HP Printer Control Panel Lock
Robert Moore, DCC Psychology
What is a Control Panel Lock ??
Many workgroup HP LaserJet printers have a small display and buttons that allow you to set the printer configuration. For example, which paper
tray is the default tray.
Or whether to use a fixed ip address or an addresss obtained through DHCP.
We have observed our users coming to one of the shared printers and if their print job is not there, they will start to randomly press Control Panel buttons,
even if one of us is present !!!
We realized that there was a need to somehow lock the Control Panel down. When we printed out the
printer configuration there was a section that read:
Control Panel Lock: NONE
Control Panel password: DISABLED
and it was not clear what to do. Until we found the
document
HP LaserJet Series Printers - PJL Commands for Control Panel Lock and Password (CPLOCK) which provides a good introduction to the solution.
HP's LaserJet printers have four degrees of Control Panel Lock as detailed below:
| Degree | menus that are locked | menus that are unlocked |
| Minimum | Configuration menu IO menu Resets menu> |
Information menu Paper Handling menu Paper Quality menu EIO menu |
| Moderate | Paper Handling menu Print Quality menu Configuration menu IO menu EIO menu Resets menu |
Information menu Printing menu |
| Maximum | Information menu
Paper Handling menu Print Quality menu Printing menu Configuration menu IO menu EIO menu Resets menu |
(none) |