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Gold319

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2006
6
0
Hi guys,

I jut got my first iMac, Have installed and running Parallels with XP Pro on it, everything is fine except one thing.

I am cant seem to enable the COM or LPT port options in the 'devices' menu. Its all greyed out. I am using the trial version before i commit to buying, is this a 'trial' restriction or something else?

I need to enable my LPT ports to run some software. Incidentally, nothing will print either.

Everything i have is connected via a USB cable to the mac.

Any help!!
 

iCeQuBe

macrumors regular
May 19, 2005
122
0
CT
Gold319 said:
Hi guys,

I jut got my first iMac, Have installed and running Parallels with XP Pro on it, everything is fine except one thing.

I am cant seem to enable the COM or LPT port options in the 'devices' menu. Its all greyed out. I am using the trial version before i commit to buying, is this a 'trial' restriction or something else?

I need to enable my LPT ports to run some software. Incidentally, nothing will print either.

Everything i have is connected via a USB cable to the mac.

Any help!!

Well the iMac doesn't have LPT or COMM ports so i would guess that is why they are greyed out. You sould have to get a usb to COMM or usb to LPT converter to get them to show up most likely unless someone knows a software trick to create a virtual port.
 

Gold319

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2006
6
0
Yeah have all the adaptors plugged in,

every device that needs a LPT is now connected via USB.

Isn't parallels supposed to emulate having LPT / COM ports?
 

Gold319

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2006
6
0
ok,

figured out how to enable the LPT and COM ports, so they are now listed in my device manager, but im still unable to print anything from XP to any printer.

any ideas?
 

Gold319

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2006
6
0
Guess Parallel cant send print jobs to the printers then...

looks like i mad a WHAMMY of a mistake buying a iMac... :-(
 

iCeQuBe

macrumors regular
May 19, 2005
122
0
CT
Gold319 said:
Yeah have all the adaptors plugged in,

every device that needs a LPT is now connected via USB.

Isn't parallels supposed to emulate having LPT / COM ports?

So are you saying that you have usb to lpt adapters or USB printers?
 

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,365
979
New England
I don't have Parallels myself, but what I would try to do is set up your printer on the Mac, and yes, if it's an LPT or RS_232 printer it'll need to have a USB adapter, or you won't find anywhere to plug it in on an Intel iMac.

Once you have the printer working share it on the network, and print to it from Windows as if it were a networked printer. (You could even redirect LPT1: to the "networked printer")

Remember that Parallels is a vistrualization software so it doesn't see your hardware at all, only what it virtualized to it. You essentially have two machines a Mac and a PC running in the virtual environment.

B
 
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