printer cable issues

[p.larner]

I have a hpcp-1515 laserjet printer,this is my second one as the toner transfer belt broke on the first one,anyway getting to the point,The first printer worked fine on the end of a 5m usb2 extension cable,this new one wont,it throws an unknown device error,it is ok on the normal printer cable tho,what can cause this,maybe a bad cap or resistor drifted on the printer io pcb?.

[moffy]

The fact it works on the shorter cable means the USB is OK, but 5m for a 480Mb/s connection, there is plenty of possibility for signal distortion, attenuation etc. Even though the spec says 5m is acceptable it's going to be dependent also on the devices and the cable. You also get printer to printer variations and model revisions so it's hard to tell. You could try a hub or repeater in between and two shorter cables maybe.