Personal LaserWriter NTR and Windows 7

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Personal LaserWriter NTR and Windows 7

I've used the Apple Personal LaserWriter NTR with my PC running Windows 2000 Professional for years. I'm replacing the old computer with a new one running Windows 7 and would dearly love to use my beloved LW NTR with it.

I know I can buy a Parallel to USB cable to connect the two. But is there a printer driver that will work with Windows 7? A search of this site suggests that the last printer driver Apple released is version 4.1 which is the one I use with my Windows 2000 computer. Will it work with Windows 7? If not, any other ideas/suggestions?

And a less important question: I also have an old Apple iBook clamshell laptop with OS X 10.4 (which I mostly use "on the road" for email and web browsing—it has an Airport card and is WiFi enabled). Can I cable it up to use with the LW NTR at home for printing?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Apple iBook, Mac OS X (10.4), Personal Laserwriter NTR

Posted on Oct 5, 2010 2:42 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 6, 2010 9:10 AM in response to dlglidden

These Printers are Postscript level 1 printers that can be identified and used under the Linux-Foundation Postscript level 1 driver.

http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/MacOSX/pslevel1#Printers

LaserWriter
LaserWriter Plus
LaserWriter IINT
LaserWriter IINTX
Personal LaserWriter NT

All these printers are AppleTalk/LocalTalk printers.They also need a converter from AppleTalk-over-Ethernet to AppleTalk/LocalTalk to print in Macs without a round serial/LocalTalk port and/or Macs running Mac OS X.

The AsanteTalk OR the Farallon EtherMac iPrint LT can do the conversion for you. (There is also an unsupported Apple software solution that can be run on an OS 9, 8, or 7 Mac that has both Ethernet and a round serial port.)

If you have the printer set up on your iBook under Mac OS X, you can use Mac OS X Printer Sharing to share the Printer with Windows computers using SMB protocol:

Mac OS X 10.6 Help: Sharing your printer with Windows users

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Answer 2

dlglidden Author

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Oct 6, 2010 2:35 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant,

Thanks for your reply, but I don't think you understood/addressed my primary question.

The Apple Personal Laserwriter NTR is designed to be used with Windows PCs. In addition to supporting AppleTalk for Macs it also has Parallel and Serial ports for use with PCs, i.e. it was specifically designed and built to be used with both Macs and PCs. My question is whether the Apple-supplied printer driver (which is installed on my old Windows 2000 system and is still available from Apple on their website) will work on a Windows 7 system.

I appreciate your comments on using the printer with the iBook running OS X and will definitely pursue that. But that's a secondary and non-essential issue for me. Hence the title of my post/question.

I queried HP (the maker of my new PC) and they didn't have an answer (or a clue). I suppose I could query Microsoft, but since the printer and the driver are Apple products I assumed MS would not be able to help. Worst case: I'm willing to spend twenty or so bucks to buy a Parallel to USB cable, connect the printer to the new PC and see what, if anything, happens.

Thanks again for your response.

Message was edited by: dlglidden

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Answer 3

Oct 6, 2010 5:15 PM in response to dlglidden

My advice was a bit off. I was not paying enough attention. The LaserWriter NTR is in the NEXT group of printers, and its Mac driver is built into Mac OS X:

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These are Postscript level 2 printers that do not support LPR/LPD. All these printers are LocalTalk printers. Except for those marked (Ethernet) they also need a converter from AppleTalk-over-Ethernet to AppleTalk/LocalTalk to print from Macs newer than the Beige G3 and with Mac OS X.

Personal LaserWriter NTR
Personal LaserWriter 320
LaserWriter Select 360
LaserWriter 4/600 PS

LaserWriter IIf
LaserWriter IIg (Ethernet)
LaserWriter Pro 600
LaserWriter Pro 630 (Ethernet)

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Mac users are getting a lot of mileage from using "generic Postscript driver" in Mac OS X with unknown Postscript printers. Your query about Windows is something I cannot answer, and there do not seem to be any recent postings about it here. Occasionally, a Windows expert will drop by here ( that is how we learned to extract another Windows driver to use with XP).

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