If you want to install an old dot matrix printer, or laser printer and others under Windows 10 and 11, you will quickly face driver problems!
The reason is that Windows 10 / 11 does not fundamentally support devices that were manufactured before 2013, with a few exceptions where the manufacturer takes care of driver provision itself, which is less and less the case, which is understandable from the manufacturer's point of view is because they want to sell their new models, what can you do to fix the driver problem.
The best case is if the manufacturer still provides the support and takes over the driver provision, so you should first look for the suitable Windows 10 / 11 driver on the manufacturer side .
The second best case, the driver is not available for Windows 10 / 11, but was still developed for Windows 7, with a little luck you can find it on the Microsoft Support page:
http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search .aspx!
Simply enter the printer name or identifier in the search field, try other shortcuts not only HP LJ3, but also try Laserjet III, LJ III, so just use different terms and play with the shortcuts!
The worst case, the driver was not even written for Windows 7 or XP. Then you should try to find out which printer driver would be compatible with your model, for example, for a nine-dot dot matrix printer, find a similarly working model from EPSON, HP, Canon, ..., it can happen that there are different ones Driver tests until you find something.
I have two descriptions with detours for successful installation:
►►► ... Get old printers up and running on Windows 10!
►►►► ... HP Laserjet III, 4, 5, Plus, driver x64, x32, Windows 10, 8.1, 7!
User question Saturday, December 7, 2019
I came across your article on how to install old printers on Windows 10. Now I have a very old printer, namely a Star lC-10C dot matrix printer. As a computer, I have an HP Specter with Windows 10 as the operating system. As an interface between the printer I use the xu1541 interface, which is connected to a USB adapter via a USB. The USB adapter is in turn connected directly to my notebook via a USB-C port. If I follow your installation instructions, the installation looks like this: First I search under "Device Settings - Add Printer and Scanner". Since I don't have a driver I go to manual input, as port I choose LPT1, then I press "Windows update" for the driver selection, then it is suggested to set up printer as "generic text". Under the "Printer properties" and "Advanced" I have also selected the option "Print jobs directly to the printer". I open a txt. File and would like to print the file via the generic printer then I get the display ". Txt is printed ”but with the display no feedback from the text editor. I also tried the print / d: lpt1 123.txt command to start printing. The response was "The device LPT1 could not be initialized". So the printer is switched on and the printer's internal test print also worked, but unfortunately I have no idea where the cause lies, whether there is no communication between the notebook and the printer, or whether I have to install another driver or whether it is due to the operating system.
Answer!
It does not always work, but has already tried with a compatible driver
Epson dot matrix printer
http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=EPSON%20LX%20300
Thanks for the link. So I have now tested all internal Epson drivers under Windows 10 and the printer just does not want to start. Now I can still see that the printer is offline - I cannot understand that at all. I really have no idea. However thank you for your help
