Large Format question- Free HP Designjet 5500

lawrie29

lawrie29

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Lawrie
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Hi!

Thanks in advance for any help.

I have just been given a HP Designjet 5500 42" printer. Its for the school I work at, but I am trying to sort it out.

It was left behind when a tenant moved out, and the landlord has donated it. It was working prior to the tenant doing a midnight flit, I guess a 100kg printer isnt something you can sneak out with...

It seems to have pretty full ink catridges, but no cables, so I have ordered a Parrallel to USB cable as well as a roll of paper.

I should get the cables tomorrow, so I was hoping someone has some experience with this or similar printer to help me out.

I have downloaded drivers, the handbook and also a service guide for the printer, but not read them yet.

I have seen a couple of videos on loading paper too.

When I get the cables (I dont even have a power cable at the moment) I am going to start by simply plugging it in and see what happens.
I will then, assuming all is good, load paper and then try and print something.

Any other tips that I need to know of?
Any advise on software to use to print from.i have GIMP at the moment- will that work?

Anything else I need to watch out for?

All and any help is appreciated,

Thanks
 
Can't comment but and for fear of stating the obvious.....

HP info support page etc

Product Specifications for HP Designjet 5500 Series Printers | HP® Customer Support

support.hp.com support.hp.com

Also, I found elsewhere that it was first produced in Sept 2002

IMO before you spend significant money on it, after checking it actually prints AOK? Make sure you can get the inks (OEM if your aim is print photographs). Also, its proper disposal will likely cost you ;)
 
Thanks. I have spent £20 on cables and a 45metre roll of paper, and wont be spending anymore till I know it works! It has 6 ink colours which are £175 per colour to refill (if buying from HP, much less from other sources) but they all have plenty of ink in them.

I know its old, but from what I can tell it has reputation of a workhorse.

Its a bit of a gamble, my fingers are crossed it works!
 
Further digging (I hate a mystery;) )......best of luck with it and getting to use it :)

I have found the service manual, this goes to the pdf download, though not the HP support site!


PS if he abandoned it taking the cables.......the cynic in me wonders if he did any hidden & malicious damage to it.

It may be a good idea to check it out physically before powering up just in case, for example(?) he cut or damaged the internal mechanism, the ink supply etc. Yes, I do have a cynical view of how some folk in certain situations may/might behave :thinking:
 
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Good call. I will have a look and see if anything looks wrong. The landlord said the tenant was a friend before he did the midnight flit, so my thoughts are he took everything he could carry- cables, the paper rolls etc, with the intention of coming back to get the printer with someone to help move it and maybe a van/big car to load it into, but just never did.

I could be wrong though!

I've watched a few youtube videos now, so know how to load the paper!
 
So, it fires up, does all the testing and calibration that it should do, seems perfect.

I am just struggling to connect to the printer. I have a USB to Parallel cable, and I can connect the printer to the router, but struggling to get a computer to talk to it, I cannot detect it at all.
 
lawrie29 said:
So, it fires up, does all the testing and calibration that it should do, seems perfect.

I am just struggling to connect to the printer. I have a USB to Parallel cable, and I can connect the printer to the router, but struggling to get a computer to talk to it, I cannot detect it at all.
Click to expand...
Back in the day at the company I worked at grew their tech demands the printers used one of these type of network servers...... IIRC none of the printers to start with had usb or indeed Ethernet ports, hence the usage of "print servers".


In other words I doubt a parallel to USB cable/converter is going to work :thinking:
 
I did what you should always do in this situation and looked on youtube! Handy little video telling me how to connect to a very similar HP printer worked a charm. I have had to plug it in via a network cable, rather than through the parallel port, but I have been able to print. I have had to add the printer to the home network.

Its not perfect, mainly because I have bought cheap uncoated paper, but its certainly acceptable. It leaving some shallow bends in the paper from the ink making it damp, but they will smooth out if I need them to.
 
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I am now just trying to find the best software to use with it. Trying GIMP, but on the first try that would only print A4, regardless of page and printer settings.

Publisher worked, but thats not ideal!
 
lawrie29 said:
I did what you should always do in this situation and looked on youtube! Handy little video telling me how to connect to a very similar HP printer worked a charm. I have had to plug it in via a network cable, rather than through the parallel port, but I have been able to print. I have had to add the printer to the home network.

Its not perfect, mainly because I have bought cheap uncoated paper, but its certainly acceptable. It leaving some shallow bends in the paper from the ink making it damp, but they will smooth out if I need them to.
Click to expand...
Great......that it has an Ethernet port :)
 
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