I am a solo land surveying company. Will need to upgrade from Window XP to the Windows 8.1. I have some concerns if my HP DesignJet 350C will work with the new computer. 1)Does HP have a 350C driver for Windows 8.
2)I saw some info on a printer server as a work around, how does that work.
3)The HP DesignJet has a 16 pin cable, what would be the best way to connect to the computer.
Put XP in the new computer and get on down the road. Less brain damage. If you are as busy as I am, you don't need the delay of fooling with Windows 8.
It may or may not work. When I tried setting up a Win7 machine to plot to my HP500's I found Win7 drivers but they would not work. What I finally found out is that it depends on what version of firmware is in the plotter. I asked my "geek" about a firmware upgrade and he said it was indeed something I could do, but if anything went wrong you could fry the whole thing.
However, what I have found is that I can leave the plotters hooked up to an XP machine, set it up to "share", and the Win7 machine will plot just fine through the XP machine.
Following a disastrous computer crash in November I got a new computer with W8 (now upgraded to 8.1) -- I have an HP500 Designjet and when I hooked it up to the new computer (via USB) W8 automatically installed it with the proper driver. Seems to print as well as it ever did. It's one of the few things that's gone smoothly during my transition to W8.
Please dont get windows 8.
My windows 7 died and I have been going through a very bad time for 3 weeks with windows 8. I have always handled these transitions well (2 days and loving it)but not with windows 8 . It is very very bad for me.
I am afraid of Windows 8. My daughter's new laptop has it, and she likes it, but she uses it for school and games, etc.
I need a workhorse. I think, from what I hear, Microsoft has gotten away for the productivity side of things ,and moved towards the social media, playing type of operating systems.
I am planning on taking my XP machines off of the internet, and keeping them running as long as I can. I hate Vista, and probably won't like the Windows 7 much better. The darn User Account Control drives me crazy.
Good luck, hopefully things will smooth out for you soon.
Windows 7 was great with me . Things will get better cause the old machine is getting fixed 🙂
thanks !
The HP pl532 drivers work with Windows7 for many of the older plotters and are the latest drivers. You should be able to find it on the HP webpage.
Products supported: HP Designjet 200
HP Designjet 220
HP Designjet 230
HP Designjet 250c
HP Designjet 330
HP Designjet 350c
HP Designjet 430
HP Designjet 450c
HP Designjet 455ca
HP Designjet 488ca
HP Designjet 600
HP Designjet 650c
HP Designjet 700
HP Designjet 750c
HP Designjet 750c Plus
HP Designjet 755cm
HP Designjet 1050c
HP Designjet 1050c Plus*
HP Designjet 1055cm
HP Designjet 1055cm Plus*
HP Designjet 2000cp
HP Designjet 2500cp
HP Designjet 3000cp
HP Designjet 3500cp
HP Designjet Colorpro CAD
I'm running a networked HP 450c on Windows7 32 and 64 bit and it works fine.
16 wire cable? Not sure I've heard of that. Normally, they are serial (25pin but a lot fewer wires used or 9 pin) or parallel (also 25 pin). I haven't run direct parallel so I can't answer how that goes.
Good luck.
When I tried the HP driver for Win7 64-bit, my 450C would print B&W only. With a print server it works fine with color, though.
I think that is a function of the driver not working properly with the firmware as I described above.
You are right it is the 25 pin cable (not 16). I noticed the new computer do not offer this printer port any more, they have USB connection. This plotter only has the 25 pin connection.
How are you adding the connection, by adding a card to the tower, USB adapter to 25 pin, or connecting to the printer server. I notice the printer server has a either net connection to the computer and then a 25 pin to the plotter.
Thank you.
I'm using a wireless print server and can print in color.
I'm using a wireless print server, but you can easily add a parallel card if you have a desktop. Otherwise, perhaps a usb to parallel converter. Both parallel card or usb are cheap.
I haven't tried a parallel connection so I don't know whether the driver and Win7/8 would work.
Could someone provide details, or a link to info., on specifics of hooking up and printing "through" the older XP computer? This sounds like what I need to do to work with my Designjet 430, and some of my old and trusty surveying software....
Do you know which HP driver you are using with Designjet 500 and Windows 8?? I have the same setup, but my prints are shifted, I keep having to print from my old XP machine.