2011-05-05

Installing the drivers for an HP LaserJet 6P on Windows

From the time where printer manufacturers were still producing near indestructible models. Plus, 5 years on, and I'm still using the toner cartridge that came with the printer. Add a USB → IEEE1284 adapter, plug into a NAS or plug computer, and enjoy your network printer.

Now, I did spend some time getting cups going, but I found it a bit flaky, so I reverted to direct samba access to the raw device. But that means the need for a driver on Windows, and Windows 7 considers that the HP printing dinosaurs are too old to be supported by default. On the other hand, that probably means you'll be able to find a cheap one on ebay.

Now, for those of us who know better and still want to do our Windows printing through a trusted HP LaserJet, the procedure to obtain the drivers is as follows (should work for the whole range of old HP printers, and not just the 6P):

  1. Open IE (won't work in Firefox or Chrome)
  2. Go to http://catalog.update.microsoft.com
  3. Search your model, e.g. "LaserJet 6P". This should list a set of drivers for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, etc. that are also of course compatible with Windows 10. Gotta wonder what the "search for drivers online" feature of Windows is really used for.
  4. Select the most relevant driver, e.g. "Microsoft driver update for HP LaserJet 6P"
  5. Click "View Basket"
  6. Click "Download"
  7. You'll get something like X86-all-XXXX.cab or AMD64-all-XXXX.cab file that you need to save. Be mindful that if you try to use the AMD64 package on a 32 bit version of Windows, or X86 on 64 bit, it will not work, so make sure you get the right one.
  8. Open the .cab file you just saved using 7-Zip, and extract all the files into some directory.
  9. Install your printer and select "Have Disk" when prompted for a driver. Then point to the directory where you extracted the files.
  10. Enjoy another many years use of your LaserJet printer. In all fairness, the early LaserJet printers are so indestructible that you'll probably die long before your printer does.
Posted by Pete at 12:34
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14 comments:

  1. Unknown30 January 2013 at 08:00:00 GMT

    Excellent! It fixed my problem! Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown20 March 2013 at 19:48:00 GMT

    thanks!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown26 September 2013 at 13:40:00 GMT+1

    Thanks this got me most of the way there. I am not getting the "x86-all.... message I just get a driver. When I install the driver I get an error Printer driver was not installed. Operation could not be completed (error 0x00000002) . Any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pete Batard3 October 2013 at 21:55:00 GMT+1

      I have altered the instructions slightly so that they are more explicit. You do not get a "x86-all.... message, you get a file with a .cab extension that you need to download. Then you must open that .cab file (which is just an archive) using 7-zip to extract the actual driver files.
      It's only once you have extracted the files from the .cab that you can point to them for the driver installation.

      Delete
    2. Brigitte5 March 2014 at 11:34:00 GMT

      My PC does'not allow Windows Update. I used HP Laserjet 2200 series PCL5 instead, and it works with my 6P!!!

      Delete
  4. Unknown4 May 2014 at 13:17:00 GMT+1

    Hi Pete,
    I was frustrated from not being able to find Win8.1 64bit drivers for my faithful hp6p, so stumbling upon your blog was my last hope.
    I downloaded and extracted the archive called 'IA64.....cab' which one would think is the 64bit version. During install, I chose the 'Have disk' option and pointed to prnhp001.inf (the only .inf file). Window replied that this was NOT a 64bit driver and exited!
    Any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pete Batard13 May 2014 at 01:00:00 GMT+1

      *DON'T* use IA64. These are 64 bit drivers, but for a completely different type of CPU (Itanium) which you don't find in consumer PCs. What you want are the AMD64 drivers (and yes, these are for Intel x64 CPUs as well, despite the fact that they say AMD).

      Delete
    2. Unknown14 May 2014 at 19:00:00 GMT+1

      Thanks a lot Pete, you are a genius. The AMD64 driver works perfectly.

      Can you understand why this driver is hidden so well?
      It is more or less an accepted fact in the forums, that the HP-6P won't work with Win8

      Delete
  5. kukec25 November 2015 at 14:33:00 GMT

    AMD64 works on Intel i7 flawlessly. Thanks Pete!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown12 June 2016 at 17:52:00 GMT+1

    I had an old 6MP laying around and couldn't get it working. I followed your guide and everything worked perfectly. I would have hated to throw my printer out. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gary18 September 2016 at 07:16:00 GMT+1

    This worked for my 19 year old 6MP too (for an HP Probook 650 G1). Many thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous27 October 2016 at 19:09:00 GMT+1

    I so love you! You have no idea how difficult it was to find this solution. You are amazing. Thank you thank you thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Marty12 December 2016 at 17:04:00 GMT

    This didn't work for me, but the LaserJet 2200 drivers did work.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Unknown27 February 2018 at 09:58:00 GMT

    nice one~

    ReplyDelete

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