TechTips: HP LaserJet 5500dn Won't Duplex Print (For Windows XP)

Printers are well known for their little glitches and the LaserJet 5500dn is one of the most problematic printers I have ever dealt with. This printer is supposed to print Duplex (both sides of a single sheet of paper) but getting it to do that can sometimes be an issue.

The first step is to make sure you have the right drive installed. The drive you need for this is the 5500dn PCL 6 driver. You can download it free from the HP website here, then choose which ever Operating system you are using and then download the driver labeled PCL 6. Once the driver is downloaded then you can unzip the file (in windows) and take note of where the driver is stored, the default is normally C: HP Color LaserJet 5500, remember this location we will use it later.

Once you have the driver then you will need to load the driver as the main printer driver. To do this if you already have the printer installed go to Start>>Settings>>Printers and Faxes. There you will want to find your printer which by default should be named HP Color LaserJet 5500, right click on this and choose properties. In the properties window choose the advanced tab, in here there will be a location labeled Driver and a button next to it labeled New Driver. Click the New Driver button, in the next window click Next, Next you will choose the Have Disk button, now choose the browse button and go to where we saved our driver (C: HP Color LaserJet 5500). Click OK, now the window should populate with the driver and be labeled HP Color LaserJet 5500 PCL 6 you can click next and lastly hit finish, let the driver install and then click apply.

Close the settings window and right click on your printer again and choose properties. Now this should have fixed the problem with the duplex printing but often times it doesn't work. The default install has the setting for duplex printing set to disabled. We need to go install the duplex portion and then set the setting in the preferences and then we can duplex print!

So first in the printer properties choose the Device Settings Tab, in here there are several options, we need to go to the one called Duplex Unit (for 2-sided printing): Not Installed. Set this to installed and click Apply. In just a few seconds it should say installed, no you can click ok and exit this screen.

We are finally to the last step; we just need to make sure the printer is set to duplex printing now that we have enabled the setting. Right click on your printer and choose the Printing Preferences option, in the new window choose the Printing Shortcuts option and on the right hand side there is a column of settings. The Print on both sides needs to be set to Yes, Flip over or Yes, Flip Up. This is really your choice for how you want to look at your documents. There is an icon that shows you how the pages will show and how you would open them to look at them. I personally prefer the Yes, Flip Over option because it's more like reading a book.

There you have it the steps to setting the HP LaserJet 5500dn to print duplex. It can be a pain but it is possible. Hope this help!