StarTech.com 1 Port Low Profile PCI Parallel Adapter Card - Parallel adapter - PCI low profile - IEEE 1284 - PCI1P_LP

I initially was going to purchase the "value" version of this card (same manufac, but a few bucks cheaper) but read on the Dell boards that the value card will not work with the Dell Vostro line. So, bought this version since I was using it with a Dell (right now an XPS, but will be moving the card in a few months to my Vostro 410).Very easy install -- just pop it into an open slot, power up, and the new hardward wizard came up. The CD has 2 drivers for XP -- not sure of the difference (if there is one). Windows pulled in the driver, although it did pop up a warning saying the driver was not verified with XP. No problems installing it, and it works perfectly.Using it with an old HP laserjet (a 4M) and a DOS application (yes, DOS. It's a legacy app that can't be ported to Windows). Wanted to get some use out of the old printer, plus DOS can't print to a USB port unless you go through all sorts of twists and turns. An old-fashioned LPT1, on the other hand, can be used with zero drama.Love it when plug and play actually means plug and play!

I have Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit and an older HP PSC 500 with a homebuilt computer. The other mobo went out and the new one didn't have a parallel port. I like this HP printer and really didn't want to replace. The parallel to USB adapters will not work with this particular HP. And Win 7 wont recognize the scanning ability of the HP PSC 500 either, but that has nothing to do with this card...I put the card in the new motherboard, booted up and all the drivers downloaded and installed automatically. First attempt at trying to print, got a printer offline error. Went into Device and Printers, manually removed the printer, manually added it again and changed it to LPT3, which is what the Device Manager says the PCI card was on, and printed a test page. Yay! It works!Thank you previous reviewers. They helped me, so hopefully this review will help some one else.

I bought this card because my new (home-built) Windows 7 computer had no parallel port integrated into the motherboard, and I still wanted to use my perfectly serviceable HP Laserjet. I began by installing the card, but not attaching the printer. On my setup, Windows obviously detected the new card since it showed up in Device Manager, but Windows did not offer to install any drivers. In Device Manager, the card was shown with a yellow exclamation point, indicating that it wasn't working properly: Of course not, since the drivers had not yet been installed! At that point I installed the drivers manually from Device Manager, and that went quickly on my Win7 Professional 64-bit machine -- fortunately, 64-bit drivers are included on the CD that accompanied the card.On my computer, the card defaulted to LPT3 rather than LPT1. That caused a problem when I attempted to install my Laserjet 6p printer; Windows was unable to find any drivers for it. However, once I changed the card's port to LPT1 (again in Device Manager) and tried again, Win7 was able to locate the proper drivers and install them right away. It seems odd that Windows could recognize the attached printer when the port was set to LPT3, but couldn't find any drivers until the port was changed to LPT1. In any case, once that issue was sorted out, there was smooth sailing. (Possibly Windows would have installed the drivers automatically after the port setting was corrected; I didn't wait to find out the answer to that.)Before long, Windows Update offered to install newer drivers for this printer, but I'm resisting that offer since the original ones are working fine at this point. When it comes to drivers offered by Windows Update, I'm of the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" school.In conclusion, the item under review isn't quite a "plug 'n' play" device, but if you're comfortable fiddling with the above-mentioned settings, it should do the job.-----------------------UPDATE (3-20-2018): After 6.5 years, this card stopped working; it no longer appeared in Device Manager. I ordered another one, which was exactly the same model, but the drivers would not install. StarTech online chat support was helpful, but their suggestions did not work, so I returned the new card and stuck the old one back in my computer. To my surprise, the old card then showed up in Device Manager, but with a driver issue. I tried updating the driver, using the files that I had just downloaded from StarTech, and -- amazingly -- this procedure worked. I suppose that the old card needed nothing more than to be re-seated, which of course was accomplished by the card-swapping. I should have tried that before ordering the new card, which didn't work anyway.

The full height adapter included was for a serial port, not a parallel port. Not pleased. I contact tech support at StarTech and they were amazing. The replacement adapter is coming 2 weeks after initial purchase, but at least they did the right thing.

I put the card in, installed the drivers and then it didn't do anything. Then I reset my computer... computer would not boot up again until the card was removed. Tried all sorts of remedies to try to resolve the problem, never worked. ALSO the card I was sent did not look like the one pictured. It had purple where the picture is black and also there was two notches in the connectors instead of the one pictured here.

I needed one of these to hook up my old Epson Actionlaser 1500 to my new computer. Of course most new computers don't come with a parallel port - this was an easy and cheap way to keep using my old reliable printer. I have used these at work as well, and the product works just fine. Usually Windows will find and download the driver automatically, but if for some reason the site is blocked by a web filter, this card also comes with a CD..NOTE: This is a Low-profile card designed to fit into a low profile or "half-height" case. The card will fit in a full sized case if you remove the metal back-plate, but you can buy a similar full-sized version of this card as well so why bother?.Installation is simple:- Open case- Locate space PCI slot- Remove slot protector- Insert card- Close up case and turn on the computer- Let windows recognize the card, and install the driver