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!

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

112 Comments

  1. 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

  2. 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…

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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.

  6. 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!

  7. 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?

  8. 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….

  9. 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

  10. Thanks, this really assisted me in getting my plotter working on win7. Your information was spot on and it worked for me right off!

  11. 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.

  12. 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

  13. 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.

  14. 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?

  15. 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.

  16. 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?

  17. 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….

  18. 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!

  19. 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..

    • 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?

  20. 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

  21. 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?

  22. 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.

  23. Great post.. I struggled for what seemed like days with win 7 driver … vista one went smooth ! Thank you!

  24. 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?

    • 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.

  25. 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

  26. 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

  27. 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

  28. 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

  29. Replaced my Dell with Win7 with a Lenovo with Win7 and my HP500 stopped working properly… BSOD when printing from anything other than AutoCAD. Replaced the Win7 driver with Vista and all is well. Thank you for this.

  30. Hello!
    How excellent that so many people have solved their problems from this post over the years, and that you’ve maintained it all this time. Many of the posters seem to have been in the same boat as me after spending days and days trying to get their Designjet to function…only my Designjet is the 600. It may be that you have no suggestions for this model or outside the solution you have posted here, but I thought I’d try since this page is so positive and so many people visit.
    With the Designjet 600, I have the option of computers running XP and 7. I have tried both (HP does have a driver for the 600 compatible with XP), used drivers posted at other sites, tried the ‘properties’ trick listed here, and also tried the driver for the 500 with the procedure here on my computer running 7. The computer seems to think that it is printing a test (no error messages) page but nothing actually happens. I’ve uninstalled, cleaned the registry, and read every forumn I could find about this…does anyone have suggestions? I have it run through a serial to USB converter and that driver seems to install fine.
    Apologies if this is not relevant to the topic here, and thank you!

  31. Hi, I came across your blog and I seem to have the same problem. I have installed the vista driver and now am at the stage where I get the error message when I try to print the test page. I went to the printer page but I can’t find the printer presences page, or for some reason I am not getting the printer is now connected.
    If it helps I have windows 7 64 bit, am using a USB cable directly into the printer, and when i go to print anything it comes up with two instances of printing jobs in the que. I am new to this machine, I work at an elementary school and it was used for posters in the past. However the district just upgraded to Win7.

  32. We have a DJ500-42 printing from XP and a Win2K3 SBS server. We have the JetDirect 610 card placing it on the network. We only use the XP V5.32 driver because all later drivers cause problems with placement of the output on the page, printing bitmaps, and printing multiple copies. Now that we are upgrading to Win7, we have a dilemma. There is no old driver for Win7-64 bit. I was wondering if we should update the Firmware on the printer to see if that is why the newer drivers don’t work right. Any help would be appreciated!

  33. Please help???
    I’ve just bought an HP 800ps 42″ and I’m getting repeating ink cartridge error messages.
    I aligned heads, ran test prints, plugged it in to pc to run some canvas prints and Cyan and Magenta came up with an error after 2 prints.
    Cartridge supplier sent replacements as the assumption was faulty cartridges. They worked for several prints then Yellow and Magenta failed. Cartridge supplier replaced them, it worked again for another few prints then cartridge error appeared again, with the magenta seeming to be the main culprit throughout. I now have 3 sets of ink, with Magenta failing on all 3.
    This now pointed towards a printer error.
    As per the service manual, I’ve replaced the ink supply station and ink supply tubes, supplied by the printer supplier. This didn’t fix it and problem remained with the Magenta.
    Supplier agreed to replace printer. I took the ink and print heads with me to replicate the one I was replacing.
    Turned it on, loaded the inks, magenta failed?

    This took the error away from the printer again due to error now happening on 2 printers pointing back towards the ink, as the printer supplier had no issue with the magenta cartridge he had.
    Am I just being unlucky with ink here or is there something more to it?
    Although the supplier put a cartridge in and it worked, where my original hp’s didn’t, I’m not convinced it will last with yet another set of cartridges that I have coming to me from ink supplier.
    Common denominator here being the Magenta inks, although, one or two others have failed once from the 3 sets, inconsistently.
    I fear the replacements will work for a few prints as before and the errors will appear again.
    Is this something to do with drivers?
    I have no experience in this field at all.
    Any help would be much appreciated.
    Thanks,
    John O’Farrell

    • I’m not going to be able to help you there I’m afraid. Best I can think is that the printer has a fault, you’d need to talk to the people you bought it off of or go straight to HP. Have you checked HP’s help forums?

      Sorry! 🙂

  34. I have a HP designjet 500 with HP Jetdirect 500x box. I am running Windows 7. I can print a test page from the pc, but when I try to print anything else (ie .dwg, .pdf, .wrd) my computer goes to blue screen and then reboots. Any thoughts/fixes?

    • Not sure I can think of anything I’m afraid…. however the comment quoted below (see above for rest of conversation) maybe of use:

      “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.”

  35. I’m not a comp wiz, but is this the formatter card that I need? I have a hp800ps 42 & get a 5:10 error on the face of the printer – when i go to print i get rip error. really confused big time. any help would be appreciated – was told that if it was networked i would not need a formatter card – does this make any sense whatsoever??? Thanks very much, Chuck Tucker

  36. I got a weird issue at a client site.
    They have a plotter (HP DesignJet 500-24), deployed by script, print server is their SBS server (2011 Standard).
    he printer object on the server is just fine, bidirectional support is switched off (default switched on might cause issues). The print server holds the most actual drivers, 32/64 BIT, additional I updated the firmware for the NIC on the printer itself.
    Two workstations Win 7 64 BIT experience the following:
    During normal work the mentioned Plotter just drops out of the “devices and Printers” folder, randomly.
    It can be re-added by double-clicking it in the network environment, or by rebooting the whole PC.
    All other PC’s (XP) are doing fine, only those Win 7 64 have this problem.
    Only option left I see right now, might be to bypass the print server, but I want to do this only if nothing else works.

    • I’ve not seen this problem, could it be down to how Windows 7 looks at the network, I wonder? Since all the other PCs work okay I doubt it’s the server. I have no solution for you but you could try looking at issues relating to Windows 7 not seeing devices on the network… Do a google search.

      We currently (as we’re a small office) use a network USB hub (Belkin http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-F5L009uk-Network-USB-Hub/dp/B000WQ9BPM) then people who are connected basically request use via software to whoever is using it. It’s the digital equivalent of unplugging the USB cable and plugging it into another PC.

      Sorry I can’t be of more help!

  37. Hi there,
    Working on windows 8, I’m having some issues regarding the installation process. Indeed, after following your instructions, the test page did not work as intended. But even though I clicked on preferences, no dialogue box came stating that the printer is now connected. Whenever I try to test print again, same error message, that test print couldn’t continue.

    I assume it’s because of windows 8, as I noticed that all the earlier posts here are related to windows 7. What do you suggest me to do? It’s driving me crazy…!

    Thanks!
    Sanjay

  38. Hi guys,

    I work for a specialist construction company and I spend a lot of my time plotting out architects drawings for our projects, but our HP Designjet 510ps has a really strange problem. It begins printing a drawing but crashes exactly halfway through. The menu screen on the device is frozen and it’s impossible to communicate with it via PC. The only part-solution is to turn it off at the mains and switch it back on, but this still leaves us with the problem that prints half a drawing and crashes every time.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks for your suggestions/keeping this blog alive!

    Paul

    • Okay I can’t solve your problem but I would do some troubleshooting first, does this happen from only one program or all programs? If you’re printing from a PDF adobe reader could be your problem. But if this happens when printing from say AutoCAD and Adobe Reader then you’re looking I would have thought at printer drivers or a printer problem. Working on the principle of turn it off and on again, may I suggest you either make sure you have the most recent software drivers or uninstall and the reinstall them. Better yet take a laptop that has never used the plotter and install the drivers on that, do you still get the problem? If you do are you using windows 8/7/vista or XP? This might still be the issue. Failing that you might look at updating the firmware (http://h30413.www3.hp.com/SupportServices/country/us/en/Firmware_Fileinfo.Html-Fw_Local_Id=1881+new_Product=500.Htm ).

      Mucking about with firmware is not to be taken lightly in my experience I’ve not done it on my plotter but if all else fails this might help. To be honest most issues I’ve had with the HP500 has been a local software issue, Adobe Reader being the main culprit. Try everything else before looking to a firmware update, it could be as simple as too much data being sent to it.

      Hope this helps and thanks for reading!

  39. I bought a used hp 800ps 42″ printer, missing the formatter card.I have windows 7 64 bit and am running a flexisign 8 program for graphics, and Ive tried doing what you said- well it prints the test page fine, but when I go to print with flexisign I get a rip error… Is that something simple to fix? Thanks alot for any help, Chuck Tucker

  40. I have a HP Desgnjet 755CM that I would like to get working on a Windows 7 32bit machine.
    Can some one help with a driver that will work please.

  41. I’ve tried all of the driver downloads for my 500-42; both win9 and vista. When you run the file (any of them!!) it opens an unzip dialog instead of the installation dialog. I’ve tried unpacking the zip files and non of them contain a executable or driver file. Im running win7 64. I haven’t read through all of the comments, but I haven’t found this issue. Any comments are appreciate.

  42. My pc is using window 8 program and x32 bits but when install autocad latest software or arcmap 10 or others software which latest I am unable to do so

  43. I’ve managed to make my DJ 500 work on Windows 8.1, but I noticed that driver page looks different.
    On Windows XP there were color management options like “Match screen”, “Vivid colors” and so on, but I can’t find them on Windows 8.1.

    On Win XP driver name is “HP DesignJet 500 42 by HP”.
    On win 8.1 it’s “HP Designjet 500 42 by HP”.

    Does anyone know where I can get driver with advanced color management? Thanks.

  44. I HAVE A DJ600,IT RUNS THRU A SERVER AND IS CONNECTED INTO A PARRALLEL 3 PORT HP DIRECTJET HUB
    IT WAS WORKING ON A WIN XP COMPUTER AND I JUST UPDATED MY COMPUTER TO WIN 8.1.
    THE PROBLEM I HAVE IS THAT WHEN I TRY TO INSTALL THE DRIVER FOR XP7 IT COMES UP WITH
    PRINTER DRIVER NOT INSTALLED
    THE HASH FOR THIS FILE IS NOT PRESENT IN THE SPECIFIED CATALOG FILE THIS FILE IS LIKELY CORRUPT OR THE VICTIM OF TAMPERING.
    I’V DISABLED THE DRIVERS AUTHENTICATION.
    I’VE TRIED AN ADAPTER usb to parallel CABLE
    I’VE TRIED SETTING IT UP AS A LOCAL PRINTER BUT CAN’T GET PAST THAT PRINTER DRIER NOT INSTALL POINT

  45. i have tried almost everything i read here nothing seems to work, we have an HP Design Jet 500 42-in plotter,got windows 7, i downloaded the suggested drivers etc, but the plotter is 24-in n wont allow to print A0. please help

    • Same boat as you, found something in a post a little more than halfway down related to some obscure Windows setting, it seemed to do the trick:

      http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Printers-Designjet-Large-Format/No-driver-for-Designjet-500-plotter-for-Windows-7-64-bit/td-p/2327727#.U7Mfm_ldWPZ

      We had exact same problem my friend. My company has two fairly powerful 32bit XP machines and we’ve just bought a 64 bit pc preloaded with Windows 7. We plot via an ancient Netgear PS110 print server onto the parallel port of a HP 500+GL 24″ Plotter.

      The 64 bit Windows 7 machine wouldn’t plot with any driver; I decided to test Windows 7 before rolling it out any further, by installing it on my XP 32 bit machine and that stopped being able to print as well.

      Eventually we decided it might be the Print Server (it wasn’t) and accidentally found the cure on a Netgear support site.

      This is the response posting:-

      Here’s how to use your (Netgear PS110) with Vista: *(It worked with Windows 7 as well)

      Open Control Panel and double-click Programs and Features.

      Click Turn Windows Features on or off

      Expand Print Services and check LPR Port Monitor and click OK. This will take a few minutes to install.

      Now go to Control Panel/Printers and Add a Printer. Select Create a New Port, choose LPR Port and click Next.

      Put the IP address of the PS110 and give it a name. I used PS326184_P1, which is the port name the Netgear software chose when using the PS110 on XP.

      Print away….

      *Kev adds:- so the issue wasn’t the driver, but the fact that something wasn’t turned on in Windows 7that was needed to work with the Plotter. Note that Windows 7 has ‘programs and features’ in a very stupid place; you open control panel and go to ‘uninstall programs’ and then ‘programs and features’ then onto ‘print services’ before you can locate the checkbox for LPR Port Monitor.

      Also the dumb thing is, you install it as a LOCAL printer (not network) even though ours was on a print server, we then waited for the LPR thing to take effect. On the W7 64 bit machine it happened smoothly, but on the W7 32 bit machine it got stuck, but when I rebooted it was ticked so tried it and it printed.

      So the issue with us wasn’t the driver, but with the fact that LPR Port Monitor (whatever that is) wasn’t enabled by default in Windows7 either 32 or 64bit preloaded versions. The Print Server was irelevant.

      I am now trying to get our Server to do the same but no success so far, which doesn’t matter, but it would have been tidier to do the Plotter via a shared printer on our server.

      If you wish to discuss further I’m going to type all this up for future updates and after I retire, to store in the computer file, and can send you a copy

      Cheers

      Kevin Armstrong

  46. I have just purchased a HP510PS 24″ plotter off ebay for £2.20 with a failed GL/2 card I took into the local plotter repair centre to see if anything else needed doing and they did a quick check and AOK’ed it with have a service in 6/9 months time So I need a way around the GL/2 card whilst I get one It has a Jet 2 card and I use business Windows 7 64 bit

  47. After extracting the downloaded exe-file, the extracted files are all missing the last last character in their file extensions, e.g. hpdj524.da
    Renaming the files (da -> dat, ex -> exe and so forth) doesn’t help.
    This happens with all driver files I try to download from HP for the DJ printers (in fact, I’m looking for a Win 7/64 driver for the DJ 5000PS).
    Any idea about the file extension problems? Or where to get extracted driver from, preferrably for the DJ 5000PS?
    Thanks!

    • Good question. I also downloaded a driver from the HP site with missing last characters, I was like WTF is this nonsense?? I didn’t end up using them (win10 designjet 500 42″).

  48. Can’t get my HP DJ500 to work on my Windows 8.1 laptop. I have 3USB 3.0 ports on the laptop. Is a special driver required?

  49. Would it be possible to use the HP Designjet 450C with windows 8.1 (64bit)? it seems all the available drivers are only for 32bit.

  50. Thank you! I fought with this all day yesterday. Found your site this morning, downloaded the Windows 8 driver, and set it up on my Windows 10 computer in nothing flat – and now it’s printing perfectly!

  51. Hi. As vikingheart (Spet 9,2014) and base1379 (Sept 6,2016) mentioned, the last letters of the files extension are missing. What to do?

  52. I’m having a problem with plotting on hp designjet 600
    cpu running xp
    have changed as many settings on both the cpu and the plotter that I can think of.
    Plotter will print full plot on 36″ wide paper, but not on 24″. I’m not a newby. But can’t figure out why it won’t print to 24″ wide paper.
    Any ideas.
    I’ve tried rotating 90 deg in the plotter, no good
    tried rotating in the print page on cpu.
    tried picking a different size ANSI D, ARCH D etc.
    Gotta be something simple, maybe ADOBE problem?
    Any help would be appreciated.
    THanks

  53. Awesome help available here, thank you.

    As someone who has bought an old but little used designJet 500 (with the HPGL2 card thingy) I am finding it a great printer to play around with.

    There is one “irk” that I struggling with an wonder if you or any others have ideas on how to solve the issue.

    I have been wanting to do some LARGE (as in side of Luton Van) temporary adverts for a friend’s music promotions business and although I can print out multiple strips of 610mm paper, even with small margins, it will obviously not “join” very well.

    Overlaying one image on top (instead of a butt joint) gets the gap down to 5 mm but at the moment, hand trimming with a straight edge is needed – and with the best effort possible, not an easy thing to do to a 12′ wide printout.

    I am wondering if there is any merit in buying the 597mm (I think that was it) and then telling the printer it is 610mm. Will this then give me a borderless print on at least one side OR does it “know” the width of roll it has been given? Certainly it insists on one edge being against the guide (so cannot fool it both sides) but not sure about the other.

    I realise I might get some ink on the roller but I am prepared to live with that.

    Just wondered if anyone else has either found a way to fool the printer into doing borderless (at least one side) OR found a GOOD way to trim the margins off LONG banners with fairly modest tools and a lack of a 12′ wide cutting platform.

    Also keen to have a go at themed wallpaper for the spare bedroom – but the same issue with borders keeps coming up.

    I don’t regret buying the printer at all – £170 including two sets of HP brand spare ink – but I would love to find a way to be able to print mutli-sheet images.

    Any ideas would be really welcome, thank you!

    Mark

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