HP Color LaserJet 5500DN Toner Cartridges

COLOR LASERJET 5500DN

Duplexing and networking made the HP Color LaserJet 5500DN the office-ready wide-format printer of its era: shared two-sided A3 color output was serious capability in the early 2000s. Its toner is the HP 645A family — C9730A black alongside cyan C9731A, yellow C9732A and magenta C9733A. Every listing on this page belongs to that family.

The DN letters mark the configuration offices actually deployed: a network card so the whole department could send jobs, and a duplexer so A3 reports came out two-sided without a trip back to the printer. Two-sided color at that size doubled as presentation material — bound reports, folded newsletters and double-page spreads all came off the same machine.

Toner Cartridges for COLOR LASERJET 5500DN

645A 4 Color Set (C9730A, C9731A, C9732A, C9733A) — Black, cyan, yellow and magenta; yield: see product page
C9730A — Black; yield: see product page
C9731A — Cyan; yield: see product page
C9732A — Yellow; yield: see product page
C9733A — Magenta; yield: see product page
4 Color Set (C9730A, C9731A, C9732A, C9733A) — Black, cyan, yellow and magenta; yield: see product page
645A 3 Color Set (C9731A, C9732A, C9733A) — Cyan, yellow and magenta; yield: see product page
642A (C9733A) — Magenta; yield: see product page

Listings labeled for the other models of the 5500/5550 family share this shelf as well; each is the same cartridge under its model's name:

Which cartridge should you buy?

A shared printer eats toner in a pattern no single user sees: black goes first, because most office pages are text. The multi-black listings of the C9730A on this page are the sensible reserve for a DN — they keep the shared machine alive between color orders. Colors drain unevenly and invisibly; a marketing run can empty the magenta while cyan sits half full, so the individual C9731A, C9732A and C9733A singles are how you replace exactly what the panel reports. When the whole family is tired — faded posters are the usual symptom — the 4 Color Set renews all four in one pass. The 3 Color Set is the middle path when black is already stocked separately.

Chip, toner and everyday use

On a networked machine, a cartridge change interrupts everyone's queue, so make it count: check the panel's supply levels before you start and swap every cartridge that is near empty in the same session. Seat each cartridge until it sits fully home so its chip reads cleanly, and let the printer calibrate before sending a test job. Toner that has sat in a cupboard benefits from a slow rock end to end to loosen the powder. Keep the reserve set sealed and stored flat; an opened cartridge left standing in sunlight ages faster than one in its bag.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which cartridges fit the Color LaserJet 5500DN?

The HP 645A set: black C9730A, cyan C9731A, yellow C9732A and magenta C9733A. The DN takes the same four cartridges as every other 5500 and 5550 model on this page.

Does duplex printing change which toner I buy?

No. Two-sided printing uses the same four cartridges — it simply halves the paper a long report needs. Buy by the codes above, not by the configuration letters.

One color is out but the others are fine — what should I order?

Just that color's single. The C9731A, C9732A and C9733A cartridges are sold individually precisely so a shared printer is not sidelined by one empty color.

Why keep multi-black packs for this model?

Shared A3 printing is mostly black text and line work, so C9730A empties well before the colors. The 2-black and 3-black listings keep a reserve at hand without buying full sets.