USB Printing Support" entry in the device manager (on whatever physical port I plug into), but when I try to add the printer using the wizards, I am presented with a choice of local ports USB000 or USB001 ... neither of which seem to work. I have tried adding new local ports named so as to match the physical port indicated by the device manager - e.g., "USB005" - but so far I've had no luck with this. It seems you can only name a new port - there doesn't seem to be any way to tie it to a physical connector.
Do I actually have to plug into USB port #0 or #1 to connect to these pseudo devices? If so, which ports are they? There are 10 USB ports on the 8500 which are undistinguished except for color indicating v2 or v3.
Looking around on the web, it seems like other people have made this work. Am I doing something wrong or do I have to break down and get a parallel port card?
Thanks,
George
Prateek K
943 Posts
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September 17th, 2012 05:00
Hi George
To begin with, I would recommend you to uninstall the printer drivers. Please follow the below mentioned steps to uninstall printer software:
1) Click the Start button, point to All Programs, point to brother Printers and click on Uninstall Printer icon.
2) When the brother Printer Uninstall confirmation window appears, click yes. This process may take several minutes to complete. Do not attempt to power off the computer at this time.
As you are using windows 7, you can connect your USB printer by following few easy steps mentioned below:
1. Open the Printers folder. Click START -> Devices and Printers
2. Click ADD A PRINTER
3. When the ADD PRINTER WIZARD appears, click on Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer
4. Select your Brother printer from the list and click NEXT
5. When the Install Printer Driver screen appears, click Windows Update. This will take a few minutes to contact the Microsoft server and download the additional drivers.
6. Once the drivers list has been updated, please select your Brother printer from the list and click NEXT.
7. Click NEXT to accept the default name of the printer.
8. You will be asked if you want to print a test page and set the printer as the default printer. Select YES or NO. Click FINISH.
I would also request you to install windows updates. Please follow below instruction to install windows updates.
1. Open Windows Update by clicking the Start button, clicking All Programs, and then clicking Windows Update.
2. In the left pane, click Check for updates, and then wait while Windows looks for the latest updates for your computer.
3. If any updates are found, click Install updates. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
Please let me know for further help.
Thanks & Regards
Prateek K
#iworkfordell
gneuner2
8 Posts
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September 17th, 2012 12:00
Prateek,
Your slides are incorrect ... to get other drivers from Windows Update you have to start from "Add a local printer". Starting from "Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer", you can get only to a manual entry dialog if you don't select something from the list of network printers.
In any case, I can install the printer driver ... what I can't seem to do is connect it to the right physical USB port.
The laser printer is a PARALLEL device with a 36pin female Centronics connector. I have a USB cable which emulates a parallel port and provides a male 36pin Centronics connector. This cable/printer combination worked with an old Dimension 8200 running XP, however I cannot get it to work on a new XPS 8500 running Win7. The cable itself has no additional driver software ... it is self contained.
When I plug in the cable, I see "USB Printing Support" appear in the Win7 device manager. Examining the properties of that entry, I can determine the physical port # to which cable has been connected. But when adding a local printer, or in the *printer* port property page, there are only choices to use USB000, USB001 or to create a new port. Neither predefined choice works and there does not seem to be a way to specify a particular physical port when adding a new logical port ... all the wizard permits is naming it. I already have tried naming new ports, e.g., "USB005" to indicate port #5. This has not worked either.
George