Some time ago I described my disappointment (and disbelief) that HP doesn't offer a color driver for the 450C plotter that works with the 64-bit version of Windows 7. I did find a 3rd-party driver that works, but at $200 it seemed like more than I should have to invest to do what I was easily able to do under Windows XP.
As a short-term solution I hooked my old XP machine back up so I could run color prints through it to the 450C, but it takes forever to boot as well as taking up floor space.
In [msg=93879]this post[/msg] Floyd Carrington said that he's running a 450C with 64-bit Windows 7 through a print server. The server model he's using, an HP JetDirect 170X, is a 2000-vintage 10BaseT device. For my needs the network speed would be insignificant, so I checked eBay and found dozens of them available. I bought one for a shade over $25 shipped, and it arrived yesterday. After configuring it for my network (which mostly meant resetting factory defaults and having Windows find the printer), I was able to run color prints from my 64-bit workstation to the 450C without trouble.
The print server is small, quiet, draws little power, boots instantly and has no moving parts. For $25 it's looking like a great solution to an annoying problem.
Thanks, Floyd!
Jim,
Great job in solving that problem. Maybe if HP can replace their current CEO things will change. The stock is down 50% from 11 months ago and word has it ANY replacement of the CEO would be of benefit.
Print server or not, isn't the driver that Windows 7 uses the same? Is the problem really a missing USB driver for Windows 7 64 bit?
> Print server or not, isn't the driver that Windows 7 uses the same? Is the problem really a missing USB driver for Windows 7 64 bit?
I don't know much about print servers, so the best answer I can give is "apparently not." USB isn't an issue here, as my 450C only talks via a Centronics parallel port.
I do know that the only 64-bit drivers I found were the B&W-only from HP, and the third-party color driver. They both work, but the former doesn't print in color and the latter costs about $175 more than I wanted to spend.
The network driver seems to be a very different animal. When I set up the printer in Windows 7, it downloaded a driver from somewhere (Microsoft, I guess) that took half a second to fetch and install, after which I was able to print in color via the print server.
All I can say for sure is that it works, and for only 25 bucks I'm pretty happy with the results.
I'm having no luck getting my HP 430 to communicate with my Win 7 Pro 64 bit OS. I got a USB to parallel cable hoping that it would work. So far, no such luck.
Some websites suggested using the Vista driver. Got that installed. Still no luck.
Sounds like you have a solution that might work here as well. Care to give any further detail on exactly how?
Thanks in advance.
Larry P
> Sounds like you have a solution that might work here as well. Care to give any further detail on exactly how?
To a certain extent it's magic to me, but here's what I did:
1. Bought the print server. There are newer and faster (and more expensive) ones out there, but because Floyd was successfully using the JetDirect 170X and because they're plentiful on eBay, that's what I bought. For 25 bucks I figured I had little to lose. Make sure you get the power brick with it, or have a spare brick available with the right connector.
2. Plugged the print server (a box about the size of a router or modem) into its power brick, a network cable, and the plotter. (Your computer has to be networked, and the network has to have an available port. That shouldn't be a problem for any office these days, even the tiniest of home offices like mine.)
3. Did a factory reset on the print server (power off, press the Test button, power on and release the Test button afer 5 seconds), which sets the IP address to 192.0.0.92. Supposedly the device will pick up an address from your network's DHCP server, but I manually configured mine to 192.168.1.100 via its embedded web server. (Just type 192.0.0.92 into your browser's address bar, and when the page loads go to the Configuration tab to set the IP address). If the plotter's not connected and on when you do this it'll say "device not connected," but that doesn't seem to affect the ability to specify the print server address.
4. Made sure the plotter was on, then went to the Windows printer utility and hit Add Printer. Windows didn't find the printer automatically, so I had to specify the IP address. Once it found it, I think it downloaded a network driver (this is the magic part), because I saw a very brief message about that. The message disappeared after half a second or so, thus I'm not really sure what went on. I gave the printer a name ("HP-450C Network") so I could positively identify it later.
5. Looked at my Windows printer page, and there it was. I sent a test plot from AutoCAD, and voila -- colors!
Is the plotting speed comparable with a parallel port connection with XP?
HP Jetdirect 170x is 10Base-T (Ethernet)
Jetdirect 300x is 10Base-T or 10Base-Tx (Fast Ethernet)
I wonder if the 300x would work also.
The 450c manual lists the JetDirect EX Plus, 10Base-T
> Is the plotting speed comparable with a parallel port connection with XP?
For my applications, data transfer speed has never been an issue. Spitting ink on the media has always taken longer than getting data to the plotter.
> I wonder if the 300x would work also.
Probably. They're certainly cheap enough to experiment with; I see some on eBay that are in the $25 range or less, including shipping.
I think the issue is really whether Windows 7 is able to query your printer and figure out exactly what type it is across a parallel port or not. This is a real common issue with usb to parallel adapters, and any device that emulates any other interface in general. Is this what you were trying to use before? In any case, I think now that you have the correct driver installed (it is very common now that Microsoft is the only supplier of print drivers for older equipment, these will never show up on HP's website) that you could in fact hook the printer back to your computer's parallel port, and then change the port back to LPT1 (or whatever) by editing the Windows printer settings, and everything may just work the way you expect it.
I have a similar setup to you, Win 7 Pro 64bit and a Belkin USB to Parallel cable, but I have no trouble communicating with the plotter. My driver is "HP DesignJet Printer Driver v4.83" downloaded from HP. If you haven't already try downloading that driver. Let me know how you make out.
> I think the issue is really whether Windows 7 is able to query your printer and figure out exactly what type it is across a parallel port or not. This is a real common issue with usb to parallel adapters, and any device that emulates any other interface in general. Is this what you were trying to use before?
No, I had the 450C connected directly to a parallel port on my computer.
> In any case, I think now that you have the correct driver installed (it is very common now that Microsoft is the only supplier of print drivers for older equipment, these will never show up on HP's website) that you could in fact hook the printer back to your computer's parallel port, and then change the port back to LPT1 (or whatever) by editing the Windows printer settings, and everything may just work the way you expect it.
I'll poke around a bit later and see if that works. For the time being, I have a plotter that's functional again, and I need to use it!
> I have a similar setup to you, Win 7 Pro 64bit and a Belkin USB to Parallel cable, but I have no trouble communicating with the plotter. My driver is "HP DesignJet Printer Driver v4.83" downloaded from HP.
I'm having trouble locating that driver version. Did you find it by searching for a specific DesignJet model?
Double check ECP is enabled in the computer bios as well. Honestly, a print server is nice if you have multiple computers that plot to them. I'd stick with it irregardless.
It's been almost a year since I up graded my computer, but I believe this is the driver I used Hp Vista 64 bit driver
I hope this helps.
