Win 7 and older Dot Matrix 9 pin Printer= no go

[ronach]

Ya I know it's old..but it is a workhorse..runs great and all I need. I am running this printer in XP through a USB cable without a hitch. Win 7 on the other hand spits it out and pukes. I think it is a driver issue but for the life of me I can't seem to find the magic grail driver. Any help from you gurus out there will be appreciated.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Sorry your out of luck here. Vista and Win7 change the way drivers are seen and used so unless there is a pre installed driver that works your out of luck.

Eventually a line has to be drawn and older hardware needs to be forced out. MS has been great about supporting legacy hardware but it came time to force the change. So if you need to continue to use that printer you'll have to keep the system on an older OS like XP.

 

[bendixG15]

A 9 pin printer is older than ............ ?
I can't remember when I ditched my last one.
Oh yes, I remember now, couldn't get drivers for windows 98...........

Do your self a favor, spend $100 on a laser and your ears will thank you.

 

[ronach]

OK guys..thanks for your input, I will keep it running on my XP install.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: ronach
OK guys..thanks for your input, I will keep it running on my XP install.

Just out of curiosity, where do you buy ink ribbons for that thing?

Also, do you find 5.25 inch disks sufficient for storing the text files you print?

 

[ronach]

I found the ink cartridges at staples..and I store my text files on a 8 gig memory stick..funny guy. Comon give me some slack..I would buy another printer if this one crashed and burned. It just plain does the jobs that I ask it to do, somewhat loud..yep..did the plastic case change to a deeper yellow color..yep..has this printer given me my moneys worth..you bet. Do I wuv my Microline 320...uh huh..is it cute..well..no..but beauty isn't everything you know, this machine has served me well for 17 years..more than I can say for my 2nd ex.

 

[nerp]

I've been thinking of digging out an old 9-pin dot matrix just for nostalgia and to print letters and correspondence in old school fonts.

 

[IlllI]

sccrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee!! scRRRrEEEeeeeee

i will never miss those loud printers

 

[Lemon law]

To ronach,

It seems to me that you are barking up the wrong trees. Step one is the always the printer manufacturers web site or a email to the former and microsoft. There well may now be a emulation driver for vista that will work with win 7.

But even then, if the printer manufacturer is going to write a win 7 driver, they generally wait until after the OS is officially released.
And because other drivers for more modern devices are probably keeping them more than busy, holding your breath may not be advisable.

I for one see no reason to assume the printer will remain driverless or that it is time to say its obsolete. Its also possible some DOS emulation driver may be written for win 7 if it does not exist already. Does win7, like win xp, have a compatible mode for legacy programs?

 

[ronach]

Lemon law,
Thanks for your input, I tried all that I know how to do for now, heres hopeing a driver surfaces to do the job [ I will keep looking ]..and you other guys, dig out those old pieces of chinery and put em to work..heh..don't forget to put on your noise cancelling headsets tho.

 

[vailr]

There must be many instances, especially in a business situation, where you'd need a dot-matrix printer for printing multi-copy forms. Auto repair businesses, for one example.
Does the Model 320 only have a parallel port?
The 321 model is still being sold here (and is supported in Vista):
http://www.officedepot.com/a/p...-321-Turbo-Dot-Matrix/

Also: have you checked for printing support with the Ubuntu Live CD?

 

[ronach]

vailr,
My ML 320 is not the turbo version..just the plain old hit the button and it starts punching out pages of stuff, type printer. It has a parallel port..but I am useing a parallel to USB adapter on my XP Home install and it works fine. I would like to do the same with my new Win 7 Pro when it arrives in a few weeks. I am led to believe that a Vista CD may have a driver on it for my printer..alas..I did not do the Vista thing. In the past Epson FX 286-e drivers would work on my printer for XP but not sure about Vista. I don't know a thing about Ubuntu.Would a Ubuntu driver work on Win 7 ?

I will be installing a Win 7 64 bit Pro OS. By the way..thanks a lot guys for jumping in here and offering up your suggestions..heh..I may get this old gear up and running in Win 7 yet.

If this ML 320 cashes in before I do [ doubtful ] heh..I will set it up above my brand new store bought printer so it can see what a hard working,reliable printer looks like.

 

[vailr]

Did you try updating the USB adapter driver?
Another option would be: a PCI card with printer port.
The latest driver for your printer:
Oki-PSVPE-3-6-5900-35.exe
http://my.okidata.com/PP-ML320.nsf?opendatabase
Ubuntu is a free download-able .iso file that you then burn to a CD.
Boot from the CD and try the operating system out, without making any changes to your existing hard drive. Or even without any hard drive connected.
To answer your question about using an Ubuntu driver in Windows 7: no, that's not going to work.
Windows 7 does or will offer a "Windows XP mode" for backwards compatability:
http://windowsteamblog.com/blo...f-windows-xp-mode.aspx

 

[ecom]

Originally posted by: vailr
There must be many instances, especially in a business situation, where you'd need a dot-matrix printer for printing multi-copy forms. Auto repair businesses, for one example.
Does the Model 320 only have a parallel port?
The 321 model is still being sold here (and is supported in Vista):
http://www.officedepot.com/a/p...-321-Turbo-Dot-Matrix/

Also: have you checked for printing support with the Ubuntu Live CD?

If you consider the cost of modern laser printing can cost something like US$0.007 per page not including paper, it can be cost effective to just print the same thing multiple times. Some organizations have made this change. The results will be the same, arguably nicer looking, and quieter.

Toner cartridges easily last 6000 pages or more and drums and fusers can last 100000 pages. That can mean less maintenance for the printer. I don't know how longer a ribbon lasts --- I assume a few hundred pages.

The downside though, I guess is that laser printers use a lot of power when printing to heat up the fuser. Also there's a rather steep initial cost which could be $300 all the way up to $2500 or more depending on requirements for the printer. For example if you need duplexing, networking, and extra paper trays.

 

[jhansman]

If I ever build my 80286, DOS 3.3 nostalgia machine, I'll need a dot matrix printer to round it all out. Hope I can find one when the time comes....

 

[dbarton]

I still have my Epson FX80!

 

[Zepper]

If you really MUST change OSes, there are other options besides Win 7 which fully support dot matrix printers...

.bh.

PS: Okidata still makes a good variety of dot matrix (impact) printers. The 8 or 9 pin models work better on multipart forms as their pins are larger/heavier and don't tend to punch holes in the top copies like the higher pin count types can. .bh.

 

[ecom]

Did you get a driver from here?:
http://catalog.update.microsof...Search.aspx?q=ML%20320