That may well be the answer, Hugh. I had a LOT of difficulty installing the driver. I re-installed it many times before getting it to work. Perhaps all of those re-installations caused the problem. Do you think I should tamper with it now that I finally got it to work? David Grossman -----Original Message----- From: pcworks-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pcworks-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Hugh Vandervoort Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 3:32 AM To: pcworks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [PCWorks] Converter/adapter from parallel printer port to USB port That kind of gibberish has always indicated a bad driver to me. The fact that it prints OK afterward is confusing. Try reinstalling the driver. On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 9:10 PM, David Grossman <dgrossman@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I haven't used this printer in a while, so I don't recall whether it > happened after I hooked up the adapter. I assume that I would have recalled > if it happened before. > Here's the text: > %-13355YAQKM!CCOMMEOU!IQ!MasesKeu!7MAQKM!SEU!QAGEQSOUECU=OGGAQKM!SEU!QAGEQSO > UEC > All on one line. > David Grossman ========================= The list's FAQ's can be seen by sending an email to PCWorks-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with FAQ in the subject line. To unsubscribe, subscribe, set Digest or Vacation to on or off, go to //www.freelists.org/list/pcworks . You can also send an email to PCWorks-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with Unsubscribe in the subject line. Your member list settings can be found at //www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/lsg2.cgi/l=pcworks . Once logged in, you have access to numerous other email options. The list archives are located at //www.freelists.org/archives/pcworks/ . All email posted to the list will be placed there in the event anyone needs to look for previous posts. -zxdjhu-