The travails of installing a different printer.

This story ends much better than the travail of the first printer did
(which hasn't ended yet).

This is NOT the Brother All-in-One b&w laser printer with document
feeder, described in the thread, "The travails of installing a
printer".

It's a small Samsung b&w laser printer only, MP-4500, with only a
parallel port for connecting. Made in 2001, so just a little younger
than Bill's. When a friend first gave it to me around 8 years ago,
he didn't give me the CD, and I had a lot of trouble finding any
driver for it, and the only driver for XP I could find was in German!
That was a real problem because I couldn't remember what 2 or 3 of the
settings mean, one that I needed to change. Somehow I found an
English driver less than a year ago, for XP.

Now, in my files I see I had already dl'd a zip file named after XP
and Vista, more evidence that sometimes the same drivers work between
the two. Unfortunately it also has 64 in the name, and it didnt' seem
to work either.

On the Samsung page, samsung.com, if you follow Owners and Support /
Manuals and Downloads / Office / Printers.... it gives a list of 90+
printers but not this one. There's no way to type in a model number.
If you google MP-4500 drivers it actually gives a Samsung page
with MP-4500 at the top:
http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/model/ML-4500/

Maybe this page didn't show up because I once told it, silly me, that
I was in the USA. I guarantee that the printer was not bought in the
UK, but if you enter: http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/ there is a
blank for model number and ML-4500 gives 3 results for printer and one
for a toner cartridge. All 4 pages are about the same. The almost
full contents are at the bottom, but it included a "Universal Print
Driver Win 2000/XP/2003/2008/Vista/Win 7/Win 8(32/64bit)" It didn't
work and none of the other files did either.

Sol I'll look online. Ha! I found one that says it's for Vista, no
less,, for Samsung MP-4500 at www.SiliconGuide.com . I check reviews
of the site and it's okay. It also lists a driver for v7!!! I dl'd
it.

The Vista driver wouldn't install until I connected the printer!!! But
it's clearly written by Samsung, the logo is used in a couple places,
and there's a drawing to go with the statement that I have to connect
the printer.

So I got it from the basement. I'd forgotten how light it is. 17 lbs.
I connected it to USB with the USB to parallel port adapter, and that
was enough for the software to install, but it wouldnt' print.

I took a nap, and when I woke up, I saw the little CD that came with
the parallel to USB adapter. (apparently there's a chip in the
adapter) I'd forgotten there was one.

Started to install that until I noticed it said "USB to serial", not
parallel. It said it in the software, the manual, the url name, the
webpage text, everywhere, many many times (20 or 30 times total), but
nowhere did it say "parallel". Finding their webpage, Prolific.com ,
I learned that there is a newer model of the adapter that will work
with Windows 8 but the one I have won't. (but I only paid $6 for it)
I dl the driver that works with win98 to win8. (It has one small
improvement for Vista, so I figure I'd better use it.) I finally
find the word "parallel" in the headline only: "Driver for
serial/parallel to USB adapter." Never noticed it before.

(BTW, I can only find the software webpage because of the CD.
Monoprice has rebranded the adapter itself with the Monoprice brand.
No use of Prolific or any of their model numbers.)

Install the adapter driver. Still doesn't work.

Instructions say to find adapter in Device Manager, but it's not
there.

Install the adapter driver again. This time it says to restart
Windows. It didnt' say that the first time.

Restart windows. It still doesn't work.

Turn the printer on before restarting windows again. This time it
works!!! Well.

Adapter still not listed in Device Manager.

Later I was able to turn the printer off while Windows is running, and
then turn the printer back on again and it still works. (Maybe I can
leave it off when starting windows after all. Not sure.)

Driver came with a program to check which chip is in the adapter, the
first one that won't work with win8 or the second one. I try it for
Com3 and Com2, it says "open com port failed", even after the printer
has printed. Only for com1 does it say "no pl2303 chip", but I
already knew that because com1 is not this usb port.

But the printer still works. Yay!!!

The print is light, exactly the same density all over, as if "Toner
Save" were on, but it's off and I've turned it on and then off again.
I am printing crossword puzzles, and it's plainly lighter both than
the puzzle on the screen and the one printed out by the inkjet
printer. (Actually, the little numbers in the boxes are easier to
read with less ink, but it won't look good for a serious business
letter. Fortunately I have no serious business. Until I fix this,
I'm glad I have the inkjet, which looks perfect.)


*** ----------------
http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/model/ML-4500/
Downloads, Driver
Universal Print Driver
Win 2000/XP/2003/2008/Vista/Win 7/Win 8(32/64bit), 21.34 MB,
exe, MULTI LANGUAGE Version : V2.50.06.00:034 Feb, 2015
Print Driver,PCL5 (Add Printer)

Win 2000/XP/2003/ Vista/2008/Win 7(32,64bit), 0.01MB, zip,
MULTI LANGUAGE Version : V1.0025 Jun, 2010

Useful Software
Samsung Printer Software Installer

Download and install the printer software for your device.
- Simple installation
- Various OS support and automatic installation
Monitor the printer status and troubleshoot.
- Troubleshooting guide
- Software update
- Wireless printing setup -- Well this won't work for mine.
Samsung Printer Diagnostics

Easy Printer Manager -- This did install and run but I don't know
what it does yet.


My friend used to give me hardware but never the CD that came with it.
I had a lot of trouble even finding the XP driver for it, and the one
I found was only in German! And this was a problem because I couldn't
remember the meaning of some of the settings including iirc one that
dealt with the darkness of the print (Set on the machine, set here,
were the two choides iirc.)

The owner's manual I did find in English. And later I found the
repair manual. But now neither seem to have the symtom, Prints too
Light. I know I found it for this model less than a year ago.


Just a couple months before the XP box failed I managed to install it
in English, but I can't remember where I got the file. Maybe I
pretended I lived in Asia and got one for India or Hong Kong. I can't
remember.