Question : Problem: USB connected HP LaserJet 4+ is printing garbage

I have a LaserJet 4 Plus printer that I am trying to connect to an HP 6910p Laptop with Windows XP using a Parallel to USB cable.  After adding the printer using the Add Printer wizard, the test page comes out as 1 page with 1 line of random characters followed by a second page of random characters.  If I delete the printer and restart, it does not find the printer using Plug and Play.  How do I get this printer to print normally?

Answer : Problem: USB connected HP LaserJet 4+ is printing garbage

It's probably the USB-to-parallel converter; some of them work OK, other's don't.

The only way that you can check this out is by substitution.

First, try to find a PC which still has a parallel port, and confirm (or not) that the printer itself is OK.

If the printer checks out, then the fault must be one of:

(a) USB port bad - possible, but unlikely.

(b) Driver bad - unlikely, but make sure that you are not using a 4M driver (PostScript) on a non-4M printer (which does not support PS).

(c) USB-to-parallel converter - the likely culprit.