drivers for old pen plotter

[notorious_carl]

i've got a client that just replaced a win98 computer with an win xp computer. they had a Mutoh Ip-530 pen plotter hooked to it (connected via a serial cable if that tells you how old this plotter is). win98 was using a hp 7585a driver for the printer and it worked fine (which was supplied by win98). i can't seem to find any drivers that will get this plotter to work with XP. hp doesn't have drivers for any of the 7000 series plotters which would work. and i can't seem to find any HPGL drivers which according to what i read on a few web pages should work. xp has a HPGL/2 driver but that doesn't seem to work (the plotter just sits there and beeps at you). so does anyone have any suggestions or drivers that i could get, i did see something called WinLine but they wanted $200 just for the driver.

[NooNoo]

is this what you were reading? (http://www.mutoh.com/support/mat_cad_autocadsetup.html#)

Did you ensure the driver can see the serial port? Is the serial port set correctly?

[NooNoo]

If Windows System Printer drivers 'test page' does not print but there are errors displayed on the plotter then consult the Microsoft help menus for printers paying particular attention to the serial IRQ of the port you are connected to since the plotter requires a dedicated IRQ that cannot be shared with any other devices ( fax / modem, network card, etc. check them all ). See other sections below also.

http://www.mutoh.com/support/mat_cad_driverops.html

[notorious_carl]

yeah the driver i found HPGL/2 can see the serial port. and i'm using the same port settings as the old one did. if i change any of the com port settings the plotter will do nothing at all but when i have it set the same as the old it just sits there and beeps at me.

[NooNoo]

sorry out of ideas... will it self test?

[slgrieb]

At some point, you just have to say "So long" to old hardware. Let's face it, no manufacturer can afford to update everything they ever made forever. I often bitch about companies that use this as an excuse to sell new hardware whether you really need it or not; but sometimes you just have to update your equipment.

Any business just has to live with the fact that newer versions of software may require new hardware.