H P 2 5 0 0 C S E R I E S P R I N T E R (P C L 5 c e)
May, 2000
This document contains late-breaking notes on installing, uninstalling
and upgrading the PCL 5 driver, including troubleshooting tips and
other useful information that are not available in any other areas of
the software or of the documentation previously released.
CALL TO REGISTER: We encourage you to register your HP 2500C series
printer, if you have not done so. You will be one of the first to know
of the latest driver releases, tips and updates. The online
registration website is at http://www.hp.com/go/hp2500.
TOPICS
1. INSTALLATION OF THE PCL 5Ce PRINTER DRIVER
2. DRIVER UNINSTALLATION AND UPGRADE NOTES
3. TROUBLESHOOTING AND OTHER APPLICATION WORKAROUNDS
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INSTALLATION OF THE PCL 5Ce PRINTER DRIVER
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Before proceeding to install the PCL 5 driver, please ensure that
the printer firmware version is 8.0.0 or later.
1. Driver Installation on Windows NT 4.0
To install the HP 2500C Series Printer Driver using the HP Network
Installer Version 2.0:
1. Install the driver locally. Click the Settings menu, choose
Printers and click the Add Printers icon.
2. Click My Computer and choose a local port (LPT1, LPT2...)
for HP 2500C.
3. When asked to install from the disk, browse the HP 2500C
Printer Driver and follow the instructions on the screen.
(NOTE: Set the HP 2500C Series Printer as a Shared Printer)
4. Run the HP Network Installer, click the Use Installed
Driver option and choose the HP 2500C printer driver.
2. Driver Installation on Windows 3.x
If the message, "An unknown error has occurred." appears, and the
driver fails to load, check for the file, "MUSCROLL.DLL" in the Windows
root directory (typically at "C:\WINDOWS\MUSCROLL.DLL").
Delete this file and the driver will install a new version of this file
in the Windows "system" directory.
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DRIVER UNINSTALLATION AND UPGRADE NOTES
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UNINSTALL METHOD
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* For Windows NT 4.0 & 2000, Windows 95 & 98
Since there is no Uninstaller software and no driver entry is provided
in the Add/Remove program, the only uninstall method is to manually
delete the "HP 2500C Series PCL 5Ce Printer" printer in the Printers
folder. This method MAY NOT remove all the 2500C driver files.
However, for upgrade, appropriate files will be rewritten at
REINSTALL time.
** For Windows NT 4.0 & 2000, after deleting the old driver, you can
install the new driver without having to restart your computer.
(See DRIVER UPGRADE / REINSTALL)
** For Windows 95 & 98, you may see a message:
"Some files were used only for this printer and are no longer
needed. Would you like to delete these files now? YES NO ".
Select "YES".
You must restart your computer BEFORE installing the new driver.
(See DRIVER UPGRADE / REINSTALL)
* For Windows 3.x
1. Go to the Control Panel menu, choose Printer and select
HP 2500C Series PCL 5Ce Printer.
2. Click the REMOVE button.
The above method WILL NOT remove the driver files.
However, you can proceed to install the new driver without restarting
your computer. (See DRIVER UPGRADE / REINSTALL)
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DRIVER UPGRADE / REINSTALL
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To upgrade to the latest version of the HP 2500C PCL 5 driver:
* Windows NT 4.0 & 2000
1. Uninstall the old driver. (See UNINSTALL METHOD)
2. Select Add Printer from the Printers folder, and follow the
instructions on the screen.
For Windows 2000, you need to:
a. uncheck at the checkbox "Automatically detect and install my
Plug and Play printer".
b. select Yes to the "Digital Signature Not Found" message box.
3. Browse to the location of the new driver. When prompted with the
following options:
a. "Keep existing driver (recommended)"
b. "Replace existing driver"
Select "Replace existing driver" in order to update all driver
files.
4. Restart your computer for the new driver to take effect.
* Windows 95 & 98
1. Uninstall the old driver. (See UNINSTALL METHOD)
2. Restart your computer.
3. Select Add Printer from the Printers folder.
4. Follow the instructions on the screen, and browse to the location
of the new driver. When prompted with the following options:
a. "Keep existing driver (recommended)"
b. "Replace existing driver"
Select "Replace existing driver" in order to update all driver
files.
* Windows 3.x
1. Uninstall the old driver. (See UNINSTALL METHOD)
2. Restart your computer.
3. Go to the Control Panel menu, choose Printer and click the
ADD button.
4. Click the INSTALL button to install the later version.
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TROUBLESHOOTING AND OTHER APPLICATION WORKAROUNDS
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
1. All Applications: Values in Print Settings
(A) Many applications have their own dialog box controls for
common printer settings, such as paper size, orientation, paper tray,
number of copies.
These settings usually override the values in the printer dialog box.
If this is the case with your application, check whether correct values
are selected in the application itself. Ensure that these values match
those in the printer driver dialog box.
(B) Whenever a print setting can be set from both the printer driver
dialog box and the printer control panel, the value set in the printer
driver dialog box will override those in the control panel.
If you are trying to set a value from the printer control panel and it
is being ignored when you print, try setting from the printer driver
dialog box.
2. MS Excel '97: Print Settings in Each Worksheet
MS Excel '97 keeps separate print settings for each worksheet. This can
sometimes be confusing when the user changes a setting from one
worksheet and expects it to apply to all worksheets.
Ensure that the desired settings are set correctly for each worksheet.
3. MS Excel '97: Images Scaled Not to Specification
Please note that occasionally, the printout may be zoomed into one
particular area of an image, instead of the entire image as it appears
on the screen. The cause is that MS Excel '97 may not scale bitmap
images according to the specification.
4. CorelDraw V5, V6, V7: Tip to Reduce Print Time
Reduce print time by 50% or more, with no change in
printed output, by setting the following value in CORELAPP.INI:
UseClippingForFills=1
5. Windows 3.x NotePad: Print Quality Setting
When printing with Print Quality set to Normal or Best, NotePad
clips characters at the left and right edges of the page.
To work around the problem, set the Print Quality instead to the
EconoFast mode from the printer dialog box.
6. Microsoft Excel v5.0: Print Resolutions Do Not Match
When changing print resolutions, ensure that the print quality
of the MS Excel application and the printer driver matches.
Most applications will do this automatically but not MS Excel
in some cases, depending on how print quality is selected.
To be sure, match your print quality in these two methods:
* From the application menu, click the File menu, choose Page Setup
and choose Print Quality.
* From the printer driver dialog box, click the File menu, choose
Print, go to Properties, and click Print Quality.
7. Microsoft Excel v5.0: Printer Settings
New printer settings set under the Page Setup dialog box are not
registered by Excel to the printer driver, and are therefore not used
in printing.
To resolve the issue, click File, go to Print, then select the
appropriate printer. Go back to the Page Setup menu and re-select
the correct printer.
8. Windows 3.x: Changes to Print Settings
(A) Some Win 3.x applications ignore changes to printer settings when
the printer dialog box is launched from within the application
(File/Print Setup or File/Print/Setup). This includes, and
may not be limited to, the following applications:
Adobe FrameMaker v5
Adobe PageMaker v6.0 and v6.5
Adobe PhotoShop v2 and v3.
Corel Envoy Viewer v1
If the printer ignores settings entered from the application's dialog
box:
1. Select a different printer.
2. Go to Program Manager/Control Panel.
3. Enter the desired settings from the Printer icon.
4. Re-select the printer from the application.
Your application will now use the settings you have entered in the
Control Panel.
(B) In Windows 3.x, different print settings are maintained for each
output target to which the driver prints. Therefore when output is
redirected to a different port (for example, LPT1 or LPT2), or sent to
a disk file, print settings may change.
This can result in confusing behavior when output is sent to different
printers, or captured to a file, and a different set of print settings
are used.
Check that print settings are correct whenever output targets are
switched, or when the Print to file option is checked or cleared.
9. Print settings saved in application documents
Some applications store print settings in saved documents.
As a result, it may be necessary to reselect print settings when
printing a document that was saved with print settings from a
different driver or a different version of the printer driver.
Paper size is an example of a print setting that may have to be
reselected when printing a document that was saved when a
different printer driver was installed.
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Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.