HP Designjet 5500PS 42" hard drive

[RichieN]

Hi, My hard drive failed in HP Designjet 5500PS 42" (Model: Q1251A). On the drive removed from the printer there is a code Q1251-60303 S.56.04 RTL-RC
With drive connected, amber led is blinking on main board and green LED goes out. When I unplug the drive, both LEDs are on and printer attempt to boot but stops with message hard drive not detected.
I'm not the original owner of this printer. Should I buy same exactly hard drive? Based on the label my printer is PS model, not RTL. Looking for the drive based on the model I'm getting Q1252-60045
Please advise what should I do,

[D Hook]

Re: HP Designjet 5500PS 42" hard drive

It's possible the previous owner did some switching in the past to change from a PS to a non PS model. If it was mine, I'd elect to replace with same HD number, assuming it worked fine before in the printer. You might want to look at the chips in the back of the printer and see if they're labled as being a PS or non-PS chip set.

I've had success in the past with taking out the old drive and hooking it up to a computer and trying to boot it that way. You won't be able to read the drive but it might unstick something inside that's preventing it from booting in the printer. If it's truly dead, it won't be visible to the computer.

The hard drives can usually be found on Ebay for cheap. I've purchased two or three that way and never had a problem.

[Kiran Otter]

Re: HP Designjet 5500PS 42" hard drive

It is possible to install a new blank drive in this printer, and upload the firmware to it via a parallel cable. Here is a copy of a thread from HP's forum.

I know having a PC or laptop with a parallel port may be hard to find these days. I will say I've tried with USB to parallel port adapters and was able to get it to work but the last time I did this had to be at least 7-8 years ago. Considering the cost of a replacement drive already formatted it might be the easier path. LPS Computer has the drives for $95.

Kiran

[RichieN]

Re: HP Designjet 5500PS 42" hard drive

It is possible to install a new blank drive in this printer, and upload the firmware to it via a parallel cable. Here is a copy of a thread from HP's forum.

I know having a PC or laptop with a parallel port may be hard to find these days. I will say I've tried with USB to parallel port adapters and was able to get it to work but the last time I did this had to be at least 7-8 years ago. Considering the cost of a replacement drive already formatted it might be the easier path. LPS Computer has the drives for $95.

Kiran

Thank you very much, this was very helpful!!!
I was able to push the firmware to the new hard disk. I used older computer with parallel port with Window 7 on it It did not work in safe mode with Dos prompt, LPT was not available. However, I was able to copy file with cmd prompt in admin mode. Pushing top button only did not bring the utility menu, in my case it was combination of cancel and top, when disk message is first shown. In the process, I learned that my printer was converted to PS printer. Initially when I try to push firmware for 5500 printer there was a message that I pushing non post script firmware to the post script printer. When I change firmware file to 5500PS, the firmware update started as described. Post update, everything appears to be working fine. To find the firmware file on HP site I had to select Windows XP as OS, anything above it does not list firmware file as option.

Thanks again,