USB to RS232 cable

K

Keith George

Geek Trainee
I have just purchased a laptop which does not not have a LPT port, so I bought a USB to RS232 cable to be able to print to my old HP Laserjet 4plus printer. The cable plugs into the serial port of the printer and a USB port on the laptop.

I have tried adding a printer and have selected each port in turn, but I can not get the darn thing to print, although I have had an error message on the printer "40 ser I/O setup" when trying to print from com3.

Is there a way of testing the lead or do you know the solution?

TIA
Keith
 
i guess you have to get hold of some drivers (unless XP already has them, if OS is XP) for the USB - RS232 convertor[ot]just guessing, cos i don't know, cos i've never used a USB - RS232 convertor / emulator[/ot]
 
Yes I have the drivers for the converter loaded but there is no instruction on how to use the darn thing.

Any help welcome.

Keith:(
 
The converter does not appear to be in device manager, if its a usb device, should it appear?
I am assuming that this device will allow me to print through the serial port.
Could this be correct?
 
Keith said:
The converter does not appear to be in device manager, if its a usb device, should it appear?
Click to expand...
i think i should be there, if it requires drivers then it should be in device manager
Keith said:
I am assuming that this device will allow me to print through the serial port.
Could this be correct?
Click to expand...
it could be, i haven't used XP for about a year

BTW:
serial
Click to expand...
are you sure it's serial as almost all printers were paralel

this is a serial connector


this is a parallel connector (PC end)
[img=http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6431/paralelfj9.jpg][/img]
[ot]please click the above url as ive tried to correct it but i don't know that't wrong with it[/ot]

this is a parallel conector (printer end)
 
Yea, the laptop has only got usb, the printer (HP laserjet 4 plus) has lpt & serial.

It's getting them to talk that is the problem.
 
Keith said:
Yea, the laptop has only got usb, the printer has lpt & serial.
Click to expand...
strange, printers were usualy parellel, i know it was possible to connect a printer to a serial port, but i've never heard or seen 1 working

Keith said:
It's getting them to talk that is the problem.
Click to expand...
you may be better getting help from someone else[ot]have you tried rebooting (with the adaptor connected) then try printing[/ot]
 
Yes, I have tried rebooting amongst 150 other things, still no go.

Thank you for your help, you have helped me successfully in the past, who knows whats in the future!
 
Keith said:
you have helped me successfully in the past
Click to expand...
i can't remember[ot]have you tried assigning COM2 to be the default port for the printer[/ot]BTW: i think the COM ports are shared COM1 has shared resourses with COM3 & COM2 shares with COM4 (basically you have to choose if you want to use COM1 of COM3 (COM1 was usually for the mouse, & COM2 was usually for a modem, but that was before PS/2 came out)
 
I have tried all combinations of all ports, most ports seem to do nothing or Windows reports that the port is already in use.
 
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