HP Original Cartridges

CE390A HP 90A Black Toner Cartridge for HP M601/M602/M603 /M4555
£151.51 ( US - price excl. VAT, but we only ship to the UK )

Availability: In stock •

CE390X HP 90X High Capacity Black Toner Cartridge for HP M602/M603/M4555
£253.21 ( US - price excl. VAT, but we only ship to the UK )

Availability: In stock •

(The "X" size won't fit the M601)

Reliable Remanufactured Cartridges

CE988-67912 Formatter for HP LaserJet M601 Series Printers
£139.45 ( US - price excl. VAT, but we only ship to the UK )

Availability: Not in immediate stock, so back-ordered on request. Delivery typically 5-7 days •

HP CE988-67912 Formatter for HP LaserJet M601 Series Printers.

HP Part CE988-67912 is the Formatter for the HP Laserjet M601 series (M601, M602 and M603 series share the same device)

The CE988-67912 is superficially similar to the CB438-69002 formatter for the P4014 series. Although they are roughly the same in construction and innards they are not interchangeable and internally the CE988-67912 is different from the P4014 CB438-69002 device. Notably it drops the 48 pin connector for a circuit edge connector called J29 with 2 sides of 38+11 (98 ways).

The formatter is held in the rear of the printer - on the left as you look at it. It is held in by two thumb screws and the formatter cover RC2-2468 (RC2-5757). There is provision for a Kensington lock on the enclosure, although that doesn't lock it to the chassis.

The main CPU is labelled both HP and PMC. Its an RM2700C-PGC with another number 1825-0407 - thae numbering suggests a relationship to the larger CPU chip found in the P4014 formatters. A pair of Winbond W972GG6JB-3 chips provide RAM. A big change is the appearance of a SATA power and disk header. The PMC processor is supplemented by a Texas MSP430 mixed signal microcontroller family device M430F4152 and a USB2513B USB 2.0 High Speed Hub towards J29. One will be the external USB port just below the control panel.There are actually three USB ports. There are a pair at the bottom of the formatter, and another facing outwards at the rear. The formatter cage has a sticky plastic cover over this as though it is not to be used - but the cover has a USB trident symbol on it.

Formatter boards are normally highly reliable and so far we don't know of any reason why this one should not be. First step in diagnosing a possible fault would probably be to remove additional memory devices.

Whilst in principle it is possible to repair a formatter that requires surface mount chip rework abilities - and some supply of the chips. There is almost no possibility of getting hold of any of the important devices on this board. One possibility would be to replace the RTC battery which is a BR1632 soldered to the board; it will be intended to last the life of the printer - but predecessors of these printers have often lasted ten years and more.

The printer really has to be doing some fairly crazy things before the formatter is likely to be implicated. Usually a fix for anything it seems to be implicated in will be a firmware update rather than new hardware.

If the formatter seems to be to blame try an engine test first - the button is hidden at the bottom of the right hand side air vents. Also check the voltages.

HP Information

In 2013 HP Partsurfer showed for CE988-67912

CE988-67912 Kit- Formatter Assy

Icecat shows product code CE988-67912, and GTIN 5711045609794. There are 262 public views on this product

A Google query on the code CE988-67912gave a response that is very largely a list of vendors:

printerworks.com £187.24, precisionroller.com $553.95,amazon.com NEW £245.98, Refurb $150, Partshere.com $362.90,feedroller.com $384.66, laserpos.com login, cdw.com $449.99, printertechs.com $194,eurocopy.com.ua $270, resourcepos.com request quote,sparepartswarehouse.com $331.07,ttibusiness.com $338.72,impactcomputers $149.95, aliexpress.com $80,zauba.com various multiple list, vinlz.com check price $95, ebay.co.uk £319.78,printersupplies.com $310, emprgroup.com.au $438.20, amazon.co.uk £447,saveonprinters.com check price, icecat.us logistical data only, posglobal.com $257.08, ebay.ie £38.40, techpartswarehouse.com $175, zones.com $269.99,powersourceonline Refurb request quote NEW request quote, mk-electronic.de 377.94 EU,

The same formatter is used in the M601, M602 and M603 printers. An earlier and rather different formatter was used in P4014 machines. they do however take the same RAM DIMM HP CE988-67912

Web Research

Supply Situation

The part was listed by three distributors in 2013 and four in 2015 but they don't hold stock. We think demand for the part will be very low. One distributor has a "refurbished" part

If available, we can provide these parts when required. HP's prices seem reasonable so even a new original should be well below £200 . However as suggested we suspect most faults will lie elsewhere and new formatters will rarely be required.

These are guidelines, our prices change with distribution lists - see the catalog. Stock numbers indicate there is not much call for the part.

Copyright G & J Huskinson & MindMachine Associates Ltd 2013, 2015. Some pictures derived from HP User and Service guides. These technical pages do not constitute an offer for sale; just our knowledge at the time of writing. See the catalog. Sales pages on this Web site use cookies to store user information. We also use Google Analytics to track site useage patterns.