Using old unsupported Dymo Labelwriters (eg. LW310/LW320) with Windows 8

The following models of Dymo Labelwriter 300 series printers are supported by Dymo using the latest Windows 7 / 8 drivers and software:

• LabelWriter 310 (models 90966, 93029 & 93034 ONLY)
• LabelWriter 315 (model 90975 ONLY)
• LabelWriter 320 (models 90892, 93031 & 93036 ONLY)
• LabelWriter 330 (model 90891 & 93037 USB ONLY)
• LabelWriter 330 Turbo (models 90884, 93033 & 93038, USB ONLY)

Any LW300 series printers not in the above list are not supported, and will not work.

However, the following solution has been submitted to us by a Dymo customer.  This allowed an unsupported LW320 to be connected to a Windows 8 PC via wifi.  Hopefully the same solution should work with other non-supported Labelwriters, and possibly even Windows 7 as well.  

Be careful to follow the instructions exactly, if things are not done in the correct order the solution will likely fail.

Your comments re chipset are correct, the chipsets used in some older DYMO printer models did not 100% match the USB-2 specification and did not work properly anyway in some environments. Windows 8 will not talk to them at all. To solve the problem we must hide the chipset information from Windows but allow the DYMO software to see the printer which it identifies only by driver name.

Here is the solution which works well for me. Details for the 320 but should work the same for any of the older models.

The printer can NOT work connected directly to a 8.1 PC.  Buy a small network print server box with USB-2 sockets (I got an unbranded one from Amazon model WS-NU78M43 but others should work)  

Remove all the DYMO software etc from your PC (backup your address book etc first). Connect the print server to your network via cable or Wi-Fi and set it up as per manufacturers instructions. Install its support software on your PC and check it out.

Connect the DYMO printer to the server and switch it on - the light should go green in about 30 secs. Use the server software or CD to start a printer driver (not software) install. When you get to the driver selection part do NOT try to find a DYMO driver but instead use the Microsoft 'generic text only' driver (This will not work with the printer but will install and fool Windows).

Now go to Settings/devices/printers and select the DYMO printer with the wrong driver, select 'properties' then 'drivers'. There is now a button with 'add driver' click this. Now there are two list boxes - select DYMO in the left box and go down the printer (right) list to the entry for the 320 - if there are not 2 entries for the 320 you need to click the 'windows update' button to download the latest driver set for 8.1 - this took over 1/2 hour on my PC.

Now select the older 320 driver (dated 2006) - not the newer one (2013) and finish the process. Now install the latest DYMO label software (V8) - download it from the DYMO website if you are on an older version - but do NOT start it.

Restart Windows to consolidate the changes. Now start the label software and it should automatically find the printer and it should all just work. You will need to reset options and import your address book. Printing labels takes a little longer due to spooling via the server but it works. You can also now share the printer with other PC's on your network if you wish by installing the driver and software on them.

Please note: We have not tested this solution, so provide no guarantees.  It is also an unsupported solution, so we can't provide any support if you have problems with it.  

Thanks and credit to Norman Crocker for providing this solution.