How do I maximize DJ 500 HP-GL/2 print speed for Adobe PDFs & ACAD LT 2021 DGNs in Win10?

[pbrooks259]

How do I maximize DJ 500 HP-GL/2 print speed--what specific driver and driver settings?--for Adobe Reader PDFs (MOSTLY) & AutoCAD LT 2021 DGNs in Win10?

For line drawings with text.   With some graphic logos, their customer's and their logos.

I was at the customer's site unfortunately after the customer had installed the June 9 Win 10 update which caused me to be unable to print to the 500 via the normal/regular PCL and HP-GL/2 drivers.   At the time I didn't know to uninstall nor how to uninstall the June 9 Win 10 update.   So I used the only driver that seemed to work--the "universal" HP-GL/2 driver.   It worked but....

The printing was about as slow as a turtle traveling overland for miles.   One lady at the office got out her knitting to fill the wait time.  Dang!

I was there all darn day trying to speed up the printing.   I did the best I could with only the "universal" HP-GL/2 driver.

I have to return with hopefully a better driver and better driver settings.

What the heck driver and what settings should be set for "GREATER PRINTING SPEED" from send to finished print--black and white.    Ideally some degree of faster when printing in color too.  But this is probably like trying to speed up a horse and buggy for the Indy 500.

I have already asked DHook and he forwarded me a Win  Vista 64 bit driver dated about 2009 for which I am thankful:     

hpdj510wx64glen.exe

Also, I have the same named HP-GL/2 driver for Win 8.1 64 bit dated from 2013.

And I have this PCL driver from 2013 as well I think:     HP DesignJet 500 PCL Driver (v8.10)    hpdj500wx64pclen.exe

Anyone else got a good solution?

Ideally I'd like to get the 500 printing faster, so that I don't have to throw it back on the truck and refund their money.  But that's probably fairly likely.

Thanks for any and all input.

[pbrooks259 · Accepted solution]

I tested the PCL vs. 8.10 driver vs. the HP-GL/2 (for 510 & 500) driver. I timed the prints. I printed a pdf drawing with a fair amount of graphics, a more intensive PDF. With the PCL driver it took about 3 1/2 mins. With the HP-GL/2 driver, it took about 4 1/2 mins. Each took time "flattening" after the print job was sent.  Both kind of long times, but it's a 500....  I didn't try to print any Autocad files, but seems someone told me you need an HP-GL/2 driver for Autocad but I'm not certain about that.