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Archived This topic has been archived. Information and links in this thread may no longer be available or relevant. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board.
HP Recommended

I found out more about hpmcpm25.gpd by looking at it in notepad; it is a text based file.

 

It is the HP supplied GPD file for the HP Universal Printing PCL 5 driver.  See first few lines of file below.

 

 

 

*% Copyright 1996 - 2004, Hewlett-Packard Co.
*% All Rights Reserved.

*%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*% Version Section
*%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*GPDFileName: "hpmcpm25.gpd"
*GPDSpecVersion: "1.0"
*GPDFileVersion: "053.2507"

*%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*% Include Section
*%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Include: "stdnames.gpd"
*Include: "hpzsmLHN.gpd"
*%HelpFile: "hpzenLHN.hlp"

*Feature: RESDLL
{
    *Name: "resource dll files"

    *Option: STRRESSEC
    {
        *Name: "hpzstLHN.dll"       *% Get this from the required phase
    }
}

*%---------------------------
*% A-size printer gpd
*% change ref gpd: hpc55505.gpd
*%---------------------------

*%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*% Model Section
*%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*%ModelName: "HP Universal Printing PCL 5e"
*ModelName: "HP Universal Printing PCL 5"

HP Recommended

Here is something to try to see if it will fix errors with drawing box in Stenograph application.

 

Try installing to HP LJ1200 PS driver in Windows 7.  I just installed it by installing local printer to port with no printer (LPT1) and then changing port to TCP/IP to point to my LJ1300.

 

The driver works fine; the LJ1200 is basically a slower version of LJ1300 (15ppm vs 20ppm).

 

It still doesn't fix manual duplex problem, maybe it will help with page formatting issues in Stenograph application.

HP Recommended

I've also tried HP's PCL6 Universal Printer Driver to see if that will support manual duplex on the HP LJ 1300 (Laserjet 1300).  The driver I tried is HP Universal Print Driver for Windows PCL6 x64, version 5.03, dated 16 December 2009.

 

It doesn't work either - it looks like the UPD will only support a duplex unit, not the manual duplex feature that the LJ1300 supports.  This is very disappointing, the feature worked great in the XP driver and it needs to be added to the Windows 7 driver.

 

So, neither the Windows 7 x64 supplied driver nor  the newer HP driver above support manual duplex.

 

Come on HP, show us you deserve the #1 green company rating in Newsweek and continue supporting green features like manual duplex printing in your drivers!!!  Even though it is a discontinued printer there are still many people using the printer. 

HP Recommended

Pete A's recommendations did the trick. The key move, I think, was purging all installed print drivers first. Once I did that, the selection of LJ 1300 on the Windows 7 printer list prompted the installation wizard to drive the boat from there.

 

Thanks again.

HP Recommended

 

I'm having the exact same problem with my LaserJet 1300 and Windows 7. I need to print manual duplex but can't find any driver to do this.I've tried every one available, and every setting.

 

I spent an hour speaking wtih various HP support staff on the phone, but their final word was that the printer is no longer being supported by HP and I will need to refer to the online forum for further assistance.

 

The funny thing is, I may need to buy a new printer, but won't consider an HP again given how little regard they have for past customers.

 

If someone can post a solution to the duplex problem I would be extremely grateful. THX.

HP Recommended

As near as I can determine, you're correct -- the Win 7 drivers for the LaserJet 1300 do not support duplexing.

 

The driver that is listed as "specific" to the LaserJet 1300 for Windows 7(see my 12-17-2009 11:03 PM post) is, as a1smith pointed out in a 12-20-2009 10:42 post, a "universal" print driver (although it is not the "HP Universal Print Driver for Windows" that HP suggests you install).

 

After installing the "LaserJet 1300 PCL 5" driver on my Win 7 Pro x64 box, the Printer Properties "About" tab shows the driver as hp LaserJet 1300 PCL 5 (0.3.1537.16). However, as a result of the driver's "universality," the "Device Settings" tab is much more elaborate than the LJ1300 driver on my XP box but almost all of the options are greyed-out. Under "Installable Options" is an entry for "Duplex Unit" that shows as "Installed" (even though there is no duplex unit for the LJ 1300). The Printer Memory shows as 128 MB, which is more than the LJ1300 can have.

 

Probably because the driver "thinks" that a duplex unit is installed, the Printing Preferences "Finishing" tab has a box for "Print On Both Sides." If this box is checked, the box to "Flip Pages Up" and the "Booklet Layout" dropdown box are enabled; there is no "Straight Paper Path" box (which is in the "real" LJ1300 driver on my Win XP box).  If you check this "Print On Both Sides" box, printing occurs just as if you hadn't checked it -- because there is no hardware duplexer. Somehow, a1smith got the "Device Settings" to show that the Duplex Unit was uninstalled.  This naturally resulted in the "Print On Both Sides" box going away. 

 

The net result of the Win 7 driver is that it either thinks there is a hardware duplexer installed and permits you to invoke it for duplexing -- which does you no good because there isn't one -- or it thinks there is no hardware duplexer installed but does not give you the option to do manually duplexing.  In any case, you get no duplexing via the printer driver.

 

You may be able to work around this situation, depending on the application that you are using to print your documents. The Print dialogs in both Microsoft Word (at least Word 2003 and Word 2007) and Adobe Acrobat (Reader) include an option to manually duplex.  In Adobe Reader, this option is a little cryptic.  Under "Print Range" is a dropdown box for "Subset" that defaults to "All pages in range."  If you click the arrow, the two other options are "odd pages only" and "even pages only."  You should be able to use these to do manual duplexing.  Other applications may not have this feature; I know that Firefox does not.

HP Recommended

PetaA: thanks for the great response. I forgot that Microsoft Office and some Adobe programs facilitate manual duplexing using the "print odd" or "print even" pages option. I print from these programs at least 50% of the time so this will really help!

HP Recommended

I followed the above instruction and connected the printer directly to my computer and it did indeed install PCL 5 and the printer worked.  Unfortunatly,  that printer belongs to another computer in my office and when I put it back on the network on the other computer I cannot use it.  Same problems when trying to find the computer.  How do I modify the settings so that my computer that now has the printer install will find it on another computer on the network.  When I install a new printer is does not find the installed driver and looks for another one and I back where I stated!?  Very frustrating.

HP Recommended

@PaulDoman wrote:

I followed the above instruction and connected the printer directly to my computer and it did indeed install PCL 5 and the printer worked.  Unfortunatly,  that printer belongs to another computer in my office and when I put it back on the network on the other computer I cannot use it.  Same problems when trying to find the computer.  How do I modify the settings so that my computer that now has the printer install will find it on another computer on the network.  When I install a new printer is does not find the installed driver and looks for another one and I back where I stated!?  Very frustrating.


I don't fully understand your questions.

 

If you're in an office, probably the best thing to do would be to ask whoever is responsible for your office network for assistance. Office networks are often subject to restrictions imposed by the network administrator.

 

If you're in a home office:

 

  • Did you share the printer from the other computer?
  • What problems occur "when trying to find the computer?"
  • What do you mean by "when I install a new printer it does not find the installed driver?" Where and how are you trying to install this new printer?
HP Recommended

After further investigation I found this which solved the problem:

 

 

Go to:

Control panel then Settings then Add Printer
Choose "Add a local printer". Click on "Create a new port". Use Local Port.
Next dialogue box is "Enter a Port Name."
Type in the path to the printer: \\(computer name)\(printer name).
Then select the proper driver, and print a testpage.

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