Parallel printers in Windows 8?

[JR]

Hia folks


I have 2 users that have old printers (1 HP, 1 Epson) conected via
parallel cable (yeah, THAT old...)

They installed Windows 8 recently. Since then, no matter what, I
simply can't get them to print.

In one (HP) Windows recognizes and installs the printer, but then
nothing gets printed. I hit "print" on any software (including the
"print test page"), I see the job entering and leaving the printer
window, but nothing happens; the job simply vanishes.

I've tried severall versions of the drivers, manually installing them,
etc. No luck.

In the other (Epson) Windows will not recognize the new hardware but,
despite manually installing the printer, nothing works, no job gets
printed...

Been doing some searches, and I see a lot of people complaining of
parallel printer vs W8 problems. Has anyone had such problems, and how
did you solve them (if at all)?



note: I'm not too worried, tbh. Going to use this as an excuse to dump
that old junk. One of the printers is 9 years old...
---//---

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
--------------------------
Comparisons of sizes: W40k vs other models
http://www.pbase.com/hammerbolt/compare

[Gene E. Bloch[_2_]]

On Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:40:52 +0000, JR wrote:

> Hia folks
>
> I have 2 users that have old printers (1 HP, 1 Epson) conected via
> parallel cable (yeah, THAT old...)
>
> They installed Windows 8 recently. Since then, no matter what, I
> simply can't get them to print.
>
> In one (HP) Windows recognizes and installs the printer, but then
> nothing gets printed. I hit "print" on any software (including the
> "print test page"), I see the job entering and leaving the printer
> window, but nothing happens; the job simply vanishes.
>
> I've tried severall versions of the drivers, manually installing them,
> etc. No luck.
>
> In the other (Epson) Windows will not recognize the new hardware but,
> despite manually installing the printer, nothing works, no job gets
> printed...
>
> Been doing some searches, and I see a lot of people complaining of
> parallel printer vs W8 problems. Has anyone had such problems, and how
> did you solve them (if at all)?
>
> note: I'm not too worried, tbh. Going to use this as an excuse to dump
> that old junk. One of the printers is 9 years old...
> ---//---
>
> "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
> --------------------------
> Comparisons of sizes: W40k vs other models
> http://www.pbase.com/hammerbolt/compare

That last paragraph (I mean the real one, not the one due to your
mangled signature delimiter) is probably all you can hope for.

OTOH, people have talked about the availability of some generic drivers
that may rescue your parallel printers. I have no specifics, since so
far I haven't had the problem.

Oops: I just recalled: I don't think I've tried to set up my printer on
the W8 box yet. Maybe I have to laugh at myself for that overconfidence
above :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

[GlowingBlueMist[_5_]]

On 1/14/2013 12:45 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:40:52 +0000, JR wrote:
>
>> Hia folks
>>
>> I have 2 users that have old printers (1 HP, 1 Epson) conected via
>> parallel cable (yeah, THAT old...)
>>
>> They installed Windows 8 recently. Since then, no matter what, I
>> simply can't get them to print.
>>
>> In one (HP) Windows recognizes and installs the printer, but then
>> nothing gets printed. I hit "print" on any software (including the
>> "print test page"), I see the job entering and leaving the printer
>> window, but nothing happens; the job simply vanishes.
>>
>> I've tried severall versions of the drivers, manually installing them,
>> etc. No luck.
>>
>> In the other (Epson) Windows will not recognize the new hardware but,
>> despite manually installing the printer, nothing works, no job gets
>> printed...
>>
>> Been doing some searches, and I see a lot of people complaining of
>> parallel printer vs W8 problems. Has anyone had such problems, and how
>> did you solve them (if at all)?
>>
>> note: I'm not too worried, tbh. Going to use this as an excuse to dump
>> that old junk. One of the printers is 9 years old...
>> ---//---
>>
>> "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
>> --------------------------
>> Comparisons of sizes: W40k vs other models
>> http://www.pbase.com/hammerbolt/compare
>
> That last paragraph (I mean the real one, not the one due to your
> mangled signature delimiter) is probably all you can hope for.
>
> OTOH, people have talked about the availability of some generic drivers
> that may rescue your parallel printers. I have no specifics, since so
> far I haven't had the problem.
>
> Oops: I just recalled: I don't think I've tried to set up my printer on
> the W8 box yet. Maybe I have to laugh at myself for that overconfidence
> above :-)
>

This thread makes me wonder if W8 will still be able to properly print
to parallel printers attached to one of those little
Ethernet-to-parallel adapters.

So far the sites I visit that have the adapters have not upgraded to W8...

[Gene E. Bloch[_2_]]

On Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:06:48 -0600, GlowingBlueMist wrote:

> On 1/14/2013 12:45 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
>> On Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:40:52 +0000, JR wrote:
>>
>>> Hia folks
>>>
>>> I have 2 users that have old printers (1 HP, 1 Epson) conected via
>>> parallel cable (yeah, THAT old...)
>>>
>>> They installed Windows 8 recently. Since then, no matter what, I
>>> simply can't get them to print.
>>>
>>> In one (HP) Windows recognizes and installs the printer, but then
>>> nothing gets printed. I hit "print" on any software (including the
>>> "print test page"), I see the job entering and leaving the printer
>>> window, but nothing happens; the job simply vanishes.
>>>
>>> I've tried severall versions of the drivers, manually installing them,
>>> etc. No luck.
>>>
>>> In the other (Epson) Windows will not recognize the new hardware but,
>>> despite manually installing the printer, nothing works, no job gets
>>> printed...
>>>
>>> Been doing some searches, and I see a lot of people complaining of
>>> parallel printer vs W8 problems. Has anyone had such problems, and how
>>> did you solve them (if at all)?
>>>
>>> note: I'm not too worried, tbh. Going to use this as an excuse to dump
>>> that old junk. One of the printers is 9 years old...
>>> ---//---
>>>
>>> "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
>>> --------------------------
>>> Comparisons of sizes: W40k vs other models
>>> http://www.pbase.com/hammerbolt/compare
>>
>> That last paragraph (I mean the real one, not the one due to your
>> mangled signature delimiter) is probably all you can hope for.
>>
>> OTOH, people have talked about the availability of some generic drivers
>> that may rescue your parallel printers. I have no specifics, since so
>> far I haven't had the problem.
>>
>> Oops: I just recalled: I don't think I've tried to set up my printer on
>> the W8 box yet. Maybe I have to laugh at myself for that overconfidence
>> above :-)
>>
>
> This thread makes me wonder if W8 will still be able to properly print
> to parallel printers attached to one of those little
> Ethernet-to-parallel adapters.
>
> So far the sites I visit that have the adapters have not upgraded to W8...

I'd be pessimistic, but that's just me :-)

I've noticed that in amateur radio and in astronomy, a lot of devices
still use RS-232 connections. And of course, anyone with a recent
computer who obtains such a device needs an RS-232 dongle, since recent
computers lack that port as well as a parallel port.

USB is starting to appear at last, but not as soon or as much as I would
expect. And sometimes I get the feeling that many of those devices use
an RS-232 chip connected to a USB converter chip internally...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

[John Aldred]

On Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:40:52 +0000, JR wrote:

> Hia folks
>
>
> I have 2 users that have old printers (1 HP, 1 Epson) conected via
> parallel cable (yeah, THAT old...)
>
> They installed Windows 8 recently. Since then, no matter what, I simply
> can't get them to print.
>
> In one (HP) Windows recognizes and installs the printer, but then
> nothing gets printed. I hit "print" on any software (including the
> "print test page"), I see the job entering and leaving the printer
> window, but nothing happens; the job simply vanishes.
>
> I've tried severall versions of the drivers, manually installing them,
> etc. No luck.
>
> In the other (Epson) Windows will not recognize the new hardware but,
> despite manually installing the printer, nothing works, no job gets
> printed...
>
> Been doing some searches, and I see a lot of people complaining of
> parallel printer vs W8 problems. Has anyone had such problems, and how
> did you solve them (if at all)?
>
>
>
> note: I'm not too worried, tbh. Going to use this as an excuse to dump
> that old junk. One of the printers is 9 years old...

I use a 15 year old HP Laserjet 4P parallel port printer in conjunction
with Windows 8. I have it connected to a modern PC using a PCI parallel
port card. The only thing that tripped me up at first was that the
default setting on Windows was LPT1 for the port, whereas the PCI card
was set to be LPT3.

--
John

[Todd[_5_]]

On 01/14/2013 06:40 AM, JR wrote:
> Hia folks
>
>
> I have 2 users that have old printers (1 HP, 1 Epson) conected via
> parallel cable (yeah, THAT old...)
>
> They installed Windows 8 recently. Since then, no matter what, I
> simply can't get them to print.
>
> In one (HP) Windows recognizes and installs the printer, but then
> nothing gets printed. I hit "print" on any software (including the
> "print test page"), I see the job entering and leaving the printer
> window, but nothing happens; the job simply vanishes.
>
> I've tried severall versions of the drivers, manually installing them,
> etc. No luck.
>
> In the other (Epson) Windows will not recognize the new hardware but,
> despite manually installing the printer, nothing works, no job gets
> printed...
>
> Been doing some searches, and I see a lot of people complaining of
> parallel printer vs W8 problems. Has anyone had such problems, and how
> did you solve them (if at all)?
>
>
>
> note: I'm not too worried, tbh. Going to use this as an excuse to dump
> that old junk. One of the printers is 9 years old...
> ---//---


Hi JR,

I have a lot of customers with high end printers that still
use parallel ports. (I find parallel port printers to
be fairly trouble free. The USB ones are getting better
thought, as long as you turn off Legacy USB support in
BIOS.)

If you come up with a solution to your problem, please
report back!

-T