USB 3.0 question re: printers and downward compatability

[Artemis@BC]

So apparently the "universal" part of USB has an asterisk beside it.

I set up my mother's new computer for her on the weekend, and everything was going tickety-boo (well, aside from training my mother, that is ... but that's a whole other issue!). Until I got to the printer, an ancient Lexmark inkjet. Windows 8 didn't have the driver for it automatically, but I was able to get it online. But after installing it, I tried to print something -- and nada. Went through the Windows trouble-shooting process and got an error message along the lines of "some USB 2.0 peripherals are not compatible with USB 3.0."

WTF?

I've googled about 8 different wordings of the problem and have not come up with anything remotely helpful.

Any suggestions? Is there any way of fooling one of the USB 3.0 ports into thinking it's a USB 2? Will a hub work? A different printer cord? Anything ??

TIA.

[Anita18]

USB 3.0 ports should be compatible with USB 2.0 cords, although you can't use a 3.0 cord on a 2.0 device. I think it's an issue with the printer. I had a pretty ancient printer with my newer Mac and didn't had trouble. Although, IIRC sometimes different USB ports have differing levels of success. I remember on my old desktop, some USB ports worked and some didn't. Did you try all of the ports on your computer? If it's new it should have at least 2.

What's the exact model of the printer? It's possible someone else has asked this question somewhere online as well.

[Artemis@BC]

I know they should be. That's why it's so frustrating that they aren't!

What's the exact model of the printer? It's possible someone else has asked this question somewhere online as well.

Yeah, I was going to try that as I was googling for answers ... unfortunately my mother has not yet answered my email with the pertinent info.

Likewise the model of her new laptop: I know some laptops have a mix of 2.0 and 3.0 ports. Though I thought I'd tried them all ...

*sigh*