SOLVED Parallel port card driver.

[spamiam]

I have a PCI parallel port card. The original drivers do not include W7 nor, as far as I can tell, any 64 bit drivers.

The original driver disk and the card itself do not have any manufacturer number. There is text on the card that says CH352P@706.

The big IC on the card indicates that it is a CH352 chip.

I eventually found some CH352 drivers that are supposed to be for W7, but I get a failure error message when I try to run the setup for the driver install. The error does not say precisely why it failed. I presume it is the wrong driver.

I actually looked at buying a new card, but none of them show W7 as being supported in the online technical specs!!? So, I may be no better off buying a new one than trying to get this one to work.

Any suggestions?

-Tony

 

[TrainableMan]

Is this for a printer? What is the make and model of printer as I would suggest you check it in the Win7 compatibility center. I would suspect that any printer old enough to need a parallel port is likely not supported in W7.

 

[spamiam]

Is this for a printer? What is the make and model of printer as I would suggest you check it in the Win7 compatibility center. I would suspect that any printer old enough to need a parallel port is likely not supported in W7.

OH! I didn't check! It is an HP LaserJet 5L. It is still perfectly good and cheaper than ly inkjet per page. Even under XP I had to fiddle around with drivers to get it to work. Well I kept XP as a dual boot for a reason. This sort of total incompatibility is the reason. I will check on whether the printer will work.

 

[TrainableMan]

It says compatible so hopefully someone has an idea for a driver or a replacement card.

 

[spamiam]

It says compatible so hopefully someone has an idea for a driver or a replacement card.

Yes, I see that the LaserJet 5L is "compatible". Now I just need a driver for the CH352p parallel interface card. Does anyone have any ideas?

-Tony

 

[TrainableMan]

When you have your existing card in the machine, when you go to device manager can you tell it to search for a driver? Or does it say no driver found?

 

[spamiam]

When you have your existing card in the machine, when you go to device manager can you tell it to search for a driver? Or does it say no driver found?

It did give me the option for searching for a driver, and it failed. I will try again. I will also have it try (again) using the distribution disk that came with the card a couple of years ago.

-Tony

 

[TrainableMan]

It is not likely the distribution disk has 64-bit drivers (Vista 64 was out so I suppose it's possible) but it is likely you can use it to find the part # and/or manufacturer so it can be checked to see if a 64-bit exists.

 

[spamiam]

It is not likely the distribution disk has 64-bit drivers (Vista 64 was out so I suppose it's possible) but it is likely you can use it to find the part # and/or manufacturer so it can be checked to see if a 64-bit exists.

Right. As far as I can tell, they are 32-bit drivers. Is it possible for 32 bit drivers to work on the 64 bit OS?

Unfortunately, the drivers I do have are generic. I do know that they come from WCH-IC in China. Unfortunately, I can not find ANY drivers from the manufacturer.

There are lots of these scummy driver websites that require signing up, and seem to be mostly phishing and spam sites. They claim to have drivers, but I bet they are old and no better than the disk Ihave.

Another odd thing is that many driver and software and even hardware manufacturers do not specifically claim W7 support. I had thought about getting a new parallel card, but I did not see one that specifically claims to support W7. Maybe they do, and the info is just old, pre-W7. I also considered a USB-parallel adapter cable, but it seems that there are bidirectional issues for some of them, and I believe they still require special drivers, and are not totally plug and play.

I may end up having to buy one of the not-so-cheap parallel cards and hope to have W7 compatibility when it arrives.

-Tony

 

[TrainableMan]

Some installers include both 32 & 64 bit drivers but no 32 bit doesn't just work on 64.

Most of those find driver sites push a product to detect. They can be extremely dangerous as they often recommend the wrong driver which can cause a lot of time in recovery. Always create a system restore point before updating any driver.

Before you buy, go to the manufacturers website and look up the product support - see if 64-bit drivers are available.

 

[Nibiru2012]

This is a driver I found for your card... I believe. It stated at the website it was for the CH352 chipset from wch.cn in China. It has supposedly both the serial and parallel drivers for 32-bit and 64-bit.

Decompress or unzip the folder and in Device Manager point the Driver Update to that folder and see how it works for you.

 

[spamiam]

This is a driver I found for your card... I believe. It stated at the website it was for the CH352 chipset from wch.cn in China. It has supposedly both the serial and parallel drivers for 32-bit and 64-bit.

Decompress or unzip the folder and in Device Manager point the Driver Update to that folder and see how it works for you.

Thank you! I just saw this post after I found a driver that appears to work. I found it by searching for a file name that I found in the distribution CD. I used the inf file name. Eventually this led me to drivers for the CH35X devices which includes later chipsets. I looked at the inf file's text and my chip's VEN and DEV numbers match somecin the inf file. It also seemed to support Vista-64. Do I downloaded the file.

The file is CH35XDRV.ZIP which is found in a link at the bottom of this page:

www.wch.cn/product/pci/ch353.asp

It worked when I updated the driver for the unknown device. I assume it used the Vista 64 bit driver. I then had to manually update the driver for the resulting "multifunction" device. When I did this then W7 discovered the HP LaserJet 5L that is on that port.

I did not have time to test further. But since it found the printer I assume the parallel port is working properly. Famous last words.

I am on my iPhone right now and can not open the zip file you attached. I will compare and see if it is newer. Thanks again.

EDIT:

Hours later: I compared your driver files to the ones I eventually found. They are the same. For other interested persons, as of this date, the zip file attached in the previous post is the newest version for the CH352, and CH353 chip sets.

-Tony

 

[ukracer]

Bit of a long shot but I registered to see if I can see the zip file mentioned but sadly it seems to be missing . I dont suppose any of you lads still have that card and driver??

 

[TrainableMan]

A search for the file led me to HERE.

SAFETY WARNING: I do not know that website & cannot guarantee the file is safe, however it did pass my virus scanner successfully when I downloaded it to check. As with anything you download from the internet it is a good idea to back up your computer and create a restore point before using it.