I have an old Apple LaserWriter Plus printer. I bought a new system with Windows ‘98 installed and the dealers assured me that there is a driver for my printer in Windows ‘98. I checked and found that there is indeed such a driver. On the advice of an Apple retailer, I purchased a cable with a 9-pin plug on one end and a 25-pin plug on the other. I connected this to the Com-1 port on the new system, and the 25-pin socket on the printer. I installed the printer from Windows. On the back of the printer there is a knob which has these options: Appletalk, Special, 9600 or 1200. I turned it from Appletalk to 9600. When I try to print, nothing happens, although the yellow light on the printer blinks. I’ve tried every way of getting to the bottom of the problem, including contacting the Microsoft Help line. Their suggestion was that the driver included with Windows ‘98 doesn’t work with my printer. It seems odd that the driver would be supplied if it weren’t going to work. The printer itself, although old, works perfectly with a Macintosh. Do you have any suggestions?

The most likely reason that your printer doesn’t work with Windows is because your printer may be one of the models which is QuickDraw only. QuickDraw is the language which the printer speaks. The blinking light on your printer probably does tell you that your printer is receiving some data but it cannot interpret the data. Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do about this and you might be looking to buy a new printer. They are fairly cheap and coming down in price (although I don’t know if they will go up after the GST has been introduced).