Other Printers

HP use the same set of error codes across their whole printer range - it originated with a 2-digit LED display on the first LaserJet. Although there are many different LaserJets these days they still share a theme on error codes.

Whilst this page was written from research specifically for what we tend to call the "P4014 series" - (HP sometimes call it the "P4000 series") it has some broader use.

49.xxxx problems are most likely software of some kind; to follow the flow of the data - application, drivers, network adapter, formatter and finally engine controller.

The DC controller should produce errors in the 55.xxxx range

An EIO or network error 56.xxxx

A fault in the formatter itself should produce 79.xxxx

The M601 series has a fault 32.21.00 Corrupt Firmware but the P4014 only has error 62 NO SYSTEM.   The P4014 almost certainly can't start with corrupt firmware - some printers give an ".RFU inflate error".

HP Original Cartridges

There is nothing much you can BUY to eliminate Error 49.   The problem usually arises from firmware bugs in the formatter. Only after upgrading firmware and drivers would we suggest that a new formatter might shift the fault.   It might initially seem to, a "49" error can submerge then re-emerge after a while; it can be triggered by settings and specifics of a print language.   It might be a hardware fault but most likely it is something highly specific about software.

If you want to cut to the chase, get the latest firmware update from HP's website.

DON'T get firmware from anywhere but HP unless you have a definite reason to trust them (like having a support contract). There are websites offering malware disguised as print-drivers and firmware. They cannot fix 49 errors; No one can produce good firmware for HP printers except HP - it isn't easily reverse engineered. All these sites are offering is malware such as key-loggers for your computer. It was also possible to put malware on the printer. Early versions of the P4014 firmware were not "signed" so that was a possibility. Recent versions are signed (and will prevent old versions loading).(It might be better if it were open source)

If a power cycle returns a printer to "READY" then it seems the formatter hardware works. There isn't all that much hardware, just 5 chips and a scattering of power regulators and discrete transistors on the formatter. Print a configuration page to put things to the test.   If that succeeds it looks as though the issue was created by something the formatter was asked to do - presumably sent by USB or over the network. The error is a manifestation of a specific way an application and the computer print driver do something - or of how the printer interprets that.

49 Errors could conceivably be the network adapter itself. Use the Embedded Web Server to turn off unused protocols (typically IPX, Appletalk and DLC). With the P4014 some problems seem to have been network related; there is an EIO slot so it is possible to install an EIO JetDirect if you have one (Most IT departments have probably been wondering if there is a use for old JetDirects).

If you are quite clear the problem is hardware, formatters are available.   Because of the doubts that inevitably surround this sort of problem preference might run to the half-price refurbed device - but it won't be possible for us to offer detailed support because we have no great insight into the details of HP firmware. If you buy the full price HP device you may not be any better off   - HP might swap it if it gives Error 49 - but they seem reluctant to engage in dialogue about "error 49".

Specific Errors

49.4C27

This forum gives the story of 49.4C27 HP LJ P4015 Error Log Msg 49.4c27 F981 3694 Printer Error. It's a long chase and unfortunately we never do find the culprit although it sometimes looks like the embedded JetDirect and is often seen on sites with Crystal Reports. With firmware 20090925 04.049.3 HP put an end to the problem.   It might have been something called Startup ShmFatal in the system libraries - but HP are as impassive as a sphynx.

49.4C02

49.4C02 is more diffuse and hits a lot of printers, for instance   I receive error code 49.4C02 from my HP3005N printer.

49.4C02 is probably memory although many people say this is a corrupt print queue. The problem seems particularly common with PDFs and printing web pages. Look for unusually large jobs in print queues and cancel them.

If the print-job is left in the queue, then the problem will recur every time you restart the printer with the network cable in, and the printer seems broken. The printer should go to ready if restarted with the cable out. If it isn't possible to clear all the print queues or if you can't determine where the job originates restart the printer with the cable in and keep pressing "cancel" so that it catches the job before the printer has a chance to go to error.

4C02 may be system library code SIGSEGV which would be a invalid memory reference or segmentation fault. It could be bad firmware but most likely a large print job is pushing the printer out of memory. Little printers like the P3005 and A3 colour printers like the 5500 would be more vulnerable.

PostScript uses a lot of memory, so one way to sidestep it might be to use PCL which often uses less (ie change the print driver).

49.4C06

49.4C06 seems similar to 49.4C02. It seems most common on older printers like the LJ-4250 /LJ-4350 which had only 48, 64 or 80MB of RAM expandable to 512MB. This leaves them short of memory for some memory hungry ways of producing pages. If you print forms, text and plain web pages they will be fine but if you try to print a page with complex imagery or Javascript the printer may slow dramatically or give an error.

49.4C27

We have few suggestions about this because all Web research reveals is foolish printers with the error exposing their event log to the world.   It could be worse, they might join FaceBook and ask for psychiatric help.

Error Message 49 for HP P4014, P4015 and P4515 Series Printers.

top-right-photo

Error 49 is one of the "firmware error traps" for the formatter. It is most likely triggered by a sequence of events that the printer firmware doesn't cater for any other way. Early shipped LaserJet P4014, P4015 and P4515 printers were perhaps a little more prone to this than usual and if they still give error 49 regularly the firmware needs updating. Get a download from HP's website. (We don't supply firmware, be suspicious of anyone other than HP purporting to do so).

49.XXXX ERROR

49.XXXX ERROR - The printer's firmware detected an error - in itself, in an accessory device or in the job it was asked to print.   The brief answer to the problem is given in the message - 49.XXXX ERROR "To Continue turn off then on" . Turn the printer off, wait ten seconds, then turn it back on again.

Complexity, Validation, Testing and Firmware

Printers have been getting more complex over the years. At one time a printer just received characters on its parallel port and turned them into a sequence of dot patterns. Printers still do that, but over a network, the patterns can be text, vectors or several types of bitmap, the layout instructions can be PCL, PostScript or PDF. The printer is expected to provide fonts, scaling them as required but download them if a good match isn't available and to do this at 60 pages per minute with network traffic arriving. There are also a bunch of real time tasks such as sending data to the laser and adjusting the high voltages on the charge rollers for drum cleaning cycles,

Recent printers have an operating system to do this. (HP used to use LynxOS) and in the P4014 and M601 series it runs on a specially designed chip in the formatter made for HP by PMC.   We gather that "FutureSmart" printers like the M604 series use Microsoft Windows CE.

Printers can last a long time. Technology is always changing. Within the life of the P4014 HP have fixed various security vulnerabilities, but these things only take effect when the firmware is updated. And just the odd time HP add something useful!

With luck, the error won't happen again, or not often enough to be annoying. In recent versions of the firmware we gather the errors happen, are displayed and logged but the printer recovers if possible and gets on with things.

The 49.xxxx error message is used by many or all HP LaserJet printers for pretty much the same thing. The "xxxx" part of the message more closely specifies where the error happened and can be consistent within a printer model for a fault. (It might be consistent across many models)

The message can be intermittent, set off by rare combinations of events that weren't seen during the printer's software validation. It is possible that the fault will never occur, or just once or twice in a printer's life.

The error can also be semi-permanent. It seems that the message is used to warn of situations like hardware mismatches - an accessory tray with a firmware mismatch triggers 49.23B3 for instance, so in this case taking the accessories away will restore the printer. 49 error also seems to be used for situations the printer can't cope with; 49.60AC is/was a WebJetAdmin-monitored device is rebooting, and a multiple-page, multiple-copy job is sent.

If it happens too much, there are a couple of possible approaches:

  • If the printer is not using the latest firmware revision then download and install that; if the problem has been a widespread aggravation then HP should have fixed it. There have been well over a dozen firmware revisions for the P4014 series printers. There are two objections to upgrading firmware - mainly that is that it can be a bother trying to find it on HP's website (It has wasted several minutes of my time more than once). Its under "Upgrade and migrate" and called "LaserJet P4000 Series" (or was in July 2015) and has a 41 page "readme". We don't provide a link because HP keep moving things but a string to search for might be HP LaserJet and OfficeJet Enterprise - Latest Firmware Versions and at the time of writing the firmware id is 20141230 04.221.6.

    • Getting a Stack Trace

    If the machine is on a network (most P4014/P4015 series are) a stack trace is available at a specific URL within the printer's Embedded Web Server. Before the printer is rebooted point a browser at the URL http://DEVICE_IP/hp/device/svcErr.log.

    Alternatively there is a set of covert key-presses that work whilst the printer is showing the 49.xxxx service error.

    • Press the 6 button
    • Press 5 button, this puts the printer into a view mode
    • Use 3 and 9 to scroll through the stack trace writing down the lines

    or for printers without a numeric keypad

    • Press the Checkmark
    • Press Left Arrow to put the machine in view mode
    • use up and down to scroll through the stack trace

    Obviously the network approach is less effort.

    A stack trace won't tell you (or us) much because we don't have the source code. HP do, so it tells them a lot

  • You may be reluctant to upgrade firmware, for instance because you suspect a later firmware will disable something you want like special software or accessories. Or you may already have the latest revision and a problem still unresolved. In that case record what the printer says and try to discover what sequence of events led up to it. Which users were printing, from what applications with which settings on their machine. What HP generally want for a "49" error is a stack trace - but they might be losing interest in the P4014 series since it was new in 2008.

This kind of error is triggered by abnormality - non printing characters embedded in an Excel spreadsheet is an example. All printers suffer weirdness, strange examples from our own direct experience include things like numbers going missing at particular fractional font sizes. Often there is nothing "wrong" with the printer, it is just difficult for the manufacturer or anyone else to test a combination of hardware and software like a printer that might take data in any form in all possible circumstances.

As you might guess from the length of this article a more comprehensive answer requires or a lot of digging around in the service manuals and Internet sources. HP have "Service Advisory" notes on the subject. A better answer than we give here would require the HP product development teams knowledge of their operating system, software implementation and print languages.

There is at least one very similar error:"79" seems to mean pretty much the same sort of thing. ("41" has similarities ).

The P4014 manuals aren't a huge help.

The User Guide Says: and The Service Manual Says:

A critical firmware error has occurred.

This error could be caused by several external influences that are not directly related to the product hardware or firmware:

  • The computer operating system
  • The network connection
  • The printer driver
  • The software application
  • The document file

To help isolate the cause of the problem, identify the actions you were performing before the error occurred.

A critical firmware error has occurred that caused the processor on the formatter to cease operation. This error can be caused by invalid print commands, corrupt data, or invalid operations. In some cases, electrical “noise” in the cable can corrupt data during transmission to the product. Other causes can be poor-quality cables, poor connections, or home-grown programs.

On rare occasions, the formatter is at fault.

User Guide Solution: Service Manual Solution:
  • Turn the product off, leave it off for 20 minutes, and then turn it on.
  • If you can isolate the cause of the error to an external influence, try to resolve the problem by repairing the external component.
  • If the message persists, contact an HP- authorized service or support provider.

That sort-of confirms that error 49 is an "error trap"; there has been a crash and you need to reboot. Then the problem is to identify what program asked for a command that went horribly wrong - and whether it was an invalid command or that the printer responded badly to something that ought to have been valid.

Incidentally 20 minutes seems rather long. They may be waiting for the fuser to cool down - and it could trigger weird behaviour. Usually 20 seconds might be adequate.

  1. Turn off the product, and then turn it on.
  2. Press Stop to clear the print job from the product memory.
  3. Turn off the product, and then turn it on.
  4. Print a document from a different software program. If the job prints, return to the first program and try to print a different file. If the message appears only with a certain software program or print job, contact the software program vendor for assistance.
  5. If the message persists with different software programs and print jobs, disconnect all of the cables to the product that connect it to the network or computer.
  6. Turn off the product.
  7. Remove all EIO devices from the product.
  8. Turn on the product.
  9. If the error no longer exists, replace each EIO device one at a time, making sure to turn the product off and on again as you install each device.
  10. Replace an EIO device if you determine that it causes the error.

As might be clear by now the printer's language(s) interpreter(s) have run into something invalid. The number given after 49 is an identifier, address of the crash (or possibly the crash handler trap).

Bad Cables

Internet forums often suggest that 49.xxxx errors can be caused by bad cabling. That is unlikely as both Ethernet and TCP/IP use checksums to (almost) eliminate errors. Printers and computers discard bad packets or ask for a retry - and they maintain statistics visible on the JetDirect configuration page (print it or look in the Embedded Web Server (EWS)).

Unused protocols could cause an issue. AppleTalk and DLC are almost unknown these days but many computers can produce them and printers can receive them - potentially taking up buffer space and processor cycles merely to maintain an unused network stack.

So go into the EWS and disable what you don't use - usually everything except TCP/IP.

The rogue instruction could be:

  • In the print-data stream from the computer - so it could be in a document, a template or in a print driver - in which case it is not HP's fault or even connected with them - except that they might have made the printer error message more informative. It is possible to get a hex-dump of what is being sent (print to file) but then interpreting that is not easy. It is possible to put a Postscript document through Ghostscript to view it for instance; but it is quite difficult to validate a print stream. Swapping the printer for another might help - if a job prints on a LaserJet 4000 then it ought to print on a P4014. (A mix of old and new printers is often a help in diagnosing things. New machines often have an unknown firmware quality).
  • Coming from the Network. Most print streams then pass through a network. Ethernet and TCPIP both use checksums, so the network itself will rarely if ever pass corrupt data. Print-servers could add information that might be incorrect and they or the JetDirect on the printer might have memory errors that corrupt the odd byte. The JetDirect itself is a processor which also has some firmware and that could be wrong. Again, putting a different printer on the end of the chain would help eliminate those faults.

    • Other Printers Don't Do This

    We have been dealing with printers and selling spares for more than 20 years so we know all brands of printer do something annoying. Some manufacturers and models score worse than others. From our point of view HP do well, there is lots of information around and they will talk to us. Field service engineers have been known to remark: "never buy HP's first effort at a new printer" - and indeed that is what the P4014 series is; it is quite different to its successor the LJ-4250.   The M601 and M604 are its successors.

    HP have popularity but combined with irreverence. HP printers are widely used but don't get the accolades of some computer brands. Printers are regarded as old-hat and ink prices as a rip-off. Actually the print process is quite complex and rendering graphics across a network is still a cutting-edge problem. Ink prices subsidise sophisticated printers.

    Information technology always suffers from the cutting-edge/bleeding-edge problem. With the P4014 series HP were offering high performance at a lower price - both for printer and cartridge.

    We wonder whether HP might be making a rod for their own back with some of the 49 errors. A lesser printer manufacturer might take a situation where there is a memory segmentation problem or coms error and as a default action print it anyway?   That would be suspect behaviour, the resulting page would be incomplete. On the other hand they would have sidestepped blame; it wouldn't seem as though the printer had gone wrong.

    Printer source code is proprietary, so we couldn't say whether that ever happens.

HP don't release details of how the printer software works so some parts of this can only be surmising - but we think the story more or less has to be true.

Remedies

Arising out of this:

All sort of things might trigger a "49" error. It's a collective for "oops".

Look for a problem application. Printers are tested before they are rolled out but there is no way every piece of software ever devised can be tested - or every possible sequence of events. Check if there is one application that causes the problem. What was the user doing when the printer developed the error (whose output went missing)?

Upgrade printer firmware if possible. Print a configuration page or look in the printer's web-server and see what the current version is and what the latest version is on HP's site. On the odd occasion the answer might be to downgrade firmware to the last version that worked correctly (that happened for a while with LJ 4250s). However you can't downgrade the LJ-P4014 series much. For security reasons, HP shifted to using signed software -and older versions weren't signed and won't be accepted.

Peripheral Problems

Some versions of the P4014 and P4015 firmware upgrades have a bug and upgrading firmware can disable accessory devices like feeder trays and the output stacker. The printer powers up but endlessly says "checking printer" or "clearing paper path".

Firmware upgrades not only change the flash memory for the formatter, they can also change that on the DC controller, which is a semi-independent microprocessor. The peripherals are semi-independent microprocessor subsystems as well.

The problem might be that HP changed the firmware on peripherals when they introduced the M601/M602/M603 series in 2011. A new set of peripherals were introduced, the CB5xxA series were replaced by the CExxxA / CFxxxA models. These are said to be backwards compatible, that is, in principle you can buy the newer optional devices for the old P4014/P4015 series printers. In hardware terms they look identical to their predecessors. Web reports make clear peripherals don't always work especially after a firmware upgrade. We hypothesise that the problem might be changes or additions to the communication protocol on the accessory control bus.

The answer seems to be to remove all the accessory devices including the duplexer before upgrading the printer firmware.

When the printer firmware has been successfully upgraded on its own add the accessories back one at a time. If they don't work resend the RFU so that they are upgraded.

Liberty have an article about this titled HP LaserJet P4014, P4015, P4515: Firmware Upgrade Issue here.

Try different drivers. If the job won't work from a PC will it work from a Mac? Will it work from another version of Windows? Or Linux? Try upgrading the driver (Do not download HP firmware or drivers from the other sites purporting to provide it. There is no need, and you don't know what might have been done to it.) Use the HP site, Microsoft, Apple, Ubuntu etc - nowhere else - even if they do promise "instant fix: free trial".

Limit the tasks. Limit what the printer does to specific tasks and devolve some jobs to another printer. If the problem only occurs in one computer application that would point to it being the culprit. Try a different printer - such as an older one. If it can do the job then that suggests recent printer firmware is to blame.

Simplify the network path to the printer - switch off protocols that aren't likely to be used like IPX, Appletalk and DLC. Whilst there should be no sources of such protocols people messing around with drivers sometimes turn them on and printservers and routers running device discovery software like zeroconf/UPNP/Bonjour can be the source of such things. Try a different EIO network card (or use an EIO card instead of the embedded network device). Switch from using the network to using USB perhaps.

Switch Drivers. Try switching from PCL to PostScript drivers or vice versa. A completely different driver, language and interpreter might shift the fault.

Simplify the printer. Take any extension memories (DIMM, USB, Hard Disk) out of the printer and try it without them. If the printer is setting aside memory as something like a RAM disk then try disabling it. On the other hand the error could be triggered by the printer's memory management running out of space so it might need more RAM (and so removing any existing DIMM would make the problem more frequent - but that is a valuable diagnostic.)

Cold Reset, Reset NVRAM Another possibility if 49 errors persist through a power-off is to try a cold-reset and reinitialising (resetting) the NVRAM. Print a configuration page first because all user settings will be lost (if you can't print, get details from inside the web-server).

49 After Paper Jam initially looks like a misdiagnosis; The error caused by a jam should be in the "13" range. However a paper jam is an unexpected event and not particularly likely when HP are field-testing brand new printers. After a few months use, weird combinations of circumstance might well give a paper jam that gives a "49.4C02" instead of the proper error or immediately after it.

Most of these things shouldn't allow corrupt programs or data - checksums would prevent it. However there is nothing to stop software issuing print commands that may once have worked but now don't, or network devices issuing Appletalk packets the printer can't deal with, that fill up memory and eventually lead to a crash. As so often in modern software a lot of issues are discovered when something is extensively field tested. Microsoft can afford to give millions of people "Beta Test" copies of software but that isn't possible with hardware.

Known Issues

There seem to be two main error codes for the P4014 series:

  • 49.ff04
  • 49.4C02 usually implies corrupt firmware

If the number after 49 changes there are suggestions that implies something wrong in the printer memory itself.

Web Research

In 2013 I tried querying Google with P4015 "49.ff04 Error" including the quotes and it gave About 37,600 results

  • fixya With the usual horrible ad-heavy presentation. It does add a little beyond what the service manual says : print the configuration page, check if there is updated firmware on HPs site and if so upgrade it.
  • fixyourownprinter 49.FF04 mostly concerning the LJ4250 but some for the P4015 etc. Extensive and informative.
  • HP-forum Actually a fault with the LaserJet P3005 formatter.
  • HP-forum Another fault with the LaserJet P3005 formatter - sometimes shown to be the embedded jetdirect in this case.
  • oasq.comTo be generous it does suggest turning the printer off and on and updating the firmware. Otherwise what does this contribute to the sum of human knowledge ?
  • experts-exchange.com subscription site. The question was about setting up a printer to handle an envelope feeder gracefully in word - nothing to do with the query.
  • wordpress exchange in Spanish triggered by someone listing the printer service PINs. Huge and seems irrelevant.
  • helpowl More auto-generated advert-heavy irrelevant birdbrain birdshit. (These guys are a waste of space but they do have pretty icons and nice presentation standards. I have yet to find anything useful on the site - and I do a lot of research. ).
  • srgt.ru Brief, possibly to the point but in Cyrillic. No use to me.
  • oesell.com seems to be a question in English about LJ4250 firmware with no answer on a Chinese language website. Not much use.

There were three more clueless results before Google said repeat the search with the omitted results included. I'm puzzled - the search led off with 37,600 results but petered out into rubbish in less than 10. It's particularly weird because a previous search for "41.3" gave this:

  • HP-forum - is a substantial forum thread about error 49 but misfiled under 41.3.

Next morning my browser tab was still open so the query repeated P4015 "49.ff04 Error". This time there were About 6,800 results although the list was the same, however this time there's an ad "How To Fix "Error 49" from 49.wiki-error.com. A whole site specific to the error? Its a scam of course, full of boilerplate like:

The 49 error is the numerical value of the error occurred. The error number is one of the value to identify the error. It holds information about the error, the possible cause of the error, the action that caused the error. Error numbers was used to address the errors in the common error code format used by windows and other windows compatible software and driver vendors.

... from an operation calling itself Wiki-Errors and with page-layout just like Wikipedia offering a trial version download of a tool to fix the problem. (registration for a full version $29.95). (Its still there in 2015) Whilst researching this I came across another windowsdiagnostics.net/service-error-49-4c02-hp-laserjet-4250   Anyway back to real "49" errors.

Query P4015 "49.4C02" gave About 5,500 results which I investigated as follows:

  • HP firmware HP LaserJet CP4025, P4014, P4015, and P4510/P4515 Printer Series - Firmware Readme. It's a surprise to see the CP4025 colour printer (but not the CP4525) sharing firmware with the P4014. they have fixed "Possible 49 errors with direct printing of postscript files" and there are changes to firmware for some accessories. It's a longish document (9 pages of print) and gives a good indication of the sort of detail firmware upgrades have to deal with.
  • HP forum regarding "Error Log Msg 49.4c27 F981 3694 Printer Error (3829 Views)" particularly hitting people using Crystal Reports. HP ask for stack-traces. The thread goes on for 7 pages until new firmware comes out and solves the problem.
  • fixya frequently viewed (52,597 times) thread that showed a level of confusion amongst contributors. Illustrates the problem with forums (fora?).
  • fixyourownprinter Error 49.4C02 on a variety of printers with a variety of possible fixes - all a bit touchy feely as forums are.
  • HP_forum for P3005N so not directly relevant. However it did have a link to techieshelp which I thought interesting.
  • advlaser.org Useful one page review of the problems with firmware after introduction of the P4015 etc.
  • laserprinterhelp score a first with a genuinely helpful page.
  • laserquipt.com with a short article for an unspecified printer giving 49.4C02 Error Following a Paper Jam.
  • stockholm university P4015 exposing its web-server (but not the network settings) and this printer has been having a 49.4C02 problem.
  • Most of the remaining pages are other university printers exposing their web interfaces - pages of them. Arguably we could collect some very interesting statistics and waste a lot of paper before someone closes this apparent loophole. We wonder if HP should put a "robots.txt" on its printers.

That last point is an indication of just how difficult it is to deal with the intentionally helpful but sometimes obscurely faulty software on modern printers - hence the need for "49" errors.


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 usage patterns.