Home > Consumer Reviews > D-Link USB to Parallel Printer Type A to Centronics Converter

After reading the reviews below, I placed an order for one, hoping it would come with the square chip, which works with XP (if you look through the translucent plastic and see an elongated rectangular black chip, the cable will work with Me or NT, but a square chip means it'll work with XP). As it turns out, the drivers were pre-installed in XP, so all I had to do was plug the cable in, and it self-detected perfectly. I've tried lots of USB-to-legacy cables in the past that didn't work for some reason or another, but was pleasantly surprised that this one worked right out of the box - especially since the printers I use require bi-directional parallel cables, which usually don't work with other cables.

As an aside, I've gone through 4 other USB-to-parallel cables from different OEM manufacturers before finding this one. Cheers to D-Link!

I have a lot of respect for D-Link products, but this particular one (model DSB-P36) can throw you a curve. There are two possible chips inside the connector, and two different drivers. One works with XP and one doesn't. If you look at the support site... they have a table that shows you the differences and how to tell if you have the right one. Read it before buying, or you may wind up returning it.

It was a nice idea, but not for my situation. I tried everything possible to get it to work /w ME, but to no avail. I wound up buying a new USB-compatible printer.

This is a very cool thing. I just bought a laptop, and I had an old printer. I went to [another store] and bought a parallel to parallel printer cable for it. When my laptop arrived.....no parallel ports! Ergo, I got this device and it works great! (Also takes advantage of the fast USB connection anyway!) The only problem was that the software that comes with it (which is required to install to tell your computer to recognize the USB port as a printer port) is on a 3.5 floppy, and my laptop didn't have one.