HP Original Print Cartridges

Life nominally 10,000 pages at 1p per page.


Procopy Remanufactured Cartridges



Printer

Made from 2008 to 2011 and replaced by M601 then M604 series.


Maintenance Kit and Fuser

Fuser life nominally 225,000 pages. Contribution to running cost about 0.1p per page.



Paper Feed Repair

For printers that give "Error 13" a lot. Rollers are easily replaced





Replacement Cassette Tray

They arent lightly built but get dropped.



Transfer Roller

Faint print problems might suggest the transfer roller- check printer cleanliness first.


Accessories





HP Laserjet P4014 Series

top right photo - LaserJet P4014

The HP LaserJet P4014 /4015 series are fast, robust laser printers with an A4 paper path and lots of paper handling options. They were on the market from 2008 to 2011, when they were replaced by the LaserJet Enterprise 600 M601. The new printer is very similar but the parts have been revised and updated.

These are monochrome - black only - printers. Colour printers are available for less money but the argument for mono print is that it is undoubtedly cheaper to run. If you print a lot then colour costs a lot more. A new breed of pagewidth colour inkjets boast 60 page per minute performance - but HP haven't withdrawn their mono laser printers because they know there will still be demand for them.

The P4014 was the first of a newly designed engine. Its first successor was the M601 series which look very similar from the outside but changed some innards like motors, re-engineered the cog chain on the fuser and has a formatter which is similar in theme, different in detail. Firmware seems to have changed quite a lot as well. In Spring 2015 HP introduced the M604 series which looks quite different - but is rather similar to an M601 inwardly.

There is very little disadvantage to keeping P4014 series printers going from the user point of view. Maintenance is very easy, all the parts likely to wear out just clip in. There isn't much problem switching to the new machines either if you feel your printer-fleet is looking a bit old; technicians will be familiar with most of what is inside the M601 or M604 series. However whilst the cartridges and maintenance kits look the same they aren't interchangeable.

The P4014 printer family came in about 10 varieties. The P4014 itself was moderately fast at 43 pages per minute. The P4015 faster at 50 ppm and the P4515 was one of the fastest office printers around at 60ppm.

The P4014 came in two basic models, one with networking, the other without. Both have a 100 sheet multipurpose tray (Tray 1) and a 500 sheet tray 2 sliding into the printer base.

  • LJ P4014 - CB506A - 43ppm, 96MB RAM, 540MHz processor.
  • LJ P4014N - CB507A - 43ppm, 128MB RAM, 540MHz processor, network.

The two P4014 printers are "light" models which are just a bit slower and less feature rich than the P4015N series. The P4015 has a numeric keypad that allows the faster printer to do things like secure printing. The P4015 and P4515 also take the large capacity 64X cartridges which give 24,000 page yield and under 1p per page running costs.

HP cite a slightly lower Duty Cycle of 175,000 pages for the P4014 where the P4015 gets a 225,000 page rating; it was presumably a matter of warranty and largely irrelevant now. Hardware doesn't differ much, the cosmetics of the case change with the P4015 having black and white styling. The P4014 base model has a formatter with no network connection. Hardware is otherwise identical, firmware creates the difference in performance.

The P4014 without it's network connection is a rather odd creation - a fast printer with no network. Potential uses are high volume mono print - things like leaflet and catalog production for graphics artists and jobbing printers where speed is wanted but networking isn't particularly useful.

Reliability

The LaserJet P4014 series might not have achieved the popularity of their predecessors, the Laserjet 4250 and 4350. That might be partly because a lot of people are still using the older printers. There was also an initial problem with reliability for a year or so after their introduction.

  • Problems with the fuser were not always reported. The printer accepted a job but then would not print from tray 2 - or sometimes it might print very slowly. It would print from tray 1 but because that is a multipurpose tray it is often set to print more slowly and at a lower temperature. The printer firmware didn't report fuser failures properly. (probably 50.2)
  • These printers also gained a reputation for "49" errors which basically seems to mean some piece of software bombed - which could be user-land applications, drivers or firmware. The actual problem is usually firmware.

Both errors are fixed by upgrading the firmware. Printers are heavily reliant on sophisticated internal software these days and there isn't the opportunity to do the widespread Beta-tests that pure-play software vendors can provide.

Prices

As already said the P4014 is no longer available new. We do see them advertised on eBay and through brokers. Prices on eBay in August 2013 seemed to be between £190 and £490 mainly clustering around £220. a repeat excercise in July 2015 suggested the P4014N selling for $299 and the P4014DN for $320 but we couldn't find a price for a complete printer in UK pounds. (The "Fully refurbished torque limiter was amusing though. How do you refurbish a torque limiter? And why pay £12 for it when new can be had for £8.52 (eBay charge vendors 10% or so)).In our last price research effort we found eBay prices for the P4014 ranging from £190 through to £490 and clustering around £220; and were puzzled - given that the LaserJet Enterprise 600 M601n was only £435.60. The LaserJet Enterprise 600 M604n is still cheaper - only £336 at this time.   eBay can be strange. People with accessories, cartridges or software that depend on a working P4014 may well pay a bit extra to keep the older machine working.

Prices for this sort of printer on eBay might cluster around that of a maintenance kit. We think people are worried by the prospect of fitting maintenance kits and avoid the job, buying another printer instead. The obvious problem is that another printer usually has an unspecified time until it too needs a maintenance kit. A maintenance kit and cartridge together renew most of the wearable innards of the printer so in principle it can keep going forever. We aim to de-mystify fitting a maintenance kit here.

People buying a new printer and needing accessories might be better looking at the Enterprise 600 M605X as a base - it comes with network, duplexer and an extra tray - but the cost is well over £700 so perhaps people's liking for the P4014 is understandable.

There are still a lot of the P4014's predecessors, the LaserJet 4250, in use. They date back to 2002 and whilst the external styling is different, the innards are very evidently related to the newer machines. With maintenance kits from time to time the HP LaserJet P4014 can keep going for years.

P4014 Specification

The P4014 is a mono printer capable of fairly fast print at 43 pages per minute and with a big 500 sheet capacity paper input tray that takes a whole ream of paper in one go. Mono printers score over colour on the grounds of simplicity, predictability, and running cost. In this case the cartridges have a capacity of 10,000 pages giving a running cost around 1p per page. Unlike some other big office printers these are designed with ease of maintenance in mind, the parts likely to fail are user changeable and site technicians can fit a maintenance kit in minutes. If you want even lower running costs look at the P4015 and its successor the M604 which take extra-large 25,000 page cartridges.

P4014 Control Panel

Control:

4 line LCD display, LEDs for Ready, Data and Attention, Information, Return, Stop/Cancel, OK. HP Web Jetadmin, HP Embedded Web Server. HP Easy Printer Care and LaserJet Utility.

Duty Cycle:

175,000 pages per month. As mentioned above it is curious that the P4014 has the same mechanical build as the P4015 and P4515 but a lower duty cycle. The claimed duty cycle is largely for warranty purposes and these machines will all be out of warranty so the figure is largely irrelevant. HP intended these machines to be robust.

Up to 43 pages per minute A4. first page out from ready mode in less than 9 seconds.

Up to 1200x1200. HP Ret, HP FastRes 1200, HP ProRes 1200.

HP_RM1-4559

Paper Handling:

A4 with 100 sheet multifunction tray, Built in 500 sheet tray 2 and a range of options.

Multifunction tray 1: Up to 100 sheets of A4, A5, letter, legal. Media size range from 76x127 to 216x356mm. Media weights from 60 to 200 gsm.

Tray 2 under printer: Up to 500 sheets of A4, A5. Paper sizes from 148x210 to 216x356mm. Paper weights from 60 to 120 gsm.

HP_LJ-P4014

Optional Tray 3 etc: Specification as for tray 2. See below for the list of paper handling options.

Output: 500 sheet top output bin, 100 sheet rear output bin.

Print Margin: top and bottom 6mm, left and right 5mm.

Duplex:

Rather than buying a duplexer it was probably better to buy a P4015N, P4015TN or P4015X which had an auto-duplex unit included as a "bundle". With the second-hand "refurbished" market that is probably true too.   Duplexers used in this kind of printer are easily removed and inserted but quite large and complex.

Processor:

We previously thought these were Motorola Coldfire V5e at 540MHz in the "N" version - and we wouldn't make that up to impress (it impresses no-one but us). However we then found that the chip in the formatter says "PMC RM2400B-PGC" and that sowed doubt because we thought PMC were likely to use MIPS architecture. With a bit more searching of our own documentation we found HP document 4AA1-8014EEE (Published in EMEA) does indeed say the P4015 is Coldfire based. For that matter we believe the operating system is LynxOS. It doesn't really matter because there isn't much anyone can do with the information.

Memory:

96 Megabytes expandable to 608MB on the base model. 128 MB base memory expandable to 640MB on the "N" model. Expansion through one 144-pin DDR2 DIMM slot. For most purposes the RAM available is adequate. The P4014 came out just before RAM prices tumbled - you get 512MB on the M601 and M604 series. It is credible that some P4014 printers might work better with a RAM upgrade.

Installing RAM on P4014

Memory/storage options
HP 64 MB DDR2 144-pin x32, CC413A
HP 128 MB DDR2 144-pin x32, CC414A
HP 256 MB DDR2 144-pin x32, CC415A
HP 512 MB DDR2 144-pin x32, CE483A
HP High Performance Serial ATA Hard Disk, J7989G

HP original memory and disk modules are expensive by comparison with what people are used to in the PC industry. UK distributors only tend to carry a few of them but they are available on 5-7 day order.

Interface:

USB 2.0 Hi-Speed for direct connection to a PC. 1 External and internal "USB like" ports for 3rd party connection.

Jetdirect Gigabit Ethernet embedded print server with IPSec on "N" model. One EIO slot is available for any JetDirect card, parallel card or EIO hard disk.

HP PCL 5e, HP PCL 6, HP Postscript level 3 emulation. Direct PDF v1.4 printing (192MB RAM recommended)

System-Compatibility:

With the standard PCL languages and Postscript level 3 emulation most systems will be supported.

There is specific support for Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003 and the printer is certified for Vista. Apple Mac OS X v10.2 or higher are supported. Unix, Linux and HP Open VMS are specifically mentioned but there are no details in the user guide.

Network Protocols on the "N" model: Port 9100, LDP, IPP, Secure-IPP, NDPS and IP Direct mode. IPv4/IPv6 supported by DHCP, Apple Bonjour, WS Discovery etc.

Environment:

Rapid return to PowerSave after printing gives economy in power use. Draft mode saves toner. N-up printing supported in driver saves paper.

Power:

Input voltages either 100 to 127VAC or 220 to 240VAC.

Power Consumption:

Sleep 12 watts. Ready 17 watts. Printing 800 watts. Typical electricity consumption 4.1 KWh/week.

Cartridge CC364A / CC364X

Dimension:

Basic Unit 419x450x393mm.

These printers are a bit too large to sit comfortably on the average desk, and we don't recommend sitting immediately next to any printer or copier as there are likely to be some stray particulates. Most people seem to put printers on a separate table or low cupboard. Corporate buyers are quite likely to opt for the accessories stack that turns the printer into a stand-alone unit.

Weight:

25.82kg

These printers are a bit too heavy to lift comfortably. HP seem to envisage two or three people lifting and positioning the machine. People working in IT will be all to familiar with having to carry these things themselves. Use the hand grips on the bottom of the printer where possible.

Cartridge CC364A / CC364X

Consumables:

The print cartridge is like most HP products in combining a toner, developer and drum in one unit.

Laser printing uses toner powder rather than ink. The drum is first given an electrostatic charge, then the laser light discharges it creating a latent image in electric fields. The developer moves a thin layer of toner powder next to this electric image so the toner is attracted to charged areas. If you want more information click here.

The advantage of the all-in-one cartridge is that changing that single part will normally solve print problems. Cartridges are not all the same. The LaserJet P1102 holds just 1600 pages worth of toner. Cartridges for the LaserJet P4014 cost more than twice as much but hold more than 6 times the toner. High capacity toners are a key part of the value proposition for big office printers.

CC364A Black with a yield of 10,000 pages at 5% cover - CC364A

The P4014 does not accept the "X" cartridges with a yield of 24,000 pages - CC364X. these are reserved for the P4015 and P4515. As well as the slightly greater print speeds those still larger toners improve the value proposition for those machines.

CB506-67902

Fuser:

The fuser in a laser printer sticks the toner powder to the page using a combination of heat and pressure. The fuser contains a small, powerful heater in order to do this.

Most copiers and laser printers generate the fuser heat using a powerful lamp which in turn heats a metal roller. This assembly takes some time to heat up, so the printer keeps the fuser hot during the working day waiting for any print jobs, and that wastes electricity. HP (and Canon) have an advantage in their instant-on technology which uses a ceramic heater in a Teflon coated metal sleeve to heat the paper. This saves energy because it only takes under 9 seconds to come to working temperature. There is more here.

Fusers do wear out. There isn't anything directly consumable but the teflon sleeve gradually erodes and loses its non stick properties. The heater will ultimately fail as well. The P4014 has sensors to detect a heater failure (Error 50) but it isn't guaranteed to discover a fault in the sleeve. What it does instead is to request a maintenance kit after 225,000 pages have been used. The printer will go on working, the message can be overridden in the resets menu, but it would be wise to have either a fuser or maintenance kit in stock because failure is inevitable.

Laser printer fusers almost always come in two versions to suit the regional power supply which is 220 Volt in the UK and Europe and 110 / 120 Volt in the US, Canada and Japan.

CB506-67902 220 Volt Fuser Unit - CB506-67902

CB506-67901 110 Volt Fuser Unit - CB506-67901

Maintenance Kit Positions

Maintenance Kits

Fusers are normally bought as part of a maintenance kit. Many technicians ask for a maintenance kit rather than a fuser. The kits bundle up a set of feed rollers and a transfer roller alongside a fuser and the HP version comes with instructions.

Which specific rollers HP supplies with the maintenance kits seems to have changed several times and at one time they were supplying a "D" shaped roller that didn't fit the printer. In 2013 HP seemed to supply enough RM1-0037 rollers to fit a multi-tray printer - but not the RM1-0036 white cored rollers that technicians sometimes expect. What you get in a kit is in HP's control, not ours (and they are curiously reticent at times).

CB389A 220 Volt Maintenance Kit - CB389A

CB388A 110 Volt Maintenance Kit - CB388A

Fitting a maintenance kit might sound like a daunting task but as already mentioned a lot of thought has gone into making maintenance easy on these printers. The fuser and the rollers just unclip. There are outline instructions here.

Spares:

Pickup and feed rollers wear out, the soft rubber texture on the roller surface is slightly eroded as the rollers work on the paper and against one another. Some rollers are supplied with the full maintenance kit, however there are special roller kits. All the rollers clip on, there is no need for tools or expertise.

HP_CB506-67905

Tray 1 is the Multipurpose (MP) flap on the front of the printer. Some people use them all the time to feed envelopes, labels and other tough to handle media. Other people think they look ugly and never use them. Unusually for an MP tray this machine has all-roller feed rather than a roller and a pad so it is capable of heavy work.

RL1-1641 MP Tray 1 Pickup Roller - RL1-1641

RL1-1654 MP Tray 1 Separation Roller - RL1-1654

RL1-1663 MP Tray 1 Feed Roller - RL1-1663

All three rollers are available as kit CB506-67905.

HP_CB506-67904

Tray 2 is the 500 sheet cassette in the base of the printer. It also uses three rollers, one in the cassette itself and two in the drawer-space above the tray. The pickup roller pushes paper towards the feed and separation rollers and it doesn't get much wear. The two rollers used for feed and separation attempt to turn different ways (that is how paper separation works in these printers) so the texture on them does get worn away.

RM1-0036 Tray 2 Pickup Roller (grey rubber on white core)- RM1-0036

RM1-0037 Tray 2 Paper Feed and Separation Roller (grey rubber on blue core)- RM1-0037

The set of three rollers is available as kit CB506-67904.

The CB506-67904 roller kit for tray 2 is also used for feeder-trays 3, 4 and 5 if they are fitted; that includes the big 1500 sheet feeder unit.

HP_CB506-67903

Transfer rollers intermittently get damaged or the print contrast fades a bit and can be improved by a replacement.

CB506-67903 Transfer Roller (long black roller under cartridge) - CB506-67903.

Bits not Kits

There are other rollers in the printer but they are mainly plastic or hard rubber so they wear at a much lower rate - sufficiently low that most will last the life of the printer. The parts are available if they are needed here.

No other parts need regular replacement. Another printer manufacturer suggests replacing the laser-scanner after just 100,000 pages but this seems an unnecessary precaution. We still use a printer that is 17 years old, it has never had a new laser. If the laser-scanner goes wrong Error 51.1 is displayed. Laser scanners don't seem to go wrong very often, we know of machines that have printed over a million pages without a replacement. There are three different motors in the P4014 instead of the single main motor in the LaserJet 4200 family and this may not actually be an improvement in user terms but it doesn't seem to cause too many problems. As we suggested before, these are printers that were designed to be maintainable.

4014_Internal_Components

Service

Maintenance depends on being able to get information and parts on reasonable terms of course. HP scores well on this. Policy changes are always possible. Generally HP are moving to making things "customer replaceable"; so for instance the fuser in the P4014 is easily changed but not explicitly a user job. In the M604 series the fuser is now very explicitly a Customer Replaceable Unit (CRU).

The maintenance manual for this printer is readily available online (Look for "CB506-91004 filetype:pdf"). Parts for the LaserJet P4014 series are readily available and HP has had a good reputation on this. It wouldn't really matter if HP engaged in a spares price hike for this model because they would be undercut by refurbished parts. HP need to be careful because Brother, Canon and Samsung are keen to take their market and Brother spares in particular are quite readily available. We don't think the competitors have anything comparable with the P4014 / M601 / M604 printer series but HP don't have a completely free hand in the printer market. (Look at the Lexmark MS812 for an alternative high speed mono printer, (but then look at their spares prices). The P4014, M601 and M604 printers give IT managers and maintainers considerable power to satisfy the user's needs.

Options and Accessories:

The P4014 and P4014N take the same accessories as the P4015 which are:

CB518A 500 Sheet feeder and tray - CB518A-67901

CB519A Automatic Duplex Print unit - CB519- 67901

J7972G HP 1284B Parallel Card - J7972G (discontinued)

When HP launched the M601 series in 2011 the accessories changed. Accessories for the M601 series printers work on the P4014, P4015 and P4515. However old accessories for the P4014 etc will not work on the newer M601, M602 or M603 printers. See the accessories page. The P4014's accessories are no longer available new apart from eBay) Those for the M601 will work. Those for the M604 have been restyled so even if the bus protocols were compatible they probably won't fit.