SABRENT USB to Parallel IEEE 1284 Printer Cable Adapter (CB-CN36)

I used for old centronics HP printer. Works flawlessly. No driver install needed as windows recognized immediately.

The cable arrived within days of placing the order. However, I had not yet bought the computer yet, so this review got delayed. This cable allowed me to connect a 25+ year old HP 5L personal laser printer to a fairly recent Windows 11 Dell AIO with no parallel port, nor any slot with which to install one. The HP 5L is fussy about having all of the lines enabled for enhanced bidirectional parallel communications and not all USB-to-parallel cables support this. Sabrent apparently does and my ancient printer is back in action on a computer that normally couldn’t work with such an old device. Two things: First, I reused a fully enabled normal parallel cable to connect to the Sabrent USB-to-parallel port cable’s parallel port. Second, Windows 11 provided all of the required drivers for the cable and the printer. I only needed to make sure that the HP 5L was seen as a USB device during the automatic discovery and setup. I did not need a driver disc.

I normally read the reviews first but this time I did not; I figured Sabrent is a reputable brand and this is a basic product its got to be fine. Well I just opened the box and cannot stop laughing. I even went to check the item description but it says "6FT" right on the box, maybe thats metric? Ive got extensions laying around so we will see. I suspect it will work fine, if otherwise I will have to deduct some more stars.Side note, i have no way to test if it is indeed usb 2.0 since the centronics parallel interface is only about 150 KB/s so hopefully thats also accurate.

My old HP 2100 Printer I thought was done. Not because it quit working, but because of all the computer advances in the computer industry. They eradicated parallel porting. So I took a chance and bought this Sabrent USB to Parallel adapter cord. I am glad I did. It works just fine on Windows 10 and 11. Others claimed that this cord was only about six inches long. Well the one I received was a full six feet long. Because of the placement on the printer in relation to the particular computer to which I have it connected, I still needed more length. No problem. I just used a USB extension cord, which is nothing more than USB Male on one end and USB female on the other.

Very disappointed in this item.Item not as described (description says 6 ft, package also is plainly printed with 6 ft but product is only 1 ft.Contacted seller direct and they don’t have any in stock and don’t have an expected delivery date on new stock.In the past I have leaned towards using this brand and had good results but after this experience I will have to look to other brands.They should at least offer free USB extension cables to make up the short distance and compensate for their stock errors.

After lots of trial and error I finally got my ancient Epson ActionPrinter 5000+ ESCP P2 Quiet (Model P630B) impact printer connected to Windows 7 (64-bit) and printing! (Suck it, ink-wasting, head-clogging ink cartridge printers!) I am incredibly ecstatic about this after wasting heaps of MONEY and TIME on modern color ink jet printers when all I want to do is print out black and white documents. Sometimes the old technology is just more reliable.Installation Guide:1) Plug the Sabrent cable into the back of your ancient printer.2) Turn on the printer.3) Plug the cable into a USB port on your PC. Windows should automatically install drivers for the USB device, and when it's done it will report the following devices as "Ready to use": "USB Printing Support" and "No Printer Attached".4) Open the control panel's Printer listing, and select "Add a printer."5) Select "Add a local printer."6) When prompted to "Choose a printer port," select "Use an existing port," and from the drop-down list find and select the item containing "Virtual printer port for USB." It may look something like "USB001 (Virtual printer port for USB)."7) When prompted to "Install the printer driver," if you cannot find your ancient printer listed, click "Windows Update." The installer will contact MicroSoft's online database to search for more printer drivers. This WILL take several minutes.8) If you still cannot find your printer, refer to your printer's official documentation (a web search may be necessary) to see if it lists any "compatible drivers." (My printer's manual lists 9 alternative printers with compatible drivers. I selected "Epson LQ-570+ ESC/P 2" which was a successful match.)9) Click "Next" and continue the printer installation to the end as normal.10) Once the installation is complete and you are prompted to print a test page, print a test page to confirm your success!Troubleshooting:1) If your print job sits in the queue for a long time before eventually changing its status to "out of paper" even though the printer is clearly not having any paper issues, your cable probably is not plugged all the way into the printer. Ensure the plug is in all the way and try again. (After my first hour of trying to get the printer to work, I discovered the cable wasn't plugged in all the way, despite the cord catch successfully latching.)2) If your printer is printing random garbage, you probably installed the wrong driver. Install a different driver and try again.3) Consult the original manual for your printer. Fortunately, many old technical manuals can be found in PDF form on the internet.4) If you unplug the USB cable from your computer, then plug it back into a different port, your computer WILL think you have plugged in an entirely new device. You will have to either plug the USB cable back into the same port you originally used, or reinstall the printer drivers.