HP Color LaserJet 2500 - Attention Light Flashes After Every Page

If your Hewlett Packard Color LaserJet 2500 Attention light flashes after every page and you have to press the Go button to continue, you need to check the size of the paper in the paper tray and the size of the paper set in the printer properties.

If these are the same, print out a config page by pressing the Go and Cancel buttons together. Look for the Default Paper Size in the bottom right of the first page.

What you might find is that the paper in the paper tray is A4 and the software is set for A4, but the printer has defaulted to Letter size.

In normal use, this won't happen or you probably won't notice it. You're more likely to come across this in a workshop enviroment while repairing and testing the printer. You will see it when you print a test page or config page.

Two possible causes of this are:

1. You've replaced the formatter board and the paper size is set to the factory default Letter.
2. You've performed an NVRAM INIT on the printer which has set the paper size to the factory default Letter.

 There's two ways to fix this. If you've got the original CD that's shipped with the printer, there's a utility on it to set the default paper size.

If you've not got this CD, you need to send a file to the printer to set the default paper size. This is the contents of the file with comments to explain what each line does:

←%-12345X@PJL    Start PJL job
@PJL SET SERVICEMODE=HPBOISEID    Enter Service mode
@PJL SET CRPAPER=A4    Set cold reset page size [=Letter/A4]
@PJL SET SERVICEMODE=EXIT Exit Service mode
@PJL RESET    Perform PJL Reset
←%-12345X    Exit PJL mode

The left arrow ← at the start of the first and last lines represents the Escape character. If you create this file using MS-DOS Edit, you enter the Escape character by holding down CTRL-P and pressing Esc. This will look like a left facing arrow, ←, on the screen.

There's a good chance you're not running a Windows 98 / MS-DOS machine with MS-DOS Edit. Whatever operating system you're using, you will need to create a plain text file. You will also have to consult the documentation for the editor you're using to see how to insert the Escape character.

Once you've created the text file, save it with any name you like but give it the pjl extension, e.g. A4.PJL. You then send this file to the printer. If you can go to an MS-DOS command line, the following will work if you are connected to the parallel port of the printer:

type a4.pjl > prn

The green light will flash for a few seconds and then the printer should go into the ready state. Print out a config page and check that the default paper size is now set to A4.

For your convenience, I've created A4.PJL for you which you can download by clicking the following link:

A4.PJL 

The escape characters will look like squares if you open this file in Windows XP Notepad.

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