HP LaserJet 5000 & Win7 & Autocad LT2012

[cadman70454]

I've been using a Canon Pro9000 MKII to print 11 x 17 prints from LT2012.  I print lots of contract dwgs and check prints of my dwgs and ink gets expensive.  I've got an old HP5000n and plugged into my router using an eternet cable.  It works, kinda.  I've tried the PCL5 & PCL6 universal print drivers and also the Xerox universal print driver.  The computer sees the printer, and sets things up properly using the add printer function.

The main problem is that I can't get it to pull 11 x 17 paper from tray 2 (the drawer).  The Xerox printer driver allows me to set the default tray as tray 2.  However, no matter the driver or the settings, the printer always wants to pull paper from the fold down, manual load door.  I've set the printer menu on the printer to 11 x 17 but still can't get it to pull from tray 2.  I'm about ready to pull my last XP workstation out of retirement, reformat & reload everything and hook up the printer to that setup.  Or buy a new $1900 HP M712n.

I've also tried using LT2015 but no luck.

Any suggestions to get the HP5000n to work properly?

Lowell

[pendean]

Close the ro-down tray.
Assign specifi page sizes to specific trays on the printer's control window.
Ensure the driver you use doesn't fight the above settings.
It should work like a charm, as it has done here for 7+years now.

[cadman70454]

Dean, I've done that and still can't get it to pull from tray 2.  From the front of the printer I've changed the tray 1 mode from manual to cassette but that doesn't work.  I set tray 2 to 11 x 17.  Didn't work.  I set the default in the printer preferences to tray 2, 11 x 17.  Didn't work. I tried a variety of settings all to no avail.  The Xerox driver is the only one that allows me to select tray 2 and set it to 11 x 17, but it still defaults to the flip down tray.

The HP5000n works seamlessly at the office using Win7.  The printer has worked since we bought it 15 yrs ago or more.  It has made the transition just fine over the years from WinNT, to XP and Win 7 and I thought I could get it to work at my home office the same but haven't yet.

Can you check to see what driver you're using?

I'm not going to quit trying.  The situation is similar to one posed in everyone's statistics and probability class.  What's the probabilty of a room full of monkeys & a typewritter cranking out Shakespere?  A little higher than me getting this printer to work.  Once I get this working correctly, I will start using Cheetah as my signature.

Thanks,

Lowell

[cadman70454 · Accepted solution]

Finally I've had success.

First, I had to set the paper setting on the tray itself.  There is a roller to select sht sizes in the tray and the size selected is displayed in the little window on the front of the tray.  There is also a lever inside the tray that has to be flipped to 11 x 17.  I had set the menu on the printer display previously.

I loaded the pcl6 driver and it worked perfectly with Autocad including multiple sht printing after I set the default in my template.  However, that driver killed Adobe Standard when printing.  I had to remove the pcl6 printer before Adobe would print again, even to my Canon printer.  I got around to trying the pcl5 driver and it works perfect for both softwares.

Cheetah