Customer Reviews

Sabrent SBT-UPPC USB to Parallel 6-Foot Printer Cable

5 star:		(107)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(68)

 

 

I used it to connect an old Canon BJ-200E printer to a new Dell desktop. Win XP did indeed recognize and install the printer as soon as I plugged it in - no additional drivers were necessary - but I still needed to run the "Add Printer" wizard to get it to appear on my printer list. Then I went into the printer properties and switched from the standard printer port to USB. That was it. **Note that the manufacturer specifies WIN 98SE/2000/XP and Mac OS v8.6-9.2.

From the manufacturer, here's the list of printer models supported:

HP Deskjet: 420,500C,520C,670C,692C,695C,710C,750,850C,870C,890C,895,1100C,1120C

HP Laserjet:
III P,4,4PLUS,4P,4L,4V,5P,5L,5M,6P,6L,2000c,2100M,4000,5000

Canon BJC:
30,50,70,80,200,200eX,210,210SP,230,240,250,255sp,4000,4100,4200sp,4300,4650,6000,7000

Epson Stylus:
Color 300,400,440,600,740,800,850; Photo 700,EX

Epson PM:
700C,750C,2000C

Epson EPL:
N1600

Lexmark:
XJ-350,1100

Panasonic:
KX-1121

. . .even if the in-laws didn't want it to happen.

When I bought a new iMac to replace an old Dell, I joined a growing family of computer owners. Our laser and inkjet printers are too young to toss out but our new computers don't have a parallel port for a printer. Parallel and serial ports are disappearing, even on Intel/Windows machines.

The computer biz's solution: Come on, buy a snazzy new USB printer for that snazzy new computer! Apple doesn't even list my HP LaserJet 6L among compatible printers for the iMac. Could they be in cahoots? Hmmm . . .

The LaserJet still prints out a razor-sharp manuscript. With a little maintenance now and then, I can get more value out of it than I would for the price of a new printer. Off I went in search of a solution, but at all the usual brick-n-mortars, a simple USB-to-parallel cable was half a C-note!

Back here on Amazon.com, I found this Sabrent cable. Though most of the reviews extoll its virtues on Windows machines, I figured I could gamble the cost.

I hit the jackpot. With the price of shipping, the cable is less than half the lowest price I found. Even better, the iMac already had (or found on the Internet) a driver for the cable, and then hunted up a public domain driver for the LaserJet that works like a charm.

So, a 21st century computer has found the perfect mate in a printer from the late 1990s. And they lived happily ever after.

I have an HP LaserJet 4L that still works just fine, but my laptop is too new and doesn't have a parallel port. I wasn't sure there would be any easy solution to this problem, so I did my homework before buying this cable and it was still wrong.

The product information's claim that this cable will work with all parallel printers is simply wrong. Although I gather from the other reviews that there are 4Ls this cable does work with, it certainly doesn't work with mine, whose plug is 25-pin-- not exactly an uncommon configuration, since it worked fine on a laptop only slightly older than my current one.

Worse, although the product information doesn't include pictures close enough to confirm that the female parallel end will work, Tiger Direct now won't accept the cable back because it isn't defective-- just wrong, and useless.

It's odd, too, that Tiger Direct would bother being so vague in the product information, because they do sell a cable that would be compatible with my [very common] printer, and to which they could presumably point customers with a similar setup without losing business. Now, though, I won't be purchasing the correct cable from them.

I recently upgraded to a motherboard that didn't come with an on-board parallel port. That was a slight problem since I use an old Apple LaserWriter Select 360 as my printer and still wanted to use it with this new motherboard. I was looking for a parallel-to-usb cable and came across this one and decided to try it out. Installation was a breeze. I plugged it into one of my usb ports and Windows XP Pro SP2 immediately recognized and installed the drivers for me. I then had to change the printer preference so that it would use the "usb port" instead of the usual LPT1 port for parallel port. I am happy to say that I can still use my trusty Apple LaserWriter with my Windows PC.

I was a little apprehensive after reading some of the reviews on this cable. I didn't know the manufacturer, either. However, it functioned just as advertised, straight out of the box. I have an old printer (HP DeskJet 720c) that has a parallel connection on it, and I just bought a new laptop with no parallel ports. I didn't want to bother with a docking station, so I bought this cable. I plugged it in, ran the add printer wizard that popped up in XP as soon as it detected my printer, and have had no problems since. I am thoroughly satisfied.

I recently replaced an aging PC with a new one having no parallel port, so this USB-to-Parallel cable seemed like the ideal solution to keep my similarly ancient HP Laserjet running (those old HP printers just keep going and going).

The Sabrent cable was the cheapest one available from Amazon, and I soon found out why.

After some trial and error (and a trip to the Sabrent website for instructions not included with the product), I got it working under Vista ... for about a day. After turning off or suspending either the PC or the printer, Vista kept continually "reacquiring" the USB connection but failed to complete any spooled print job, often locking up the printer in the process. By removing and reinstalling the printer via the Windows Control Panel, I was able to get it working again in maybe 1 out of 3 attempts - not worth the effort.

I finally gave up and ordered another slightly more expensive alternative from Amazon (Cables to Go) which actually came with grammatically correct English instructions and worked flawlessly out of the box.

This may be an issue with Vista (reviewers here with Windows XP seem more likely to get the Sabrent cable working), but my advice is to spend a bit more and avoid the frustration.

I was stunned to receive the cable the day after I ordered it! I had to check to see if I had inadvertently ordered next-day delivery. But no, that wasn't even an option. The S&H charge was $5.49, for a total of $15.48
I plugged it into my laptop and into my old HP Laserjet 4L. Windows XP did all the work and I was printing in no time. BTW I do like that old HP Laserjet. As a writer, I chiefly need clean manuscript pages. It's nice to be able to keep using it.

I bought the Sabrent USB to Parallel adapter cable to connect my aging LaserJet 4L printer to a new HP Pavilion desktop PC. I downloaded the driver from the HP website but couldn't print. So I restarted the PC and printing worked right away. As long as the added printer icon is displayed in the printer window of your PC, restart your PC and try printing a page. It should work fine. Go to your printer manufacturer website to download the necessary drive. The instructional disk that came with the cable is worthless.

Tried this with two different computers using Windows Vista. Got this message: "One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it." The mini-disk that came with it was no help. No response from Tiger Direct. Went to Radio Shack and got one. It works.

This adapter works as advertised. I am using Windows Vista on a new computer and needed to connect it up to an old printer. Except for the fact that you have to make sure you configure the correct USB port (and use the same port every time). It seems to work well.