HP DesignJet 500 and Windows 7: Yes it does work even without the HPGL2 card!
Updated (04/12/2012): To include information about how to get the 450c to work with Windows 8 after a conversation with @AlbanyDriver on twitter. I also think this technqiue will probably work for Windows 8 as well.
Updated (22/June/2012):
Updated (08/May/2010): this post was partially rewritten to clarify which file you should download.
Unbelievably this is the most popular post on my blog, I honestly get 1000+ hits a month just on this page. If you like it and have more to add please send me a message or add a comment below. Thank you for reading!
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| Source: hp.com |
Okay this is a quick one, if you have a HP DesignJet 500 without that HPGL2 card and want to upgrade to Windows 7 (or 8) or have done so and can’t seem to get it to work, try the following.
We use our HP DesignJet for all things GIS and AutoCAD so it’s important we have this working!
You may have noticed that HP only has Windows 7 drivers for the DJ500 with the HPGL2 card in the driver package called either:
- HP Designjet 500, 510, and 800 HP-GL/2 and HP RTL 32-bit Driver or
- HP Designjet 500, 510, and 800 HP-GL/2 and HP RTL 64-bit Driver
So don’t download those drivers, make sure you download the drivers from Vista equivalent (in my case Vista 32bit). This file is called either:
- HP DesignJet 500 PCL3GUI 32-bit Driver or
- DesignJet 500 PCL3GUI 64-bit Driver
Click here to go direct to the HP DJ 500 driver download site.
Add your printer in the usual way in Windows 7, (if you are adding it over the network you may want to look at my previous post).
After the install it will ask if you want to Print a Test Page, it was here that I was getting an error message (about the HP driver not being able to connect to the printer) and just assumed it wasn’t working. If you get an error message and no test page try this:
- Select the printer in the printer browser, and view the printer properties.
- On the page with the print test page button there is another button next to it called printing preferences, click on this and it should bring up a dialog box stating that the printer is now connected.
- Now try to print that test page.
Okay so I don’t know why I couldn’t print the test page straight off but accessing the designjets plotter preferences did help.
Again if this post is not clear, or you require any help, just let me know.
Have you got an HP 450C and want it to work with Windows 8 (32bit)? @AlbanyDriver got in contact and asked me if I could help, after some searching on forums about making it work on Windows 7, I suggested he used the Windows XP 32bit drivers which seemed to work!
Updated Link Added for my previous post adding printers over a network: http://geoplanit.blogspot.com/2010/01/very-slow-printer-dialog-boxes-in.html
Posted in 67 Responses to “HP DesignJet 500 and Windows 7: Yes it does work even without the HPGL2 card!”
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Did you attend the GeoDesign Summit 2013?
Thanks. The Vista 64 driver worked for Windows 7. Test page printed immediately.
Im running windows 7 64 bit, but cant get it to work. I dont get the dialog box popping up once i click printer preferences. grrr
thanks!
i had a lot of troubles with the Win7 32bit drivers, Vista's drivers have been a success
I'm glad this post is proving to be of some value, as to the dialog box not popping up I've found that sometimes dialog boxes can 'lose focus' and be under other dialogs… try the show desktop (bottom right hand corner button in Windows 7) and then click it again to bring all your windows backup (it sometimes forces them back in the correct stacking order….). Just a thought…
I just did this (Vista x64 driver on Win7 64) and it works ok now, at first the test page wouldn't print then I went into printing preferences, although no message came up the next test I printed worked
can you post a link to your previous post regarding adding it over a network?
I've placed a link for adding network printers to the post. The solution in regards to the HP500 requires that it is connected to your network via a printer server (like this one http://www.netgear.co.uk/usb_print_server_ps121.php),certainly ours is although not using this particular printer server.
Thanks for the post, it worked just as you said it would with windows 7! Thanks a ton – you saved me hours of frustration! -Jim
Glad to be of help Jim, if there's anything else you can contact me in various ways (comments here or Twitter…)
thanks
You're welcome!
Unreal that HP would mess something like this up. Makes you really wonder what type of idiots manage their site sometimes.
Thanks for the info. Worked a charm. Spent a good amount of time trying the various non DesignJet 500ps settings with no success only to stumble on this page.
Glad you stumbled in the right direction! As to HP like all tech companies they tend to forget their old products…. which is a shame because the HP is a workhorse of the company I work for!
I am about to hook up my HP design jet 500 to my new Windows 7 computer, and glad I came across this info. I previously connected my DJ500 printer with the old style printer cable ("LPT-1" I think). How do I physically connect the DJ500, since the new computers do not have that old style printer port? There appears to be a USB port on the back of the DJ500 as well. Do I need to do anything different with the setup, or just plug it in?
Hi, and Happy New Year! Yes you can just use the USB port that's there. Windows 7 should cope (provided you follow my instructions in the post). You can also connect it to your network via a printer server….
Thanks a bunch for this post.. it helped me immensely.
PS- I love the name of your blog. Geeky? Maybe. But oh so clever!
Hola te cuento, tengo un plotter 510 a este se le echo a perder la tarjeta hp-gl/2. Tú de casualidad sabes cómo lo puedo hacer funcionar sin esta tarjeta bueno mientras me compro otra. Gracias
Thanks, this helped me get my Designjet 500 on windows 7 64. Very usefull.
Thanks, this really assisted me in getting my plotter working on win7. Your information was spot on and it worked for me right off!
Thank you,
Seems to work!
Thank You so much.
It worked right away. This is something that we just wouldn’t think of doing especially when there is a listed Windows 7 DRIVER.
Thanks again.
Thanks a lot dear, after removing the hp GL/2 CARD THE PLOTTER IS WORKING ABSOLUTELY FINE AND NO NEED TO INSTALL THE VISTA32 DRIVERS IN MY CASE THE WINDOWS 7 AUTOMATICALLY TAKE THE HP 500 DJ DRIVERS WITHOUT HP GL/2 CARD.
Many thanks for putting this up, I was tearing my hair out.
The really relevant part for me (apart from the correct driver) was:
“On the page with the print test page button there is another button next to it called printing preferences, click on this and it should bring up a dialog box stating that the printer is now connected.”
This was the error message I was getting in the plotter window
Error processing job
Flushing rest of job
Once again
THANKS
MUCHAS GRACIAS TROPEZE MUCHO CON ESTE PLOTTER PERO AHORA FUNCIONA DE MARAVILLA
Unable to find GUI driver GL2 driver from HP shows the printer properties in like a foreign language (chinese). Able to print fine, but unable to ready properties to manipulate print jobs.
I installed this plotter last week. Go to Printers and Faxes, Add printer, add it as normal and when it comes to the point to install the driver click the Update Windows button, wait about 5 minutes (or more depending on the behavior of your pc) and once it refreshes choose HP and the HP Designjet 500 42 by HP driver will be there. Choose that and it will work. Worked for me and all 4 computers I installed it on
The only thing is I do not seem to have the ARCH paper settings. I don’t really know what those are, I’ve tried installing other drivers just to see if the ARCH paper settings show up in Printer Preferences (or custom) and I got nothing. Do you have to run a certain software to get the ARCH settings?
Great Post
Tks a lot !!!!
=D
can you repost the information of installing hp designjet 500 on windows 7 over the network
The post you’re looking for is here , sorry I forgot to change the link when I imported from blogger! Hope this helps
Thanks a lot !
Thanks alot for your help. I had a big big problem installing the software in windows 7 64bit. but after going through your blog help, i managed to install the plotter. Thanks a million.
Thank you !
We have an Hp designjet 500 24 connected to my windows xp 32 bit which acts as a server for four other pcs, 3 of which are windows 7 64 bit. All 3 of them can’t print. Please help by step-bystep info on what I should do to resolve this.
Well, I’m not an IT admin support type someone so I can’t guide you through any driver issues you may have with Windows XP. First suggestion is to look at your server requirements and if you need an upgrade soon perhaps just upgrade now and the problem will probably go. Maybe if you are just using it as a file server purchase a NAS drive with some USB ports? Personally I wouldn’t rock the boat with your server and I would suggest purchasing a printer server or something like the Belkin USB hub. That way you’re not changing how you work with file storage on the network and are not reliant on the XP PC being on to print.
Hope that helped a little?
I’m still lost. Can i not install the vista 64 bit drivers onto the 64bit PC’s only? Hopefully it might solve the prob?
I’m not sure, as you are using Windows XP as a server, I’m not sure how it would work. Try plugging one PC into the plotter and seeing if that works, then you would know it is a problem with the server at least. Also you could use one of the new PCs to share it’s plotter connection, that should work. Have you tried the HP help forums, or support pages? I’m really not an IT person that can get into that much detail with you….
You have no idea how much time you have saved me. Thank you so much. I spent 2weeks figuring out how to install hp designjet 500ps 42 drivers on windows 7 x64 using hp’s windows 7 drivers. I had to format my pc and do a clean installation but to no avail. Thanks and yes I used the vista x64 drivers and within seconds the plotter was working like charm. I just bought you a drink!
Glad to be of help! Enjoy the drink may I suggest a nice fresh blonde beer perhaps?
Okay I managed to install the windows vista 64 bit drivers on one of the laptops and its working fine through the network. The other pc installs the vista driver but when I try to print from Autocad it ‘bombs’ out, i.e, it gives a blue screen and then restarts. Eish…
Glad one worked anyway, sorry I thought you had already installed the vista drivers, so my previous answers were not that helpful…
As to the crashing, can you print from another program? Is it only autocad that gives you blue screens when printing? I sometimes have trouble printing from autocad and will export or ‘print’ to a PDF first instead..
I’m tried printing a word document and it also crashed. And this PC is new. Any ideas?
I’ve also tried printing a word document and it also crashed. Any ideas?
Try removing the printer (under Devices and Printers, right-click and select “remove device”), then navigate using using the network browser to the printer (I guess located on the server PC) and double click the plotter icon, it should prompt you to install the plotter, when prompted use the new drivers (vista ones). Other than that I’m not sure….
If anyone is reading, any ideas?
Thanks. The Vista 64 driver worked for Windows 7. Test page printed immediately.
Thank you very much.
You are the best
Tu es le meilleur.
Si Ragg
You’re welcome, glad this post is still helping people!
I can now print a test page, when I try to print a blue screen flashes and the PC restarts. Could it be the version of windows? I mean could it be that I’m using Home Premium and not something else like Ultimate?
I do not know sorry, perhaps you could try the HP support forums?
Elliot Hartley, I’ve found out what the problem was, I was using autocad 2007, so I’ve installed another copy of autocad and now I can print ok. So I think the newer versions of Autocad also deal with this problem a bit. Thanks a lot for the help.
You’re welcome, glad you’ve solved the problem!
Great post.. I struggled for what seemed like days with win 7 driver … vista one went smooth ! Thank you!
Oh Thanks. Really this windows vista drivers work in windows 7.
hanks a lot for the help.
Thanks, it did work very nice, when i select in autocad it does work, great. Thanks again.
Thank you for posting your driver solution!
Im not sure I would have tried a vista driver.
Works great now!
Thanks again.
Bill S.
You are my solution. Thank you!
Thanks for posting this solution!
Works with WIN7 64 bit!!!
Thanks!
Hi Elliot, me again. The drivers work perfectly when printing from Autocad or PDF’s but it gives an error when tryingto print from microsoft excel.
Any ideas?
I’ve got nothing I’m afraid! It all works for me… sorry
Great post! All worked immediately without issue. Many thanks!
As it turns out, it works when doing basic test prints but BSODs when printing technical diagrams from Adobe Acrobat. Such a shame.
I’m sorry to read that, I’ve not had this exact problem. I would however suggest that you try one more thing… Sounds odd but create a new user on your PC and try printing the document from the new account. We’ve had a similar problem solved this way before.
Hi Ron,
we had similar problems using W7x64 printing complex PDFs (exported from Autocad); the solution for use was to disable SpoolSmart in Advanced Settings.
Once again Thanks to Elliot for the article!
Paolo.
Driver pl532en works for HP DesignJet 750C+ on Windows 7 (64 bit).
The driver also appears to support:
• HP DesignJet ColorPro CAD by HP
• HP DesignJet 3500CP by HP
• HP DesignJet 3000CP by HP
• HP DesignJet 2500CP by HP
• HP DesignJet 2000CP by HP
• HP DesignJet 750C+ (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 750C+ (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 755CM(C3198B)by HP
• HP DesignJet 700 (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 700 (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 488CA (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 488CA (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 455CA (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 455CA (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 450C (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 450C (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 750C (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 750C (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 755CM(C3198A)by HP
• HP DesignJet 350C (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 350C (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 330 (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 330 (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 650C(C2859B) by HP
• HP DesignJet 650C(C2858B) by HP
• HP DesignJet 650C(C2859A) by HP
• HP DesignJet 650C(C2858A) by HP
• HP DesignJet 600 (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 600 (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 250C (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 250C (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 200 (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 200 (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 220 (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 220 (D/A1) by HP
• HP DesignJet 230 (E/A0) by HP
• HP DesignJet 230 (D/A1) by HP
Hello,
I have a designjet 500 plus with the HP/LG2 card (printer is at remote site so I dont have physical access to it)
I cannot get any drivers to work – windows 7 64 bit or the vista 64 bit drivers
when I print a test page, 2 jobs are send to the queae – the print queue on the server looks like its printing for a few minutes then I get an error “error Printing”, i then cancel the job and the status changes to “Error – Sent to printer”??????????????????
any ideas
boas nao consigo instalar as drivers da hp500 24p rolo printer porque na pasta da hp nao aparece o exe ou o setup para instalar uma ajuda help please…
obrigado
It’s Works!!! Thank you very much
Problem with hp designjet 450. It plotted 100% with windows XT. I upgraded to Windows 7 and can not get quality plots.
Can you suggest a driver that will work with Windows 7 (32bit) to plot Caddie 15 or Autocad drawings.
Please help!!!
Johan