# How to install printer (plotter) drivers downloaded from the Internet?



## bonus (Apr 23, 2006)

Hi,

My husband is a landscape designer and he is using a plotter (HP designjet 500). The plotter is connected to my desktop computer and is part of a home network with my husband's laptop. 

I am blissfully ignorant how everything works (worked!), but every time my husband had to print something off of his plotter he would ask me to turn on or reboot my computer.

A few days ago my PC "died". (I'll have to post this question in another thread!). My husband wanted to make sure his plotter does not depend on my computer (since his business depends on the plotter!) A friend suggested that he should download the plotter drivers from the Internet and install them on his laptop and hook up the plotter to the laptop. (We also bought the necessary cables to be able to connect the laptop and the plotter) 

OK, we downloaded what was suggested, it's a zip file that we unzipped in a folder... The big dumb question is... NOW WHAT??

We would really appreciate some step-by-step guidance (in layman's language) on how to install those plotter drivers and actually make my husband's laptop "recognize" the plotter and print whatever needs to be printed.

Sincerely,
Dave and Nat


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## Inactive (Apr 11, 2005)

connect the printer to the latop, if its a parallel port cable make sure both are powered off before you connect/disconnect the cable. if its usb you can connect with the laptop on. parallel on left and usb on right below.









goto start>settings>printers and faxes. then click on the icon 'add a printer'. specify 'local printer' and leave check box ticked to automatically detect printer. it should detect the printer, then click on have disk button or when it looks for drivers browse to where you unzipped them on your HD. it will be looking for an inf file (i think) and click on that to continue installation. continue to end of process and let it print a test page to make sure it's installed ok.


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## bonus (Apr 23, 2006)

Thank you, freddyhard.

My husband followed your directions, but he says the laptop still "cannot find the plotter anywhere". Is there anything we might be missing?? 

Nat


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## Inactive (Apr 11, 2005)

> (We also bought the necessary cables to be able to connect the laptop and the plotter)


what cables were these?
a quick fix might be goto the 'printers and faxes' in the control panel and right click on the plotter 'designjet500'. (it should be there from when he was accessing it through your PC.) goto properties and then select the 'ports' tab. then check the port you want to use, either USB or parallel port (LTP1). i'm not sure this will work but.

is the problem you are getting that when you goto add a printer, windows doesn't detect it? right click on 'my computer' (or open the 'system icon' in the control panel) and goto properties. then 'hardware' tab and 'device manager' button. see if there are any devices with a yellow exclamation or red x marked on them - particularily the USB or ports (printer port). i don't know which cable your plotter is using. post back with the model number of the plotter (designjet 500 ?) and which cable is being used.

if windows has the plotter installed, but AutoCAD (i'm only assuming here) cannot see it then cad will need an update. post back with the version of cad that's being used. i've seen autocad 2000i not detect system plotters until it was updated.


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