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Come on HP - I need the driver for Windows 7 64 bits for my HP Laserjet 1300 series.

I installed a generic driver which works OK for some applications.

But when using my Stenograph application the box that should be printed

around the text on the printed page is NOT correct: I only see the top and left side of the box shifted by 3 inches.

52 REPLIES 52
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Me too!  :mansad:
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@rsassine wrote:

Come on HP - I need the driver for Windows 7 64 bits for my HP Laserjet 1300 series.I installed a generic driver which works OK for some applications.

But when using my Stenograph application the box that should be printed

around the text on the printed page is NOT correct: I only see the top and left side of the box shifted by 3 inches.


Which driver did you install? When I went through the normal process of looking for a driver for my LJ1300, I got to a page that said that HP didn't have a Win 7 x64 driver (and there was no indication that any was coming), and offered instead the "universal print driver."  I had tried that on Vista x64 and found the install very confusing, so I wanted to avoid it if possible.

 

Based on another thread here, I connected my LJ1300 to my Win 7 x64 computer with its USB cable with the Win 7 computer connected to the Internet.  Sure enough, Windows recognized the device and then started looking for drivers. First it found the USB_DOT4 driver, then a PRN_DOT4 Driver, and finally -- after several minutes -- found a printer driver that it liked. It downloaded and installed whatever it found and finally the LJ1300 was installed. I then re-connected the LJ 1300 to my XP computer and changed the port on the Win 7 computer to point to the XP share.

 

I don't know if the driver that was automatically found is the same as the generic driver you're using, but it does not seem to be the "Universal Print Driver." The one I have seems to be hpLaserJet 1300 PCL 5 (61.53.25.9) based on the "About" tab of Printer Properties.

 

 

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I have the same problem. I have a HP Laserjet 1300 and the driversprovided do not work for it. I don't doubt that some respondents have gotten it to work -- somehow, and the details are often left out. But the PCL 5 and PCL 6 don't work for the laserjet 1300. I have installed both and neither works. This is very time consuming, and it should be a seamless process for people upgrading to Windows 7. Windows doesn't provide a driver that matches the model, and HP claims there is a category 3 fix, but as I said, their options don't work.

 

This is not a drive-by complaint. My point is that you have customers -- owners of the popular laserjet 1300 model -- who have reported all over the web that the drivers provided are not working. Many of these individuals really know their way around hardware and software installation. So it doesn't really help, in a Discussion setting, to say "Go to the hp page and download the PCL 5 driver" or, I did it myself and it worked just fine. It is not working for many, many people. It is time for hp to supply a specific driver for the Laserjet 1300 -- not a universal, and not one that is backward-compatible for some models, but one specifically to address this long-known and widespread problem.

 

 

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@rainbowdog97 wrote:

I have the same problem. I have a HP Laserjet 1300 and the driversprovided do not work for it. I don't doubt that some respondents have gotten it to work -- somehow, and the details are often left out. But the PCL 5 and PCL 6 don't work for the laserjet 1300. I have installed both and neither works. This is very time consuming, and it should be a seamless process for people upgrading to Windows 7. Windows doesn't provide a driver that matches the model, and HP claims there is a category 3 fix, but as I said, their options don't work.

 

This is not a drive-by complaint. My point is that you have customers -- owners of the popular laserjet 1300 model -- who have reported all over the web that the drivers provided are not working. Many of these individuals really know their way around hardware and software installation. So it doesn't really help, in a Discussion setting, to say "Go to the hp page and download the PCL 5 driver" or, I did it myself and it worked just fine. It is not working for many, many people. It is time for hp to supply a specific driver for the Laserjet 1300 -- not a universal, and not one that is backward-compatible for some models, but one specifically to address this long-known and widespread problem.

 

 


I agree that HP has done a particularly poor job here.  Even if the LJ 1300 has been discontinued, it isn't that old.  I also detest the HP "Universal Print Driver." 

 

My LJ 1300 is connected via USB to a Windows XP Pro box and shared over my network.  My recollection is that when I attempted to install it on my networked Win 7 x64 laptop, Win 7 couldn't find a driver.  That's when I went to the HP site and found that the only LJ1300 driver offered for Win 7 was the "Universal Print Driver." 

 

I had a similar issue trying to install a network printer on a Vista box, and the solution there was to install it as a local printer but to on a TCP/IP port with the correct IP address.  When you do this, the "choose a driver" dialog comes up (IIRC, this dialog does not come up when you're installing a network printer, but I could be misremembering), but there was no driver at all for the LJ1300.  At that point, I overlooked the Windows Update button below the list of built-in drivers.

 

I disconnected the LJ 1300 from the XP box and connected it to the Win 7 laptop (without first installing any driver, usually a no-no for USB printers).  Windows 7 went through the business of recognizing the device and eventually got to a point where it popped up a message to the effect that it couldn't find any driver locally and would I give permission to go to the web to search for a driver. I did, it found a PCL5 driver and installed it.

 

When I went back to check things just before posting this reply, there is now a PCL5 driver for the LJ 1300 included in the list of available drivers.  This must have been added when I gave opt-in permission for the Windows Update search (see Note below).  There still, however, is no PCL6 driver listed for the LJ 1300.  In fact, there are very few PCL6 drivers listed for b&w laserjets until you get to the 4000 series and higher.  If it helps any, the driver I installed gives its version as 61.53.25.9.

 

Note:  This is what HP says about the LJ1300 at HP LaserJet Support for ... Windows 7

 


NOTE: If the model specific driver that you are looking for does not appear in the list of available printers, clicking the Windows Update button underneath the list of available printers may provide additional drivers to choose from. Requires opt-in to Microsoft Windows Update and internet connection.

 

Clicking Windows Update below the list of built-in drivers will probably get you the same PCL5 driver that I installed. I don't know why this driver isn't available for download from the HP site (if it is, it's certainly hard to find).

 

So, rainbowdog97:

 

  1. Where did you find the PCL5 driver you tried?
  2. Where did you find the PCL6 driver you tried?
  3. What doesn't work with the PCL5 or PCL6 drivers you tried? This is probably the most important point.  If HP sees that some people seem to have successfully installed a LJ 1300, they will likely dismiss complaints from others as being caused by something other than the HP driver.  I haven't noticed any problems, but I don't do much printing from the Win 7 laptop to the LJ1300, and then only pretty simple text documents.  If you explain what doesn't work for you, maybe I can attempt to duplicate the problem. The more people with specific issues (rather than "it doesn't work"), the more likely it will be that HP will listen (but don't hold your breath).
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Thanks very much for replying to my message. I got PCL 5 from both places -- from the Windows Update list and from the HP website. If it helps, at the hp website it is at:

 

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=238322&p...

 

You can get to it through www.hp.com/go/windows7, where I also got PCL6.

 

I have a lenovo thinkpad x300, and connect to the LJ1300 with a USB. I installed PCL5, for example, and tried to print a simple text. But my printer does not respond (the light doesn't start to blink), and when I use the Print function, it gives me a message that indicates "error, 1 document".

 

I will be off of my printer for a couple of weeks but want to be up and running soon. I had hoped installation of Windows 7 wouldn't be dramatic.

 

Thanks once again.

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@rainbowdog97 wrote:

Thanks very much for replying to my message. I got PCL 5 from both places -- from the Windows Update list and from the HP website. If it helps, at the hp website it is at:

 

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=238322&p...

 

You can get to it through www.hp.com/go/windows7, where I also got PCL6.

 

I have a lenovo thinkpad x300, and connect to the LJ1300 with a USB. I installed PCL5, for example, and tried to print a simple text. But my printer does not respond (the light doesn't start to blink), and when I use the Print function, it gives me a message that indicates "error, 1 document".

 

I will be off of my printer for a couple of weeks but want to be up and running soon. I had hoped installation of Windows 7 wouldn't be dramatic.

 

Thanks once again.


 

The links you cite take you to a page where there are links to:

 

  1. HP Universal Print Driver for Windows PCL5 x64
  2. HP Universal Print Driver for Windows PCL6 x64
  3. HP Universal Print Driver for Windows PostScript x64

As the name suggests, those drivers are intended to substitute for the "real" driver that is specific to a given printer. They primarily are intended for use where a network administrator is responsible for a variety of HP printers on a single network. See http://h20338.www2.hp.com/Hpsub/cache/343033-0-0-225-121.html  Personally, I found the "Universal Print Driver" impossible to install and configure.  Congratulations on installing it -- even if it doesn't work.

 

On the same page that you linked to, there is a link under the heading "Driver" that leads to "Product Support for Windows 7."  That link basically leads nowhere useful for Windows 7.  The conclusion that you're led to by these pages is that the only choice for Windows 7 is one of the Universal Print Drivers.   This conclusion is erroneous.

 

I can't reconstruct how I found it, but if you go to the link in my previous post (http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=120&prodSeriesId=...) you'll get to an HP support page for using HP printers with Win 7.  Essentially, this page divides various HP printers into 6 categories and describes your options for each category:

 

  1. HP and Windows 7 printer driver options available for the selected product
  2. HP print driver available
  3. Windows 7 print driver available
  4. HP LaserJet AIO/MFP product options
  5. Product will be supported
  6. Selected product is not supported in Windows 7

The Laserjet 1300 is listed as a Category 3, which means that a driver specific to this model is built-in to Windows 7.  This is not the Universal Print Driver.   The catch is that the driver for the Laserjet 1300 isn't available in Windows 7 out-of-the-box (at least, that's what happened in my installation).  It only shows up if you permit Windows Update to update the list of built-in printer drivers.

 

I suggest that you completely uninstall your LJ1300.  Disconnect the LJ1300. Then, right click on its icon in Printers and Devices and select "Remove Device."  Then click on any other printer listed and then click on "Print server properties" in the menu bar.  Click on the Drivers tab and Remove the Universal Print Driver (or whatever else looks like it's related to the LJ1300.  Uninstall anything to do with the Universal Print Driver from Control Panel >  Programs > Uninstall a program.

 

Now, you can take one of two approaches:

 

What I did was just plug the printer in and turn it on.  If you've managed at some point to update the list of built-in printers, Windows should just identify and install the printer like any other USB device.  Otherwise, you should get a popup asking you to give permission to search the web for a driver. Grant the permission.  Windows will find the correct driver and install the printer.

 

Alternatively, go to Devices and Printers and start the Add Printer wizard.  Tell it you're installing a local printer to LPT1.  You'll get to the list of built-in printer drivers.  Select HP in the left pane and scroll through the right pane.  If you find the PCL5 driver for the Laserjet 1300, cancel the process and then add the printer as in the paragraph above.  If you don't find an entry for the Laserjet 1300, click the Windows Update button.  After a couple of minutes, the process will be finished, and now when you look there will be the PCL5 driver for the Laserjet 1300.  Cancel the process and add the printer as in the paragraph above.

 

Good luck.

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Wow. This is extremely detailed and looks useful. I can't wait to try it when I return to my printer.

 

Once again, thanks very much.

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PeteA - What you describe is exactly how I loaded my LJ1300 PCL5 driver for Windows 7 64-bit.  However, it is the universal printer driver.  There is no dedicated PCL5 or PCL6 driver available, I even did Add a printer, selected LPT1 (instead of letting it find my LJ1300 on network -- I added network adapter), and browsed through HP printers after updating list of drivers with Windows Update and still no PCL6 driver appears.

 

Regarding the fact that it is a universal driver - the about tab gives you some false hope showing hp Laserjet 1300 PCL 5 (61.53.25.9) at the top but a huge hint that it is the universal driver is the file list below.  Many files with UNIDRV.....

 

The definitive proof is found by going to Device Settings tab. Right click on hp Laserjet 1300 PCL 5 Device Settings at the top of the list and choose about.  A window will pop up named About Unidrv Printer Driver and will show version 6.1.7600.16385.  You will see the GPD file name (hpmcpm25.gpd) and version (053.2507) listed.  GPD files are Generic Printer Descriptions for unidrivers.

 

I'm glad I read this post because I found some things that needed setting that I had not noticed before.  Under device settings installable options showed duplex unit installed (not possible, only manual duplex) printer memory of 512MB (not possible, 80MB is max), printer hard drive installed (not possible).  I selected Automatic configuration and initially it failed.  I then sent a job to printer and tried again.  Duplex unit was changed to not installed, printer memory went to 128MB (lowest value possible but still wrong), and printer hard disk went to not installed.

 

After doing this I tried manual duplex because it wasn't working previously.  Now, the print on both sides option doesn't even show up.  So, no help.

 

And, if I ever send enough jobs to go beyond the 80MB max memory I have installed I wonder if a crash will occur since driver thinks there is 128MB installed.

 

So, HP - can we at least have a universal printer driver that supports the features of this printer and doesn't have the problems listed in my post and others above?  Can someone update the GPD file?

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Unidrv.dll and similarly-named files are part of  Microsoft's "universal print driver."  These are intended to work with a device-specific GPD file from the printer manufacturer.  See Wikipedia.  If you have other printers installed (Win 7 or XP), check out their lists of drivers.  You'll almost certainly see unidrv.dll there as well.

 

The "Universal Print Driver" that HP points you to if you go looking for Win 7 drivers for the LJ1300 is something different.  It is HP software, and is designed to

 

  • eliminate driver chaos in your print environment by dramatically reducing the number of drivers needed. Broad compatibility ensures it works with many HP print devices, often reducing driver use to a single driver.

You are correct that there is no device-specific Win 7 x64 PCL6 driver for the LJ1300.  There is one, however, for PCL5. Or at least there is something that claims to be a PCL5 driver for the LJ1300.

 

On the other hand, your observations about that driver are correct:  it really doesn't seem to be specific to the LJ1300.  In fact, now that you point it out, the name of the GPD file is a bit suspicious.  On my XP box, the GPD file at the top of the list is HPC13006.GPD (i.e., the PCL6 driver for the LJ1300).  On my Win 7 x64 box it is HPMCPM25.  I guess that the "5" relates to the fact that it's a PCL5 driver, but I don't know what "MCPM2" might mean.  I do know, though, that HP often instructs users to use a driver from a different printer when there is an issue getting the correct driver to work.  My best guess is that HP took some other driver that would "work" for the LJ1300 and gave it to Microsoft as a LJ1300 driver to be included in the drivers "built-in" to Win 7.

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