Epson Action Laser & Win 7-64 bit

I think the answer is using my AL 1500 is a lost cause, but here goes.

I have this fancy new custom built PC with Win7- 64 bit HP and I love it
and the OS so far. What I didn't realize when I ordered the PC with the
Asus motherboard is that there's no parallel port. My 15 yr old Epson
Action Laser 1500 is my workhorse, but I haven't been able to trick
Windows into thinking it's an HP LaserJet III like some folks have been
able to do.

I got an LPT to USB cable and in hooking it up, Windows shows
Unidentified Printing Device, and "this device is working
properly"....right. I tell Windows that I am adding a local printer to
a virtual usb printer port, tell Windows it's an HP LaserJet III and it
won't accept the driver in the printer driver data base. What is does,
is rename one of my other HP printers. There's no Epson Action Laser
1500 driver that I could find in Win 7. The printer does emulate the HP
and the printer did not come with an install disk when I bought it.
Windows just figured it out and I plugged and played it

Is there any hope because I'm willing to do a bit more tweaking if
necessary, but printers are so cheap it might not be worth gritting my
teeth any further. Thanks.

Diane

You would probably do best with a new printer.

There is no Laserjet III driver in Windows 7. There was in Vista.

The Action Laser 1500 does not have a USB interface, so there will be no
compatible USB driver. Try installing on a parallel port.

Does the motherboard have a header for a parallel and/or serial port? If
so, you could add a port to one of your vacant slots and enable the
header in the BIOS.

There are PCI parallel and serial port cards.

See
http://www.epson.co.uk/Printers-and-...articleId=3394.
There are drivers included with Windows 7 which will run the printer in
some LQ and FX emulations. You would need a parallel or serial port to
do this.

You could spend much time on this for poor or no result.


On 24/11/2009 09:41, DMP wrote:
> I think the answer is using my AL 1500 is a lost cause, but here goes.
>
> I have this fancy new custom built PC with Win7- 64 bit HP and I love it
> and the OS so far. What I didn't realize when I ordered the PC with the
> Asus motherboard is that there's no parallel port. My 15 yr old Epson
> Action Laser 1500 is my workhorse, but I haven't been able to trick
> Windows into thinking it's an HP LaserJet III like some folks have been
> able to do.
>
> I got an LPT to USB cable and in hooking it up, Windows shows
> Unidentified Printing Device, and "this device is working
> properly"....right. I tell Windows that I am adding a local printer to a
> virtual usb printer port, tell Windows it's an HP LaserJet III and it
> won't accept the driver in the printer driver data base. What is does,
> is rename one of my other HP printers. There's no Epson Action Laser
> 1500 driver that I could find in Win 7. The printer does emulate the HP
> and the printer did not come with an install disk when I bought it.
> Windows just figured it out and I plugged and played it
>
> Is there any hope because I'm willing to do a bit more tweaking if
> necessary, but printers are so cheap it might not be worth gritting my
> teeth any further. Thanks.
>
> Diane

Dominic Payer wrote:
> You would probably do best with a new printer.
>
> There is no Laserjet III driver in Windows 7. There was in Vista.
>
> The Action Laser 1500 does not have a USB interface, so there will be no
> compatible USB driver. Try installing on a parallel port.
>
> Does the motherboard have a header for a parallel and/or serial port? If
> so, you could add a port to one of your vacant slots and enable the
> header in the BIOS.
>
> There are PCI parallel and serial port cards.
>
> See
> http://www.epson.co.uk/Printers-and-...articleId=3394.
> There are drivers included with Windows 7 which will run the printer in
> some LQ and FX emulations. You would need a parallel or serial port to
> do this.
>
> You could spend much time on this for poor or no result.
>
>
>

Dominic: Thanks for your answer. I kinda figured as much.

Let me belabor this for a bit more.....what would happen if I got my
Windows XP disk and tried to setup the Action Laser printer with an XP
driver in 32-bit compatability mode?

Appreciate your help.

Diane

The XP driver is 32-bit and would not work. You need signed 64-bit
drivers for 64-bit Windows.

You could set up XP in a virtual machine and run your printer from that
but it would be a cumbersome arrangement. The required networking
between the VM and W7 might be fragile if you wanted to use it as a
networked printer. Transferring documents to the VM or a shared folder
so you could then print them from the VM would be tedious if you had
more than the occasional document to print.


On 24/11/2009 12:36, DMP wrote:
> Dominic Payer wrote:
>> You would probably do best with a new printer.
>>
>> There is no Laserjet III driver in Windows 7. There was in Vista.
>>
>> The Action Laser 1500 does not have a USB interface, so there will be
>> no compatible USB driver. Try installing on a parallel port.
>>
>> Does the motherboard have a header for a parallel and/or serial port?
>> If so, you could add a port to one of your vacant slots and enable the
>> header in the BIOS.
>>
>> There are PCI parallel and serial port cards.
>>
>> See
>> http://www.epson.co.uk/Printers-and-...articleId=3394.
>> There are drivers included with Windows 7 which will run the printer
>> in some LQ and FX emulations. You would need a parallel or serial port
>> to do this.
>>
>> You could spend much time on this for poor or no result.
>>
>>
>>
>
> Dominic: Thanks for your answer. I kinda figured as much.
>
> Let me belabor this for a bit more.....what would happen if I got my
> Windows XP disk and tried to setup the Action Laser printer with an XP
> driver in 32-bit compatability mode?
>
> Appreciate your help.
>
> Diane
>
>
>

DMP wrote:
>
> Let me belabor this for a bit more.....what would happen if I got my
> Windows XP disk and tried to setup the Action Laser printer with an XP
> driver in 32-bit compatability mode?
>
> Appreciate your help.
>
> Diane
>

Are you sure there even is an XP driver disc? The Epson Support website
states the drivers in included in the installation files for Win 2000
which means XP probably had it too. Epson does state there was a driver
disc for Win 98.

Dominic Payer wrote:
>
> The XP driver is 32-bit and would not work. You need signed 64-bit
> drivers for 64-bit Windows.
>
> You could set up XP in a virtual machine and run your printer from that
> but it would be a cumbersome arrangement. The required networking
> between the VM and W7 might be fragile if you wanted to use it as a
> networked printer. Transferring documents to the VM or a shared folder
> so you could then print them from the VM would be tedious if you had
> more than the occasional document to print.
>
>
> On 24/11/2009 12:36, DMP wrote:
>> Dominic Payer wrote:
>>> You would probably do best with a new printer.
>>>
>>> There is no Laserjet III driver in Windows 7. There was in Vista.
>>>
>>> The Action Laser 1500 does not have a USB interface, so there will be
>>> no compatible USB driver. Try installing on a parallel port.
>>>
>>> Does the motherboard have a header for a parallel and/or serial port?
>>> If so, you could add a port to one of your vacant slots and enable the
>>> header in the BIOS.
>>>
>>> There are PCI parallel and serial port cards.
>>>
>>> See
>>> http://www.epson.co.uk/Printers-and-...articleId=3394.
>>>
>>> There are drivers included with Windows 7 which will run the printer
>>> in some LQ and FX emulations. You would need a parallel or serial port
>>> to do this.
>>>
>>> You could spend much time on this for poor or no result.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Dominic: Thanks for your answer. I kinda figured as much.
>>
>> Let me belabor this for a bit more.....what would happen if I got my
>> Windows XP disk and tried to setup the Action Laser printer with an XP
>> driver in 32-bit compatability mode?
>>
>> Appreciate your help.
>>
>> Diane
>>
>>
>>

Dominic-Thanks to you and OP for answering.

I am going to look for a new printer.....disappointed but far more
practical.

Diane

Use the Windows Update button in Add Printer to list all the drivers
included in Vista.

I can only warn you that many USB to Parallel cables do not work with all
devices. The Action Laser is as you stated a workhorse and it really never
had many bells or whistles so I'd think many cables would work with it. I
can only recommend the Belkin F5U002, this works great on several HPs
including the 4L. The next route would be a PCI LPT card. I recommend a 1
port card since then you do not have to guess which port is one and two
after PnP adds the device.



--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"DMP" <> wrote in message
news:heh4qh$o04$...
> Dominic Payer wrote:
>>
>> The XP driver is 32-bit and would not work. You need signed 64-bit
>> drivers for 64-bit Windows.
>>
>> You could set up XP in a virtual machine and run your printer from that
>> but it would be a cumbersome arrangement. The required networking between
>> the VM and W7 might be fragile if you wanted to use it as a networked
>> printer. Transferring documents to the VM or a shared folder so you could
>> then print them from the VM would be tedious if you had more than the
>> occasional document to print.
>>
>>
>> On 24/11/2009 12:36, DMP wrote:
>>> Dominic Payer wrote:
>>>> You would probably do best with a new printer.
>>>>
>>>> There is no Laserjet III driver in Windows 7. There was in Vista.
>>>>
>>>> The Action Laser 1500 does not have a USB interface, so there will be
>>>> no compatible USB driver. Try installing on a parallel port.
>>>>
>>>> Does the motherboard have a header for a parallel and/or serial port?
>>>> If so, you could add a port to one of your vacant slots and enable the
>>>> header in the BIOS.
>>>>
>>>> There are PCI parallel and serial port cards.
>>>>
>>>> See
>>>> http://www.epson.co.uk/Printers-and-...articleId=3394.
>>>> There are drivers included with Windows 7 which will run the printer
>>>> in some LQ and FX emulations. You would need a parallel or serial port
>>>> to do this.
>>>>
>>>> You could spend much time on this for poor or no result.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Dominic: Thanks for your answer. I kinda figured as much.
>>>
>>> Let me belabor this for a bit more.....what would happen if I got my
>>> Windows XP disk and tried to setup the Action Laser printer with an XP
>>> driver in 32-bit compatability mode?
>>>
>>> Appreciate your help.
>>>
>>> Diane
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
> Dominic-Thanks to you and OP for answering.
>
> I am going to look for a new printer.....disappointed but far more
> practical.
>
> Diane