New Laptop won't talk to ancient printer

Oh sheesh I should have seen this coming.

New: Dell latitude D520, Windows XP, works fine. Has the usual ports including 9 pin data port, USB ports.

Old: HP LaserJet 2100 printer, great older laser printer, real workhorse, uses 25 pin cable(!); also has an 8 pin serial port inside it.

Problem: dell laptop has no 25 pin port. Printer has no usb port.

Solution: is there one? I don't want to use the infrared ports, the printer is not close enough to the laptop desk. Looking for cable solution, but the 8 pin port is giving me a reality check.

I ask the experts: is there ANY WAY these two machines can be made compatible, with some kind of cable adapter? A half hour of online searching has me pretty sure there's no such thing as an 8 pin to USB cable.

Cheers, Glennski

 

There is a cable that exists, it lets you transfer parallel into a usb.
I know circuit city has it... USB to Parallel.

 

I am in the same boat with a label printer. I suggest buying a cable locally and not online. Though they cost around $30-$45ish locally, I bought one online for a fraction of local but the thing will not work...so bite the bullet and spend an extra $30 locally.

I am still thinking i might just buy a new printer instead...they are only $45 more then the cable. For my needs a newer USB label printer would actually eliminate some problems networking the printer. But then again I like to make stuff work!!

You can also find the cables at the big office supply stores, probably Radio Shaft, call local computer shops and they might even have some in stock, cheaper.

 

how about a parallel to bluetooth adapter?

example only:
http://www.supermediastore.com/bluetake-bt200-bluetooth-printer-adapter.html

cheers ...

 

Thanks folks. The alternative solutions so far are:
1) Get a USB to 25 pin cable adapter and just hook it up. But isn't this doomed to not work given that the USB and the 25 pin send a very different type of signal? (at least that's what I'm led to believe)?

2) Get a USB cable and hook it up to the 8-pin port that's inside the printer. Would that also fail for the same reason? Or is USB known to communicate well with an 8 pin port?

3) One other alternative that seems fruitless, since I've already tried it, is to use the Latitude's 9-pin data port to connect to the 25 pin printer cable. This solution did not work.

4) Bluetoothing was a nice sugg but it will not work due to the configuration of the setup.

so I'm trying to decide which solution, 1 or 2, is most likely the best.

cheers, Monday's almost over
-Glennski

 

this setup works . i've done it!

u meant USB-> serial adapter (9 pins)? i would personally not doing it, parallel > serial in data xfer

:-(

what configuration is it? i use bt on my laptop with my hp640 deskjet (usb arallel adapter), and i can access this printer sitting in a different room, via 2 walls. With this set.up I can even print from my nokia 6680.

cheers ...

 

Well NOW we are getting somewhere! Thanks qhn and everyone else. I will go ahead with a simple USB to 25 pin adapter from TigerDirect. I think I got some faulty advice at the office on this one.

To answer qhn's query, the old HP printer has three ways it accepts data. One is a 25 pin cable. The second is an 8 pin port inside the printer (alignment of 3 pins, 3 pins, 2 pins). The third is the printer has an IR port. The infrared I'll investigate down the line, but the cable seems the quickest way to solve the problem.


Problem solved, thanks to this awesome group! I'll buy the drinks! and Recs for all my friends!!
g'day
Glennski

 

UPDATE: Dear laptop detectives and experts:
Well I purchased a Sabrent USB to DB25F Parallel Cable, to try to print using the new Dell Latitude D520 and an old HP LaserJet 2100 printer. The printer uses a 25 pin cable, and all the Latitude has is USB ports is the recap of this story. Anyway, after following the instructions carefully for about a week, I still cannot get through the troubleshooting necessary to make this work.
The instructions seem to indicate that Windows XP will recognize the hardware once the 25pin parallel cable is plugged in, but XP does not recognize it. It's supposed to be hardware recognized as "USB to Parallel Cable." All I can do is ask y'all the following questions:

- Am I supposed to configure the USB port somehow? The Latitude has 4 ports.
- What is the role of the COM port in this case? does it also need to be configured?
- The Sabrent parallel cable came with a disk with drivers, but I have tried and tried and cannot figure out how to install them.
- Why can't XP recognize/find the cable?
- Why can the printer not be configured?
- What is the difference between USB 1.1 and USB 2.0? could this be the root of the problem; the new cable purchased is apparently 1.1.

It sure seems to be an extraordinary amount of trouble for such a freakin' SIMPLE problem to solve. I know that Dell wants to be modern, and the 25 pin port has gone the way of the horse and buggy, but why does it have to be so excruciatingly difficult to solve such a basic and simple problem is what one wonders at this point.

Anyway, if anyone has any ideas regarding what might be the right way to go about the troubleshooting -- or if you know for a fact that this is a wild goose chase based on your knowledge of technology -- I'd sure appreciate hearing from you.
Thanks & g'day!
Glennski

 

How to install the driver? One possibility: Load the disc and look for the right folder for your operating system and then right click on any .inf files and select install.

Eventually, Device Manager should show you another port and then you can select that port in the printer driver.

It's a bit late but I can suggest another solution. Get a printer server with a parallel port and use the network connection.

John

 

AHA! shortened the cable a bit by removing an unneeded bit of the length. After I did that, when I tried inserting/removing the cable from various USB's, eventually one port "took" and launched New Hardware Installer, from there it found the driver it needed! I then configured the printer so that under properties it showed the port I'd used.

My guess is that the too-long cable reduced the signal of the device, but that's only a guess. Anway, shortening the cable and trying various USB's (there are 4 of them) did the trick.

All's happy now. Thought I'd include the end of this story in case anyone comes here lookin for help on this kind of trouble.
Again my thanks (and reps!) to everyone for their good advice.
Best,Glennski