HP JetDirect 2550 2552 Flash / Firmware Update / Upgrade Problems and My Solution
This page is for anyone who is having trouble upgrading a JetDirect card with a very old firmware version. The new HP Download Manager software does not seem to be able to upgrade these cards with the very old firmware on them. This is an alternate solution that worked for me. Hopefully it will work for you too.
I recently purchased a used HP LaserJet 4M and a JetDirect J2550A with part number J2550-60001. It was running firmware revision A.03.06. I wanted to upgrade it to the most recent J2550A revision, which is A.05.05. I looke daronud on HP's website and found the HP Download Manager software. Upon installing this software, the software detects the print server fine, and wants to upgrade, but it just sat there for a few minutes and then went back to the screen it was on before. I tried with HP Web JetAdmin too, and got the same result. I tried different settings for a few days, but was still unsuccessful.
After about a week of searching, I found an old version of the HP Download Manager and also found two upgrade files for this version of the download manager.
You can download those files here:
dlmswin.zip (1,130,456 bytes): HP Download Manager version A.02.25
amswine.zip (937,268 bytes): HP Firmware Upgrade File for HP J255xA A.05.05
abmswine.zip (1,008,363 bytes): HP Firmware Upgrade File for HP J255xB A.08.20
You have to install the Download Manager first, after which you can install the two firmware upgrade files. For me, I could only get the upgrade to work by using the IPX/SPX protocol on a computer running Windows 95. The software would not recognize the IPX/SPX stack on Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000.
What happened for me, once I had this software installed, was that I was finally able to upgrade the firmware on the JetDirect card I have. So, first, I upgraded from A.03.06 to A.05.05 (which apparently makes a J255xA equivalent to a J255xB). Then, you can upgrade to A.08.20 using the same software. Following this, I tried the current version of HP Download Manager again, and was able to upgrade to A.08.32, and then A.08.40. Now my JetDirect has the newest firmware for its model.
It seems like the new HP Download Manager does not work with the older firmware, and it was pure luck that I found reference to the software and firmware files on this web page. This is why I felt I should write up a quick web page about it, just incase anyone has a JetDirect J2550A J2552A that they are unable to upgrade. With my experience, it only seems to be with older firmware (A.03.03, A.03.06, and perhaps more) on the J2550A J2552A.
Well, I forgot to mention something here... You need to specify the SNMP Set Community Name on the JetDirect card before you will be able to upgrade it. I don't have a BOOTP and TFTP server set up on my FreeBSD server, so I looked for a quick fix. I searched on the web for a BOOTP server for Windows 95/98/NT/2k that had a built in TFTP server so I could send the config file to the printer. I found this one called haneWIN DHCP/BOOTP Server for Windows. It works great for allowing you to set the SNMP Set Community Name. You need to go through the steps using a piece of software like this, or any other that you have access to, and tell the BOOTP server to send the printer a config file, like such:
name: printername
location: 1st Floor
contact: ContactPerson
get-community-name: public
set-community-name: public
subnets-local: on
old-idle-mode: off
This will set the printer's SNMP Set Community Name to public.
