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What’s a PCL5 printer and why is Windows trying to download it?

Question:

I installed Windows 7, which is continually downloading this PCL5 laser
printer no matter how often I delete it from devices and printers. I have an HP
Officejet 4500 printer, which freezes because of this PCL5 printer. Please tell
me how I can get rid of it.

In this excerpt from
Answercast #68
, I look at a case where a driver is constantly trying to
download itself for an installed printer.

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Downloading printer software

No. I’m not going to tell you how to get rid of it – because “PCL” is
actually the printer command language (that’s what it stands for) used by HP
printers.

So, my guess is that the operating system is actually trying to do the right
thing by downloading what it believes is the correct driver for your printer.
Interfering with that is probably going to result in a printer that won’t
print.

What I would recommend you do instead of trying to delete this PCL5 is to
actually uninstall your HP printer, the printer you have right now:

  • Remove it from your system;

  • Disconnect it from your system;

  • Remove the software for it from your system.

And now, start over from scratch. Connect the printer, let the software
install, whatever… but this time, allow the PCL5 driver to be downloaded and
installed. It’s very likely that it’s actually required to print to your
printer.

End of Answercast #68 Back to –
Audio Segment

Do this

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