HP Original Cartridges

Reliable Remanufactured Cartridges

One of the merits of the P4014 against a new printer is the low cost of good re-manufactured cartridges.

Error Messages for HP P4014. P4015 and P4515 Series Printers.

Messages

Error messages are covered in chapter 7 of the HP P4014 Service Manual.

There are four kinds of messages displayed on the printer LCD screen:

• Status messages are just informational, changing as the machine works. When there is nothing to say the status message is "READY". If the printer has something to do it might say "PROCESSING JOB FROM TRAY 2"
• Warning messages provide information about errors in the print data stream. The messages alternate with "Ready". Messages sometimes continue until either "OK" is pressed. In the CONFIGURE DEVICE menu setting CLEARABLE WARNINGS can be set to JOB in which case the next job clears the messages.
• Error messages require the user to perform some action such as clearing a paper jam, adding paper or changing a cartridge.
• Critical Error messages indicate some kind of printer failure. Messages will not be cleared by AUTO-CONTINUE but they might be cleared by turning the printer off then on again. Quite often the printer has got into a state the software doesn't fully cope with and where the user or a technician may need to intervene, such as the 50.9 Fuser too hot error. On a PC we might just press "reset", on a printer we might look for a label stuck on the fuser film.

Incidentally the LCD screens used on older printers are usually 5x7 matrix UPPER CASE only devices which makes the messages seem a bit SHOUTY. Using upper case does help distinguish printer control panel output in the text that follows.

Note that the printer has an error log that can be printed - or viewed in the internal web-server if printing has ceased. The history of an error might help indicate it's cause. Arguably the printer's internal web-pages are more use as a diagnostic tool than the control panel since they are often self-explanatory.

10.xx.yy Cartridge Errors

HP print cartridges contain a substantial part of a printer's working mechanism - the precharge and developer rollers, photoconductive drum and the waste scraper mechanism. Changing a cartridge replaces all these critical components in one simple action.

10.XX.YY SUPPLY MEMORY ERROR

10.XX.YY SUPPLY MEMORY ERROR - There is no memory chip or "e-label" on the cartridge or it is defective.

XX is the type of memory error "00" being "defective memory" and "10" being "memory device not found"

YY is the location - "00" being "black print cartridge" (01=Cyan, 02=Magenta, 03=Yellow). Mono printers like the P4014 series only have a black cartridge so the message will be one of 10.00.00 or 10.10.00.

10.00.00 SUPPLY MEMORY ERROR - The printer found a memory chip but the printer software says it is defective.

10.10.00 SUPPLY MEMORY ERROR - The printer has not found the print cartridge memory chip or "e-label".

HP and other printer manufacturers have all taken to putting chips on cartridges to record usage and "assure users of their authenticity". To put it another way, they would like to keep others from making cartridges for their printers, because that is where almost all the profit in printers lies. The most likely reason to get this message is that a refilled or clone cartridge does not have a new chip, or the chip does not work correctly. Minor possibilities are a malfunction in the chip-memory subsystem.

Remedies

Try reinstalling the cartridge in case it's position did not engage the memory contacts. Check whether the old cartridge now gives the same problem - there may be damage to cartridge contacts. Also try turning the printer on and off.

Is the cartridge an HP original in an HP branded box? If the cartridge is an HP original turn the printer off, reseat the cartridge, turn the printer on and see if the message clears. If it does not is there any possibility the cartridge is counterfeit? HP have a hotline to spot counterfeits, they will want the vendor name and serial number.

If the cartridge is not an HP original but a refill, refurb or compatible and you bought it because it was cheaper did the vendor claim their supplies chip would work? Manufacturers like Static Control put considerable effort into making chips compatible with the major printer manufacturers branded cartridges. The brands respond by encrypting the content so there is a constant technological war in progress.

Printer manufacturers have been known to change the cartridge encryption algorithm during a firmware update so that competing products give an error.

It is just possible that the cartridge chip reading circuitry has failed. On a P4014 the link through connector J74 on the DC controller carries the cartridge chip information. Replace the cartridge (ordisable checks).

With colour printers it is sometimes possible to move a cartridge into another slot and see if the error follows it. If there is more than one printer of the same kind obviously the cartridge can be tried in another printer. It should not be possible to "poison" a printer with a bad cartridge so 10.10 errors should clear when the printer has a good supplies memory.

10.94.YY REMOVE SHIPPING LOCKS

10.94.YY REMOVE SHIPPING LOCKS FROM CARTRIDGE - the orange tabs and plastic insert have not been removed from the cartridge.

Remedies

Remove whichever orange element has not been dealt with. The orange pull tab running into the cartridge seals the toner hopper against leakage and the effects of humidity before use.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with 10.XX.YY SUPPLY MEMORY ERROR in quotes; it gave About 67,400 results so this is a fairly common problem. For obvious reasons the answers were all across the HP printer range so I narrowed the query using P4014 "10.XX.YY SUPPLY MEMORY ERROR". (I do note that this won't be what the user types into a search engine).

11.xx INTERNAL CLOCK ERROR

11.xx INTERNAL CLOCK ERROR - The printer's real time clock is wrong. The prompt appears when the printer is turned on. The message can have a dot.suffix as outlined below. The message displayed is common across many HP printers and usually accompanied by "Press OK to continue". Whilst the printer power is on the RTC has power and the time will be kept by the formatter main processor so the fault will not appear. However the fault may re-appear if the power goes off then on again. For most printing purposes an incorrect time is unimportant, however it might conceivably cause other issues such as10.XX supply memory errors. The printer will also fail at anything time dependent, like waking up at 9am to be ready for users a bit more quickly.

Since computers and phones have real time clocks it might be no surprise to find printers having them as well. If printers are to run applications like printing a report at a given time, or if multifunction printers are to scan documents to an FTP server then knowing the time is helpful.

HP seem to have felt the need to use a battery-driven clock rather than use one of the network time protocols to get the time. Corporate IT network monitors might be alarmed to see printers accessing external servers in order to get the time.

11.01 = dead battery. The battery for the real-time clock is flat. Printers with a clock are a relatively new idea but the machine needs an internal time, for instance to wake up from sleep mode. It also uses the clock to determine warranty and probably cartridge life. We aren't clear if the battery in printers is re-charged, if so a fault that occurs after a long period of disuse may fix itself.

HP Service information suggest printing a configuration page to record existing product information then initialise the NVRAM. If this succeeds re-enter the configuration information. If that does not work HP suggest replacing the formatter CB438-69002 (but that is an expensive fix for a minor annoyance).

We would suggest replacing the battery but:

• It is soldered on and only experienced technicians will be comfortable soldering complex electronics.
• According to the documentation it is a carbon monofluoride lithium type; (probably a BR type). HP soldered it on and the type used may not be common but if the battery causes a fault it would be tempting to put a CR2032 or other likely button cell in its place.

11.02 = dead real-time clock. The clock chip or associated circuitry has failed. It could be the crystal or the clock chip, either way it is likely to mean soldering work on surface-mount circuitry.

Remedies

Error 11.xx is only likely in older printers where the battery has had years to run out. At this time, with printers like the P4014, there has not been sufficient time for that to be an issue. However we suspect that could change. There are two or three possible remedies:

• Replace the formatter like HP suggest. As printers get old there will be more of them about (but old ones may all have flat batteries).
• Ignore the problem, press OK on startup and hope there aren't any consequential errors.
• Replace the battery or other components concerned. that might be getting difficult as component level electronics is becoming an uncommon skill.

Web Research

Querying Google with 11. INTERNAL CLOCK ERROR in quotes gave 9 results. This suggests the error is not much seen and very little written about.

It is interesting that HP's own site didn't make it into the list (except via maunualowl); but it just isn't very informative.

A test of the list quality is that nobody says what the clock is for, or how to set it correctly once an 11.xx error has happened. The printer might get the time from a computer via the driver. The time possibly can be set in the printer's web pages. Neither the service manual or user guide mention that either.

In practice the printer clock can be set in the printer web pages under Settings > Date & Time. -=-=-=-=-=-

13.xx.yy JAM IN TRAY xx

HP uses "Error 13" to alert users that paper is not moving through the printer properly. Printers usually detect this using a series of infra-red optical beams and reflectors along the paper path. If one of the beams is broken or made when it should not be the printer halts and reports an error. If the printer did not halt when an error occurred the paper feed system might continue cramming paper into the machine potentially damaging something expensive like the drum or fuser.

Paper jams are more or less inevitable in modern printers because they print using cut sheet paper and that is quite difficult to handle. Paper sticks to the stack it was supplied in, separates but feeds skewed, or the electrostatic fields inside the printer attract it unduly and it collides with something or even wraps around the drum. Considering the difficulties a modern printer is a miracle of reliability. If you are experiencing a run of paper jams you probably aren't in a mood to congratulate the designers.

One of three things is usually wrong:

• The paper or other media such as envelopes or labels are wrong for the printer.
• Something is stuck in the paper path as a result of a previous jam
• The pickup and feed rollers are damaged or worn out and need to be replaced.

"13" errors are sometimes straightforward - the cause of the jam is visible. Check through the paper path, take the cartridge out and look under it. On machines like the LaserJet 4200, P4014 or M601 where it is easy take the fuser out you can get a view almost all the way through the printer. If the printer won't feed from the cassette will it feed from the multipurpose tray or vice versa. Will it feed too the rear face-down tray if there is one?

Paper feed problems tend to have an erratic onset. They happen when a tray is nearly full, or nearly empty, or they are a nuisance at the start of the day. This is usually a sign that the feed and separation rollers are worn and need replacing.

Try turning the paper stack the other way up and if that doesn't work try it the other way round. HP recommend against the common practice of fanning the paper as it damages the edges and creates static charge

Look at the feed rollers. Modern feed rollers are usually a soft grey rubber and have a textured surface. If the rollers were once textured and have lost the pattern they won't work properly.

There is more on dealing with paper jams and several diagrams giving ideas what might be causing them here.

Tray 1

13.01.00 JAM IN TRAY 1. Tray 1 is the fold-down multipurpose tray on the front of the printer, sometimes called an MP tray. It is the simplest path through the printer and will take the widest variety of media such as labels, envelopes and light card. Tray 1 is therefore vulnerable to having marginal or unacceptable things put through it and sometimes failing. If there is a visible paper-jam in tray 1 clear it. If there is not a visible jam then examine the paper path under the print cartridge, through the fuser and up the back of the printer. A common cause of paper jams is use of inappropriate media - envelopes or labels not rated for laser printers for instance. Check the specification of the stationery used against that for theprinter. Try simplifying printing by feeding to the rear drop down face-up tray rather than the top face-down tray. If paper jams are frequent even with ordinary office paper then the pickup, feed and separation rollers might be worn in which case kit CB506-67905 is what is needed. (The rollers are easily examined and replaced, look closely and they just unclip). If the rollers have just been replaced and start giving this error they might not be seated correctly. The paper flag just to the right of the roller housing might not be moving correctly or the optical sensor might be dirty. The Diagnostics menu can test the tray 1:

• paper sensor - which should change an indicator on the display when it is pressed
• solenoid which should make an audible click when the test is run.

All the points so far can easily be checked by a user.

The service manual also suggests replacing the tray 1 solenoid SL102. This requires partially stripping the printer and is a job for a technician. Another possibility with recalcitrant faults is to replace the entire MP tray pickup assembly RM1-4563. The solenoid would be cheaper, except that HP don't seem to provide it as a separate part. Also - what can go wrong with a solenoid? Try cleaning and oiling it!. Examine the tip that holds the cam wheel closely, also look at the foam acting as an anti-residual strip.

Tray 2

13.03.00 JAM IN TRAY 2. Tray 2 is the slide-in cassette drawer in the base of the printer. It is usually the most heavily used paper-feed tray in a printer. If there is a visible paper-jam in tray 2 note where it is and clear it. Paper jams can be caused by poor-quality paper or material that is out of specification, failure of the motor or sensors and things jammed in the paper path. However the most likely cause of an issue is worn pickup and feed rollers. The rollers are easily examined - particularly the one in the front of the cassette tray. The roller should have a substantial amount of texture -somewhat like the back of a hand.   If the roller is shiny and has very little texture it and it's partner(s) inside the printer need to be replaced. The kit CB506-67904 provides the rollers for the job. If the rollers have just been changed and this error occurs check that they are pushed home correctly.

Noting where the paper was when the printer reports a jam is helpful. If the paper has not moved at all, or just fractionally that would imply the pickup roller has a problem ( RM1-0036).   If the paper has moved a bit further into the throat of the printer but is easy to remove that implies weakness in the feed-separation rollers ( RM1-0037).   If the paper has travelled into the printer throat and is a bit difficult to remove that suggests it has got through the internal feed rollers so it could be lazy action in feed-separation but could also be the internal feed rollers, and they will be difficult to deal with.

intransigent faults are possible, of course. The paper path from tray 2 is a bit more complicated than that from tray 1. The tray contains two paper sensors - one for paper present and another for top-of-stack which controls the lift motor. At the right-rear of the drawer housing are three switches used to sense the type of paper loaded and the switch arms can give trouble. Paper is pushed upwards into the throat of the printer by the first feed roller and should trigger the PS102 pre-feed sensor and then pass through the feed rollers, whose timing is determined by a clutch. The paper should then halt and be straightened in the registration station. Any of the paper movement sensors might not be working. It is also possible that the tray 2 pickup solenoid or the feed-roller clutch might not work correctly. Run the various tests from the diagnostic menu, looking to see the sensors change as they are pushed. Listen for the audible click of the solenoid and clutch.

The points so far can be checked by a user - although running through the whole set of possibilities does take a bit of time. There is some help here.

A known point of failure is the cog and spring on the end of the paper feed shaft Z assembly RM1-4562 which can get knocked off; they are held in place by a very ephemeral plastic "E" ring. Recover the cog, spring and e-ring from the tray or floor nearby if possible - they are not available as HP spares. If they are lost then either equivalents will have to be found in a junk box or the paper feed shaft will need replacing, which is difficult to do and therefore expensive.

Some of the other parts that might be implicated are in the mechanical and low voltage electronics enclosure on the left of the printer and require work by a technician. HP suggest possibly replacing the solenoid again.

Tray X

13.03.00 JAM IN TRAY X. In its maximum configuration this printer series can take up to four more paper feed units, usually as one extra tray or a tower of three 500 sheet trays (3,4,5) and one 1500 sheet tray (6). Diagnosing problems with these trays is as for tray 2 with the added flexibility that the rollers, cassettes and entire drawer units can be removed and swapped around. As usual the most likely cause of a problem is the pickup rollers. Each tray has a motor and a clutch that can be tested from the diagnostics menu. Watch out for broken and damaged paper-feed unit connectors as well.

If a paper jam is persistent from one tray check what happens with another. It is unlikely (although not impossible) that all the rollers on a printer will be equally worn out. The tray 1 paper path is simplest so it is always worth moving the media that seems to be causing trouble there and trying it. Try ordinary office paper in a tray that gives problems.

13.20.00 JAM INSIDE <LOCATION>

Paper failed to reach the relevant sensor in the given time. Remove the misfed paper. If the fault recurs look for obstructions such as stray paper fragments or labels. Do a manual sensor test.

Locations are:

13.20.00 JAM INSIDE Tray 2 - Remove the cassette and check it and the drawer space for obstructions. Try a manual sensor test on the pre-feed sensor PS102 in the drawer space.

13.20 JAM INSIDE Top Cover - Remove the print cartridge and check the paper path beneath it. Look beneath the registration station flap, transfer roller area and at the paper feed assembly RM1-4548. Check the top of page sensor PS103 and width sensors PS106 and PS108 just after the registration rollers.

13.20 JAM INSIDE Rear Door - Open or remove the rear door and check for obstructions. Remove the fuser using the clips. Check the delivery sensor PS700 using diagnostics.

13.20 JAM INSIDE Duplexer - Remove the duplexer by lifting and pulling it from the rear of the printer. Paper sticking out of the top inlet implies the reversing motor and rollers in the back of the printer. Paper stacking out of the duplexer's tongue implies the inner rollers or something near the printer registration station. For more obscure faults check the printer's diverter and the mechanism called the delivery drive ( RM1-4526).

13.JJ.NT DEVICE WARNING

An external device such as a tray sent a warning.

The service manual says "No action is necessary" - obviously if it happens a lot it raises some questions.

13.JJ.NT PAPER JAM OPEN INPUT TRAYS

A jam occurred in an input tray. Quite what the difference between jam as an error and jam as a warning is eludes me at the moment.

Open the trays, check for misfeeds, then check the trays are properly closed.

Web Research

There are a lot of "13 errors".   Querying Google with any specific error is likely to give different results. The user is not likely to put 13.xx.yy JAM IN TRAY xx because that is not the message they are seeing (it gave About 57,400 results on one test. Because HP use the same error codes across their printer range the result is a collection of recommendations for a miscellaneous range of printers many of them irrelevant.

Querying Google with the phrase 13.03.00 JAM IN TRAY X form the manual (in quotes) gave About 615 results (0.27 seconds). Adding P4014 refined that to just 9. But as said that phrase isn't going to be used much.

Giving a more specific quer - P4014 "13.03.00 JAM IN TRAY 2" - gave About 68 results (0.14 seconds).

There are several points here:

• Higher positions in search can be gained by a variety of messages on forums all linking to a page; its an old trick and it still works. For what its worth I've put "nofollow" on the spammy links above because I see no need to promote them further.
• Users commonly become aware of a problem when they see an error code. Compared with the number of people offering parts which is often in the tens of thousands only a few are interpreting error codes - usually by plagiarising the HP manual
• printerlab.com.hk have had the cheek to plagiarise our information - naughty people.

Although 69 results were suggested the remainder were all similar. This might suggest the error is not much seen and very little written about - but paper feed errors are known to be amongst the most common.

HP should be concerned about the P4014 user guide and service manual which suggest changing the clutch for paper feed problems but omit to mention changing the pickup and feed rollers. It is fair to point out that engineers should know the rollers are the first thing to think about but there is a danger of people just accepting what the manual says without giving it further consideration. Changing the clutch is a major job, so perfectly good printers could be going to scrap for want of £15 worth of rollers.

21 PAGE TOO COMPLEX -alternates with "To Continue Press OK" - not enough memory.

Pressing "Go" or "OK" will print the page, but since the data transfer didn't complete it is likely to be imperfect. If this happens often then the print jobs concerned are too complex for the existing printer memory. These printers ship with a large memory: 96Mb on the base model P4014 and 128MB on all others. That may still not be sufficient to deal with (say) a couple of sides of really detailed imagery at 1200 dpi specified in a complex language like PostScript being queued as another print-job prints.

Remedies

One possibility to make a job print is to reduce the resolution to 300dpi (the control is in the driver). Another is to split the print job into smaller tasks so that a 40 page graphic heavy report is made into 2 x 20-page reports. Yet another is to select a PCL driver instead of Postscript - it often has a smaller memory footprint. If the error often happens with jobs that must print at high quality then a DIMM unit needs to be installed to extend the printers on-board memory. There is one DIMM slot available on the formatter. See memory devices like the CE483A . HP memory is rather pricey (and often unobtainable because the distributors don't expect to sell it.) third-party memory cost rather less.

Web Research

"21 errors" are not all that common. Querying Google gave About 389 results (0.24 seconds) which is a sizeable but not huge response.

22 EIO X BUFFER OVERFLOW "To Continue Press OK"

The message 22 EIO X BUFFER OVERFLOW "To Continue Press OK"- Data will be lost.

22 EMBEDDED I/O BUFFER OVERFLOW "To Continue Press OK" - Too much data sent for the internal JetDirect

22 USB I/O BUFFER OVERFLOW "To Continue Press OK" - Too much data sent for the internal JetDirect.

The "22" errors are odd. If the printer can't store a packet it might either not request it or acknowledge it.

Probably an unexpected and unwanted print protocol. Something is sending data intended for another printer?

We presume that the I/O tasks run independently and asynchronously to the language interpreters responsible for page formatting so that it is possible for them to simply overrun the memory space available.

Remedies

There are a great many network protocols such as IPX/SPX, Appletalk and DLC/LLC most of which are largely of historical interest but are supported on printers to ensure they will work with old kit. Turn off protocols that are not needed on both the PCs and the printer. This is particularly important with the J6057A HP Jet Direct 615N EIO cards which can apparently shut down with this error or40 EIO X BAD TRANSMISSION (below).With EIO cards (which slide into the back of the printer) it is possible to try a replacement network card. They are available here.

Web Research

"22 errors" are not all that common. Querying Google with P4014 "22 EIO X BUFFER OVERFLOW"gave About 223 results which is a moderate response.

Non of the pages examined gave any real explanation of what the issue is, Somehow or other the printer managed to accept too much data.

40 EIO X BAD TRANSMISSION

Any communication link can fail. Most but not all communication programs attempt to detect and correct errors, so a TCP telnet link (for instance) can recover several minutes later (or hours) after being unplugged . Not all protocols are so tollerant. A printer really needs to either finish a task or move on so if print information ceases or contains uncorrectable garbage the printer will say so.

40 EIO X BAD TRANSMISSION "To Continue Press OK" . EIO cards are the slide-in communication modules in the back of printers. There can be as many as three EIO positions in big machines like the LaserJet 9500, allowing them a hard disk and two network cards. The LaserJet P4014 family only provide one EIO slot.

40 EMBEDDED I/O BAD TRANSMISSION "To Continue Press OK" . Embedded I/O is the network port built onto the printers formatter board, apparently it counts as EIO 0.

The message might also be Press OK to clear the error message and continue printing. - documentation seems to vary a bit. It seems a bit questionable whether you will actually be able to continue printing.

Remedies

One-off occurrences are probably meaningless, somebody pulled a plug in a patch panel, turned off a router or a glitch hit a communications link.

Persistent errors need looking at. Both computers and the printer actually hold statistics on network transmissions collisions, for instance this from the Linux machine I'm currently using:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:19:66:10:20:30  
          inet addr:192.168.01.10  Bcast:192.168.01.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::219:66ff:1020:30d9/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:175765 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:158796 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:42623080 (40.6 MB)  TX bytes:36645812 (34.9 MB)
          Interrupt:16 Base address:0xa000 

HP LaserJet P4015
NPIAXXFAA / 131.100.00.130 

Network Statistics
	
General
Hardware Address: 	78E7D1333435
HP Jetdirect: 	J8003E
Firmware Version: 	V.36.41
Manufacturing ID: 	5019501900****
Data Rate: 	100 Mb/s
Web Browser Refresh Rate: 	60   Seconds
 
Packets Received
Total Packets Received: 	1557499
Unicast Packets Received: 	36441
Broadcast Packets Received: 	1521058
Bad Packets Received: 	78
 
Packets Transmitted
Total Packets Transmitted: 	69468
Unicast Packets Transmitted: 	46963
Broadcast Packets Transmitted: 	22505
Transmission Errors: 	0 

Laserjet-4000N / 192.168.01.05
HP LaserJet 4000 Series

General 
Hardware Address: 	0001E6102030
HP JetDirect: 	J6057A
Firmware Version: 	R.25.57
Manufacturing ID: 	22014335902201
Data Rate: 	100Mbps
Web Browser Refresh Rate: 	60 

Packets Received
Total Packets Received: 	721209
Unicast Packets Received: 	177705
Broadcast Packets Received: 	543504
Bad Packets Received: 	0 

Packets Transmitted
Total Packets Transmitted: 	167128
Unicast Packets Transmitted: 	156300
Broadcast Packets Transmitted: 	10831
Transmission Errors: 	0

If there was a network noise issue I would expect to see the RX and TX error counts climb.

Another possibility is a bad EIO card. they are available here.

Web Research

We tried querying Google with P4015 "40 EMBEDDED I/O BAD TRANSMISSION" in quotes. It gave About 86 results as follows:

Web research yielded what most people would consider reasonable results but it didn't altogether answer my puzzles about what precisely the communication errors mean. Should we look for a fault in the EIO subsystem, one in the EIO/formatter link or something like noise in the network?

I'm getting a bit fed up with laserprinterhelp.net, manualowl and manualslib doing nothing more than cutting up manuals and cluttering search results (beat em or join em?) . However this time they are the bottom rather than top of the list.

Apparently TechCrunch has called Scribd “the social network for reading” and it has also been called "YouTube for documents". They are dumping the Flash format and switching the HTML5

41.3 Paper Size Error

41.3 UNEXPECTED SIZE IN TRAY alternates with LOAD TRAY XX [TYPE] [SIZE] To use another tray press OK

HP's User Guide says:

The Service Manual doesn't distinguish "41.3" from the more general set of recoverable errors "41.X".

Paper sizes

Paper sizes pose a problem. In Europe, the UK and most of the rest of the world use of ISO 216 "A4" paper is very widespread. The United States and Canada use letter and legal sizes. Most printers therefore come with adjustable trays which is helpful because a minority of the market but quite a lot of people have odd sized forms for carriage labels, prescriptions and suchlike things. Unfortunately this allows a mismatch between what the user asks for in the print driver, what the printer has set in its control panel and what is actually in the trays. HP have tried to improve things by adding automatic paper length sensing switches to the trays on some printer models including the P4014 series.

The 41.3 Paper Size error happens when there is a mismatch between what the computer driver asks for and what the printer can provide, and/or what the printer sees happening as paper passes through. If the paper takes too short or long a time passing over the printer sensors this error gets raised.

Printers need to know the length of a page because if the page is shorter than the material that will print the drum will deposit a layer of toner on the transfer roller which will get on the back of subsequent pages. It makes sense for the printer to stop if it sees a page too short. Arguably if the page is too long it might not matter so much, but it does rather imply there was a failure of page separation.

The paper size currently loaded and seen by the paper length switches is shown in the printer configuration page which says both:

• what the default paper size is and
• what the trays have

what the printer is set for are shown under Paper Trays and Options. The same information is shown by the printer's internal web-server.

Try running a path test (from diagnostics). If the path test shows the problem then it is clearly nothing to do with the computer and is an issue in the printer.

Scroll to Tray XX Size= and adjust then check tray guides etc.

Remedies

If the printer has two pieces of paper partly overlapping in it when it stops then the problem looks like separation. Are the separation and feed rollers worn and balding? If so replace them. Kits are CB506-67905 for tray 1 (multipurpose) and CB506-67904 for tray 2 (cassette).

Other possibilities are the RC2-5771 torque limiter and damage to the RL1-1658 retard roller drive shaft.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "41.3 Unexpected Size In Tray" (using quotes) and it gave About 399 results, the following topped the list:

Google then said all further results were similar and offered repeat the search with the omitted results included but I felt I'd exhausted the possibilities of that query. I wasn't happy that I'd cracked the meaning of the message so I did try some alternate searches, here are a couple of results.

41.X Error

41.X ERROR A temporary printing error occurred. For help press ? Alternates with 41.X ERROR To continue press OK.

HP say in both the user and service manuals:

41 errors used to be "temporary print engine failure" with persistent errors suggesting bad formatter or DC controller. On the P4014 series the formatter self tests and should be flashing the heartbeat light and responding to web-server requests (if it is that suggests it hasn't failed) and the DC controller has a self test button. It might be possible for the intercommunication between the two to get in a tangle but it should recover with a power cycle.

Error codes jump from 41 to 49 in both the P4014 user and service manuals and there is no great history of the other codes being used consistently, they were used for various sorts of misfeed and misprint. Perhaps they are reserved.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "41.1 Error" in quotes gave 10 results, one from fixyourownprinter.com about the unreported fuser problem and the others drivel from helpowl. "41.5 Error" gave snippets of irrelevance from fiya, helpowl and others - it looks as though the search engine didn't have enough data to determine relevance.

49.XXXX ERROR

49.XXXX ERROR - The printer's firmware detected an error - either in itself 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.

This error message is used by all HP LaserJet printers for pretty much the same thing. The "XXXX" part of the message is an address where the error happened and can be consistent for a fault. 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. A better answer would require the HP product development teams knowledge of their print languages and software implementations.

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

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

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 the printer message might be 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. (It is not a good idea to have all your old printers removed when you buy new ones that are, as yet, of unknown 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.
• Print Control Language problems. Print information is sent as jobs using HP's PJL which does job separation, language switching, status reporting and file system commands. As well as HP various other printer vendors have implemented PJL, not necessarily all in the same way. Network devices like print-servers may well be re-interpreting the PJL, particularly if they do things like intelligently routing print-jobs or limiting colour print. There are sometimes obscure battles over how computer languages are implemented - for instance Adobe invented PostScript, but they have not always implemented it correctly. Nevertheless their interpretation is often deemed correct because any other will give users unexpected results.
• Print Language Implementation. Print Jobs themselves are usually in either the PCL or PostScript print languages although they can be PDF or just an ASCII stream. The printer can take several jobs at once from the network, assembling them in queues. An appropriate language interpreter will make up the page image. Things could go wrong even if the print language behaves correctly. With several jobs assembling simultaneously in memory the printer may run out of memory. There are specific errors to report lack of memory (21 page too complex, 22 EIO Buffer Overflow) but actually detecting the moment when the memory allocation process is going to run out is quite difficult - so it might go wrong.
• Memory Problems. The printer stores its operating system and the "applications" that interpret languages in flash memory. The printer checks the flash memory as it starts and it also runs a test on the 128MB RAM installed on the motherboard and on any installed in the DIMM slot. However if the RAM check is quick and therefore not very thorough - so it is possible for defective RAM to pass but then a corrupt word damages a print instruction and that crashes a language interpreter.

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).

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, or Microsoft - 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 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

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

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). Anyway back to real "49" errors.

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

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.

Fuser Errors

Fuser errors usually occur after printing many thousand pages. The printer control panel shows a message like "50.1 FUSER ERROR". In all probability the fuser will need replacing which is expensive.   For the LaserJet P4014:

• Just under £200 for a fuser alone
• Somewhat over £200 for a maintenance kit

A new fuser for a machine like the P4014 is more expensive than some new printers. On the other hand those cheap little printers are expensive to run, whilst the P4014 and P4015 have big cartridges that deliver a page for between 0.7p and 1p per page, amongst the industry's lowest. The per page price for little printers tends to be three to five times higher. If you need a lot of printing, you are going to replace the fuser in powerful printers like the P4014 series. The good news is that it is easy to do, you don't need an engineer to do it and if you get a maintenance kit the printer will be good for just under a quarter million more pages.

If you are happy to buy a new fuser or maintenance kit without further reading by all means do so in the catalogue here. However if you hope to save money or just to learn why the fuser might have failed then keep reading.

What Fusers Do

Fusing is the last stage in the laser-printer process. The fuser heats and presses toner powder to make it adhere to the page.

Toner powder is laser printer "ink". Toner is a fine-ground plastic dust with the consistency of cornflower. Toner materials are strongly attracted to static electricity.

The print process focuses around the imaging drum, which is part of the cartridge, together with the toner. The printer charges the drum using static electricity then as it rotates it is selectively discharged using a laser creating a latent image. Next the drum rotates past the developer, which carries a layer of toner. The static fields attract toner powder which is then pulled onto the drum. Further in its rotation toner is pulled off the drum and onto the page by the transfer roller. The fuser softens the toner and sticks it to the page using pressure. More here.

There are many possible designs of fuser but only two are common:

• Traditional fusers use a pair of rollers to heat and compress the page without smearing the toner. The top roller is a rotating aluminium tube coated in Teflon and heated to a couple of hundred degrees centigrade by a halogen lamp running down its middle. The lower roller is usually made of stiff heat resistant rubber material. The roller has a couple of sensors mounted on it, a thermistor senses the temperature and maintains it by turning the lamp on and off every few seconds. The other sensor is a cutout or thermal fuse that will keep the fuser temperature from rising dangerously high. This is a time honoured and widely used design. A disadvantage is that it takes some time to heat the rollers up to working temperature - so if another print job is expected soon it will be kept hot, wasting power.

• Instant-On fusers were invented by Canon and HP. The top roller is replaced by a heated ceramic bar but that on it's own would smear the page. To prevent this the bar is loosely wrapped in a Teflon sleeve which rotates with the page. The ceramic heater is powerful, it can turn on and heat the sleeve and the nip-point with the roller in less than ten seconds, so it is only heated to temperature when needed. A typical printer is used intermittently so this can save a significant amount of energy. Almost all HP and many Canon printers use this principle.

Fusers wear out. The Teflon coat on the roller or sleeve gradually loses its non-stick properties and then toner from the page builds up. Heavier page cover like dark pictures or strong black banners stress the fuser sleeve more. The materials fatigue due to the hot-cold and pressure cycles and and break up. The hotter a fuser runs the more it is likely to fail, the heater will be on more, and nearer its limits. Many other materials are near their limits too, like the rubber material of the pressure roller and it's glass or fiber filled plastic bearings. Heavier media like cards and labels will impose extra wear.

Fuser failure is just treated as "one of those things" with some cheap printers and there are no easily replaceable spares. When the fuser wears out it is presumed people will buy a new printer (most could be fixed). Higher cost printers have the fuser as a replaceable module. The P4014/P4015 series fuser is very easily changed; it is a simple plug-in unit. Changing the fuser adds about 0.1p to the price of printing a page and is often forgotten. The price of toner is far higher and costs between 0.7p and 3p per page depending on machine and brand. When people are faced with buying one, fusers can appear expensive but the cost is trivial in the greater scheme.

Fusers wear out just as inevitably as cartridges use toner. A fuser typically lasts about 10 times as long as a large cartridge. With P4014 and M601 series printers the firmware will predict the failure and at 225,000 pages it will prompt the user for a maintenance kit. The supplies status page and the Information > Supplies-Status page give a bar graph showing when a new kit will be required.

With HP printers, owners are at liberty to ignore the maintenance kit message, there is an option to clear it for a further 10,000 pages and it is possible to set longer intervals. If you do those things then you will wind up with a 50.X message. That probably means the fuser has come to the end of it's life. It is just possible you might be able to continue anyway, the possible remedies are dealt with shortly.

50.X Fuser Errors

Fuser problems are sometimes described as "50.X Errors" because "50" and another digit is what most HP LaserJet printers show on the control panel. Many printers use the same message which might sometimes cause confusion, but across the printer range the fusers and problems they raise are quite similar.

Fusers for the LaserJet P4014/P4015 often last beyond 225.000 pages of print. Whilst that is generally true there isn't a guarantee. Like car tyres, fusers generally last several years; it is possible to wreck them in a few weeks.

Heavy black print, thick paper, envelopes, labels and plastic media are all likely to exact a toll from a fuser increasing the wear and damage and shortening it's life.

Fusers are straightforward at one level -essentially a hot mangle. In detail the process is quite complicated. A ceramic rod with one or two thick-film resistors under a glass film and a non-stick sleeve is violently heated whilst a stream of cold paper at 1 sheet per second is pressed hard against it. The fuser needs careful design so that it cant set fire to the paper (which was a problem in 1960s copiers). The temperature has to be sufficient to make the toner tacky so that it sticks to the page, but not so high that is sticks to the Teflon. It has to achieve this with material ranging from bank-paper to card and transparencies and with toner cover ranging from nothing to sometimes as high as 90%. The printer has to cope with users who have no idea of these complexities telling it to do the wrong thing.

User Guide

For all 50.x errors the HP P4014 series User Guide says in its "Control Panel Messages" chart (p285) :

The fuser in printers like the P4014 is supposed to be user replaceable but they suggest you to call an outsider; that is disappointing. In some cases the cost of a call-out could make repair uneconomic.

At least in the Service Manual they are a bit more informative.

50.X FUSER ERROR A fuser error has occurred. The values for X are listed below.

Fuser errors need a bit more explanation.

"50.1" is usually clear enough and the end of the fuser. It is just possible that the power-supply or the DC-controller might be to blame but to check that meter the fuser heater elements. "50.5" means you are trying to use the wrong fuser (the 110V device won't work in a 220V machine and RM1-8396 for the M601 apparently will work but will give errors).

The other errors are more questionable, possibly recoverable. They are all capable of disappearing - or of meaning there is something rather worse than a fuser wrong like the power supply board or DC-controller. We'll return to those issues below.

Errors Without Messages

Fusers can go wrong and initially give no error at all.

If the Teflon foil shreds but is still largely intact then non of the printer sensors will detect an error - at least at first. The user will find marks on the page and toner not adhering to the page properly and might find some bits of foil in the output tray.

Less self evidently fusers can give smeared print. Instant-on fusers use a non-stick sleeve around a ceramic bar heater to prevent print smearing as the page touches the heater. The sleeve is lubricated to make sure it turns freely, but it has to do this at high temperature. Lubricants that work well at high temperature are an interesting science. Fuser refurbishers have sometimes got the lubricant wrong. To see if the fuser is causing print problems use astop test.

If the lubricant has settled in an odd pattern it is possible for the fuser sleeve to stick, creating a paper jam. In printers like the P4014 and M601 the fuser has a separate drive motor and cog-chain. In principle the DC controller should notice if the fuser is unable to turn properly and the 59.2 error should be raised; however there is evidence that this doesn't happen so jams are possible.

The fuser also carries one of the paper detection flag and photo-interrupters, so it can give paper feed errors if this fails.

Errors Messages and Speculation

Dealing with computers, fault finding and problem solving is often largely a matter of speculation and inference - quite contrary to the logic and certainties sometimes presumed to dominate.

HP know what their error messages mean; however they don't always make it at all clear in the manuals. In fact, as we note above, it is left totally opaque in the user guide and what the service manual says is just a bit more revealing. There is a bit of evidence that the design teams have some leeway in what faults get which messages and that information might not filter through to the teams working on documentation and customer support.

Research on Internet forums does makes it clear that people often respond to the prompt "50.X FUSER ERROR" by buying a new fuser; its an expensive item and it isn't always the right answer. It is even possible to install a new fuser and have it damaged as well - (its happened to me on one occasion). People who sell fusers don't find much profit in it (HP gets most of the purchase price) so we don't want damaged ones sending back. If HP don't reveal precisely what the messages mean we have to do a bit of research, make some assumptions and try to infer what is going on.

50.1: Low fuser temperature.

50.1 Low Fuser Temperature Error usually means the fuser stayed cold when power was applied. The implication is that is has a damaged heater circuit, and most probably all the heater elements in the fuser itself have blown.

The 50.1 Fuser Error is a low fuser temperature. The fuser heater was given power but the thermistor monitoring circuit showed no warm up. Since thermistors don't often fail the fault is more likely to be the heater. If the fuser is taken out of the printer it is often stone cold - (be careful because if the thermistor did fail then the fuser could be very hot!)

Checking that the heater really has failed needs a multimeter to measure the resistance. There are actually two heater traces on the P4014 fuser (many older fusers have one trace, some now have three). The wires feeding them come out on either side of the fuser and go to two or three of the larger pins.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "50.1 FUSER ERROR" in quotes; this gave About 6,500 results which is lower than might be expected for the most frequent error, perhaps because technicians are only too familiar with it.

50.2: Fuser Error.

50.2 Fuser Warm Up Service or fuser warm up timed out. When the printer tried to heat the fuser the temperature measured by the thermistor did not change sufficiently in the time allowed. This problem seems less frequent than "50.1" and a bit less common than it used to be on older printers. It seems that the temperature does change when this fault occurs, just not sufficiently. The fault is a bit more difficult to diagnose because more details of the circuit are involved.

There are actually two heater circuits in the P4014 series fuser (although the circuit diagram shows them "common" at the fuser connector). If either side fails that will leave the fuser able to warm up but not reach the working temperature needed for full-speed operation from cassette 2. "50.2" might not be just like 50.1 but it would spell doom for the fuser.

However it is also possible for the fuser not to reach temperature because the supply voltage is inadequate in some way. Heat falls away rapidly with voltage (square law), so a power brown-out may allow printer electronics and motors to run but be insufficient to get the fuser to temperature.

Printers should be plugged directly into a wall outlet, not into an extension cable and certainly not into a UPS. HP and many other sources stress that low voltage issues can be caused by extension cables. Most buildings were built and wired long before IT equipment became commonplace and extensions are used to provide power for clusters of computers. In the US power is supplied at a nominal 120 volts or so. The heater in a fuser needs about 10 amps of power to reach temperature - which is near the limit of 15 amps can be drawn from a NEMA-5 outlet. The high current can pull the voltage down. This problem is probably more common in the US than in Europe and the UK where the 220 Volt supply voltage means the printer only needs to draw about 5 amps. However the argument still holds - if you have a 50.2 error try plugging the printer directly into the wall.

Readers might be surprised but in our own office we found a 2 volt drop between a wall-socket and the farmost extension with nothing but computers, routers and monitors plugged in - the printer fuser wasn't even operating at the time. (OK some of that could be power factor).

"50.2 error" is a problem because there could be other causes. Operation of the circuit goes along the following lines.

The printer begins it's initial self test and warm-up at power on. According to the Service Manual the printer temperature is measured using the environment sensor thermistor on the fan housing and the DC controller estimates how long the fuser should take to come to temperature. Power for the fuser is actually switched by the power supply board, largely under instruction from the DC controller. The thermistor on the fuser feeds back the current temperature to the DC controller. There are three main things in the feedback loop - fuser, DC-controller and power supply, but the environment sensor has to be taken into account as well.

With some printers a warm up problem might be caused by the environment thermistor. If the printer has been moved from a cold to a hot room (or from a warm place to a cool one) then the environment thermistor will be wrong and the fuser warm-up timing will be out as well.

Look for weird things like material stuck to the sleeve which might stop heat travelling correctly or distort the material so it doesn't sit correctly. A traditional fuser could get material stuck under the thermistor so that the temperature on the roller was too high whilst that on the thermistor was too low. However we don't think that is likely for the P4014 fusers because the thermistor is on the heater bar inside the sleeve.

Diagnosis & Repair

50.2 is quite likely to be fixed by unplugging the printer, leaving it for half an hour so the fuser cools down then trying again. Meanwhile get it plugged directly into the wall. Cycle the printer power a couple of times before concluding that a new fuser is needed. Try metering the heater circuit and thermistor to find out if it is good.

If the problem persists another point to check might be the printer driver fuser setting. The P4014 has four fuser settings (for each media type) the idea being that the user can select the one with best results. It is possible that firmware might be confused by particular mixes of settings, heavy media and unfortunately low voltage.

If 50.2 were to occur whilst printing was in progress that might imply the media is cooling the fuser beyond it's ability to heat up.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "50.2 FUSER ERROR" in quotes; it gave About 70,400 results, suggesting this is a fairly popular topic.

50.3: Fuser Error.

50.3 Fuser Error Warm Up Service or Fuser Error High Temperature. The fuser became hotter than expected.

The high temperature problems that give "50.3" might seem the converse of "50.2" low temperature but the two are rather different. Extension leads won't cause high voltage; nor will most possible failure modes in the fuser heater. High temperature could be because of power, ventilation or a failure in the control circuit. A defect in the fuser is possible, but not a certain diagnosis merely on the basis of a 50.3 message.

High fuser temperature could be caused by the electricity supply giving high voltages, and this is more common than generally thought. However, before jumping to the conclusion that the fuser has gone wrong - or the power supply is overwhelming the printer, some other checks will help. Some of these checks are not very easy, but could save time and money.

Overheated Fuser

Signs of an over-hot fuser before an error happens are:

• Creases vertically in the paper. Paper creasing usually happens when the fuser is hot and / or the paper is excessively damp. Paper always contains some water - it is a hygroscopic material and will pick up moisture from the atmosphere even if it could be hermetically sealed in a pack. Very dry paper may not work in a laser printer anyway, the electrostatic transfer characteristics would be odd. Paper comes into the fuser cold and is suddenly hit with blazing heat, it expands and softens as steam is driven off but not at all evenly as it is in the tight grip of the pressure roller. The result can be one or two somewhat irregular creases down the page. Other signs of the same problem is that paper will curl excessively in the ouput tray, sometimes rolling up into a cylinder along its length. Obviously paper in this condition won't pass through a duplexer reliably.
• offsetting is another possibility. The toner is too hot, melts and sticks to the hot surface but the paper does manage to separate from the fuser. Unfortunately the toner does not, travels round and makes echoes or ghosts of the print down the page. This is known as offsetting; the ghost print is at intervals of 94 mm which is the circumference of the fuser sleeve.
• paper wraps into the fuser. The toner gets too hot and tacky, the page cover is too high and the paper fails to separate from the heated surface. It sticks to the hot surface of the sleeve instead and dissapears into the fuser. The printer should go to a 13.xx error as the page never emerges. This can be difficult to spot as the paper wrapped around a fuser looks just like a oddly coloured roller. It is also difficult to fix without dismantling the fuser. Sometimes the trailing edge of the paper going round is visible and it can be gently pulled and peeled away.

These things can happen without the printer actually going to error, although the last problem is very likely to precipitate a "50.3".

Outline of the Works

Laser printers use pulses of high power to heat the fuser. The fuser forces soft plastic toner powder into the surface of a medium such as paper giving a tough, wear resistant finish to a page. To do that the fuser raises the surface of the page momentarily near the melting point of the toner. At the same time a pressure roller drives the toner into the pores of the medium. The toner powder used in the LaserJet P4014 series printers is a mix of polyester and iron oxide specially chosen for its low melting point because that improves energy efficiency. HP say (on the MSDS) that the specific polyester used is a trade secret. A bit more information on toner behaviour is available under the CC364A cartridge heading.

The fuser used in the P4014 series is a design invented by Canon and HP that uses a ceramic bar heater wrapped in a rotatable sleeve of Teflon-like material to prevent smudging. The heater is a strip of ceramic with a pair of thick-film metal and carbon like traces on it acting as heaters. The heaters are quite powerful; in action the printers draw just under a kilowatt of power and almost all of that goes towards fusing. If the heaters were not in contact with the sleeve and continually cooled by a flow of paper we suspect they could light up yellow and burn out. (We haven't tried it because we don't have any heaters to waste on entertainment).

The heater is in not normally in danger of burning out because of a control circuit built around a thermistor on the back of the heater. The thermistor feeds temperature readings to the DC-Controller, a microprocessor responsible for print-engine actions in general. The DC controller is told what temperature to reach by commands from the control panel, or from the formatter (which gets them over the network from the driver in the user's computer). The DC-Controller doesn't actually have the clunky components needed to control power itself, they are on the power supply board. Control of the fuser is therefore spread across the fuser itself, the DC-Controller and the power supply board. In addition there is a thermistor on one of the fans acting as an environmental temperature sensor and this lets the DC controller estimate how much power will be needed to raise the fuser to working temperature.

What Could Go Wrong?

Ventilation is a possible cause of problems. An excessive temperature might suggest a ventilation problem or fan failure. The P4014 series designs use no fewer than four fans, although they aren't all necessarily at full power unless the printer has done a lot of work, (The printers are sometimes criticised as noisy). It is widely suggested that blocking the fan vents on the side of the printer can trigger 50.3 errors.

Ventilation issues are a slight a puzzle. If the fuser innards are becoming too hot why does the DC controller feedback circuit not reduce power until the flow of paper (or air from the four fans) cools it down?

Heavy work might cause overheating. It may be possible to trigger "50.3" by working the printer continually, or on heavy materials like card-stock which require the fuser temperature turned up. Some printers slow down in circumstances where they have been pushed to overheating. We aren't clear that the P4014 series do that although it does slow down for some materials from tray 1. One of the errors in early versions of the firmware was to switch to slow-print jobs from tray 1 when there was a fuser problem. Was this apparent software error actually a feature - that it could print at all with a dud fuser?

The thermistor circuit could fail. Thermistors work in the temperature range they are rated for - which in this case runs quite high. We don't actually know what temperature the core of the fuser operates at, we see other sites giving figures like 350 centigrade but we doubt that and also think it will depend on what point is measured - the actual heater element, the sleeve adjacent to the heater or the paper in the nip-point between heater, sleeve and pressure roller. The heater will be somewhat hotter than the paper passing under it, as it acts as a reservoir. Paper trapped in a fuser discolours but doesn't usually char much. Thermistors do operate hot and they can fail. It is fairly easy to test a thermistor- they are simply resistances that vary with temperature.

Control breakdown is the worst possibility because it could be spread across several positions. The DC controller and environment sensor thermistor could be implicated. The most likely point of failure is on the power-supply board. If so:

• It is going to be difficult to diagnose, the power supply is deep inside the machine and not easy to work on because it deals with mains power and makes the high voltage for the cartridge and transfer rollers. It will be quite difficult to test out of circuit.
• It could be expensive to fix. New "High Voltage Power Supplies" from HP are expensive - although we can probably source "clean working pulls" from decommissioned machines.
• It will be difficult to fix anyway. The board is in a difficult position in the LaserJet P4014 series - half the printer has to be dismantled to exchange it.

Laser printer electronics contain several measures to prevent the heater running out of control, there is a cutout in the fuser's own heater circuit which should give "50.6" if it is triggered. The powers supply board and engine controller together form a safety circuit to shut the fuser down. The need for all this is that the

Rogue mains power seems a likely culprit for "50.3" errors in our opinion. The fuser got too hot more quickly than the DC-controller firmware expected. Despite all the electronics in the printer the fuser is actually a heater connected directly to the mains. If the mains voltage is 10 percent higher than it nominally ought to be then current goes up 10 percent as well and so the power output of the fuser is 21 percent higher than expected (presuming the resistance of the heater doesn't change). That is quite a significant effect.

UPSs are for computers, NOT laser printers. In principle it might sound as though laser printers could benefit from the sort of power regulation provided by a UPS. However that is probably the worst thing to do unless you have the budget for a hefty UPS. In principle the UPS should give a stable output at the printer's design voltage. In practice a P4014 series device is a huge load of about 840 watts average when it is printing and somewhat more when the fuser is operating. It would need a supply rated at 3 kilowatts or more (about 4KVA) to guarantee a good supply to most laser printers. If too much load is placed on a UPS or inverter the frequency, power-factor and voltage will all be out of kilter and the result could be malfunctioning of the fuser control circuits. For instance, power switching semiconductors are generally intended to operate at the zero-volts point of the AC power cycle but if the power factor is bad that is not the zero current point and the switch could be destroyed. If you must have printing protected by a UPS choose an inkjet, most don't have the high power demand of a fuser.

50.3 problems seem likely to be printers being fed too high a voltage or an odd power-factor. Metering power supplies is a bit difficult and could be dangerous, although it only needs a multimeter set for AC volts. Many UPS's will report the line voltage, so a report from one of those near the printer can help. (No, the printer doesn't need plugging into it, the UPS and printer just have to be on the same circuit). Perhaps it is best to look at simpler solutions first.

Diagnosis & Repair

50.3 is quite likely to be fixed by unplugging the printer, leaving it to cool down for half an hour then trying again. DO NOT merely turn the printer off and on again, there is a risk that a second dose of power will push the fuser to the point where the fuser cutout operates or actual damage occurs. Cycle the printer power a couple of times over an hour or so before concluding that a new fuser or any other action is needed.

The LaserJet P4014, P4015 and P4015 have no fewer than four fans to give the machine airflow. Fan failure should raise a "57.xx" error of course, but it probably is possible to have a fan that does turn sufficiently to not give an error. Make sure all the fans are fairly clean and spin freely.

Fans are no use if users block the vents with ledgers, catalogues and other desktop clutter. Allow about 150mm clearance on every side. Printers should really occupy their own table as they shouldn't be too close to users.

If the problem persists another point to check might be the printer driver fuser setting. The P4014 has four fuser settings (for each media type) the idea being that the user can select the one with best results. It is possible that firmware might be confused by particular settings. Most HP printers have the fuser temperature settings in a "PRINT QUALITY" menu under "FUSER MODES" and can set the level to Low, Normal, High1 and High". This printer series (P4014 etc) seems to have Light1, Light 2, Normal and Heavy but that might be firware dependent. Generally a higher setting will work better on heavier media like letterheads and envelopes - at the possible cost of a shorter life for the fuser. If there are frequent 50.3 errors work from the basis of the default settings.

A warm up problem might be caused by the environment thermistor. If the printer has been moved from a cold to a hot room (or from a warm place to a cool one) then the environment thermistor will be wrong and the fuser warm-up timing will be out as well.

Certain combinations of media and settings may be capable of giving the 50.3 error during a print run. The fuser shouldn't be run too hot - it is bad for the pressure roller rubber and the bearings if nothing else so if it does go to error that may be a blessing in disguise.

Somewhere in their list of instructions on the "50.3" error everyone says something along the lines of "remove, inspect and reseat the fuser". There is no harm in it. It is possible that the thermistor contacts were tarnished - and you might find a label or other foreign object stuck around the fuser sleeve preventing it radiating heat properly.

If the fuser sleeve does not rotate properly then if media were to arrive print will smear. However the fuser should be moving and at temperature before the print media arrives so if the film is not carrying heat away presumably the 50.3 error could happen.

Ultimately you may need a multimeter to solve "50.3" problems. First to test the fuser, try metering the heater circuit and thermistor to find out if it is good.

You may need to test the mains power (line voltage). Since exposed meter probes could deliver a fatal electric shock this should be left for an experienced technician if you have the slightest doubt about your own abilities. Another alternative is a plug-in energy meter, which will often display the voltage and many of the better UPSs will give a read-out of current line voltage as well

We cannot definitely say error 50.3 is NOT a bad fuser - but since fusers are expensive it would be wise to eliminate other possibilities first. Multimeters cost about £10 and are handy for anyone with technical interests. Fusers cost about £180 delivered. If you have a "50.3" - check the other things before buying a fuser.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "50.3 FUSER ERROR" in quotes and got About 3,380 results suggesting some minor interest in the topic.

Whilst the articles generally covered the same ground I didn't feel they made any headway into how a fuser could get over-temperature without some glitch in the feedback loop allowing it to do that.

50.4: Faulty Fuser.

50.4 Fuser Error Often said to be "fuser heater wire failure" (about 20 HP service manuals use this phrase). Sometimes however its Fuser drive or power unit error. Check that the fuser is for the right voltage (110V in the US, 220V in Europe Ireland and the UK). However the LJ 4200 manual says "A problem exists with the customer's line voltage."

Some care might be needed with this message. The HP P4014/P4015 service manual merely says:

50.4: Faulty fuser Verify that the fusing assembly is firmly seated in the product chassis. Reseat

It seems that "50.4" can mean rather distinct things in different printers

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "50.4 FUSER ERROR" in quotes and got About 1,590 results; not a popular topic, then, except among the usual crowd of error-code appreciators.

I didn't really feel I'd got an answer to what "50.4" actually was, but at this point I got repeat the search with the omitted results included, so I gave in.

I wouldn't recommend a new fuser for an HP LJ-P4014 series on the basis of any of that. If you have "50.4" on a printer then:

• Do as the manual says and try reseating the fuser.
• Check the connectors on the fuser.
• Meter the fuser power connectors
• Make sure the printer is plugged into a wall-socket, not an extension or UPS
• If non of that proves the problem and you are knowledgeable about electrical matters or have a plug in energy meter, measure the mains power supply.

50.5: Faulty Fuser.

50.5 Inconsistent fuser (verify voltage model)

This is usually a nice clear problem, you just replaced the fuser but have got the wrong one. The only other explanation might be that the connectors aren't mating properly.

HP say:

This problem was (and remains) notorious with LJ 4200/ 4300/ 4250 / 4350 printers where the fusers look the same but are different in detail. People neglect to get the printer model completely right and order the wrong fuser.   Physically the fuser fits, but the printer shuts it down. This opportunity shouldn't exist with the P4014 / P4015/ P4515 range because they all use the same fuser. Unfortunately a new opportunity for confusion has opened up with the M601 / M602 / M603 fuser which apparently does fit in the P4014 but allegedly gives error 50.9. (Yuk)

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "50.5 FUSER ERROR" in quotes and got About 31,600 results; implying a popular topic.

In practice there were just a couple of pages of scarcely relevant stuff before the repeat the search with the omitted results included message.

Returns Problem

If you have the "50.5" error you have more than one problem. Not just how to get the right fuser but how to persuade the supplier to take back the wrong one.

Parts suppliers like ourselves are well aware of the problem and take care not to get fuser orders wrong - that doesn't mean mistakes never happen, and we will put them right if they do.

Our own experience and that of distributors is that people can be a little careless about what they order. By the time you get that "50.5" error you opened the box and installed the fuser in the wrong printer. The argument that "Marks and Spencers just take things back" isn't helpful, they make a huge margin on clothes and anyway that policy has changed. Now prove that the printer could not have damaged the fuser (mostly, they don't but they could); that you didn't mishandle it and that it is correctly re-packed in an unmarked box. We find people don't like buying spares where they feel someone else has opened the box. Suppliers try to be helpful but these parts aren't hugely profitable to us (they may be to HP) so non of us in the spares community can write things like fusers off.

50.6: Fuser Error.

50.6 Fuser Error is one of those errors that HP don't seem to have fully standardised. For the HP LaserJet P4014 series the HP Service manuals (all editions) simply say:

... which isn't helpful. Judging from what similar printers like the LaserJet 4200 etc reported in this case it seems to mean "open circuit" rather than mechanically not shut and the report relates to the heater, not the thermistor or photointerrupters.

However there is an unfortunate mix of printers and errors using this code which obfuscates it's meaning .

50.6 Fuser error Main or sub thermistor bad

50.6 Fuser is defective (drive circuit failure)

CLJ 2600N/ 4600 / 4700 CP4005 / 9500 / 5500  
open fuser heating circuit between the fuser and low-voltage power supply

CLJ 4500 6 fuser heater cutoff
CLJ 8500/8550) A heater error has occurred 1 Turn the printer off and on in the fuser.
LJ M3027 M3035 The main or sub thermistors are unable to provide temperature feedback to the ECU. 
The main and sub thermistors monitor the fuser assembly hot-roller temperature 
and provide feedback to regulate the fusing temperature.

4240/4250/4350 use this error to mean "open circuit".

If you search on the Web things get no better.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "50.6 FUSER ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 31,600 results; implying a popular topic.

We think "50.6" means the printer was unable to detect current being drawn by the fuser and gives this error rather than the "50.1" error meaning "It stayed cold".

50.7: Fuser Error.

50.7 Fuser Error generally seems to mean Pressure Release Mechanism Failure and that is what the service manual says in this case.

These printers have a small innovation compared with the LaserJet 4200, the fuser has a pressure release. This probably has two aims:

• pressure can be set correctly for the media in use
• it is easier to take paper out of the fuser after a paper jam with the fuser still in the machine.

The LaserJet 4200 didn't have this, instead it had a green knurled knob to help get paper out of the fuser. Users tended to be impatient and rip at the sheets instead, which could wreck the sleeve.

The mechanism puts the fuser motor momentarily in reverse engaging a cog which sets the gap on some cams. Previous printers couldn't do this because it would be impossible to reverse a motor that also drove the drum, so this is one good reason for the collection of separate motors used in the P4014 series.

Photosensor PS699 is the fixing pressure release sensor. If the printer attempts to work the pressure release mechanism and this sensor doesn't operate then "50.7" will result. On the LJ-P4014 series printers 50.7 quite probably is the fuser but on some other models it is likely to be other gears. On the LJ-6015 family a split gear in the printer causes the problem.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "50.7 FUSER ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 13,300 results; once more implying a popular topic.

Again just a couple of pages of scarcely relevant stuff before the repeat the search with the omitted results included message. Perhaps I need to change my search strategy. I'll give the current method a couple more goes.

50.7 Fuser errors due to the pressure release mecahnism not operating beg a question. Why did the pressure release try to operate? If it was a paper jam does the printer show a 13.xx error?

50.8: Fuser Error.

50.8 Lower Fuser Temperature (sub-thermistor). The 50.8 and 50.9 errors are generated by fusers that have a secondary thermistor.

First Steps

As usual with too-cold/too hot errors the first thing to try is turn the printer off, leave it to cool down to room temperature then try again.

Whilst it is cooling down:

• make sure all the air vents have 150mm (6 inch) clearance around them.
• make sure the printer is plugged directly into the mains / line power and not into extensions or a UPS.

It doesn't matter that "it always worked before". Laser printers aren't meant to work on shared extension leads and the fuser operating intermittently creates far too heavy a load for most UPSs. If the error persists you have the option of buying a new fuser (nearly £200 ) or getting an engineer out to find the problem (call-out from £50 to £120 and the price of a fuser too) so save some money: plug the printer into a wall socket and give it plenty of room for airflow.

Details of the Problem

HP don't always make clear why printers have these secondary thermistor error codes; it is a relatively recent innovation in fuser design. However we can infer what is going on and confirm it from patents.

Traditional fusers have two rollers:

• a heated roller which is a hollow metal cylinder coated in teflon with a halogen lamp down the middle.
• a pressure roller which is foam rubber coated with solid heat-resistant rubber with a steel axle down the middle.

Heated and pressure rollers are forced together by springs and driven round by gears. Sometimes the pressure roller contains a heater element as well. Sometimes the spring loading is motorized to suit different media thicknesses. There can be two or three heaters down the center of the top roller to get it to temperature quickly. Making the wall of the heated roller thinner allows it to come to temperature more quickly as well.

Canon and HP dumped this idea because it consumes too much power. In a series of patents from the 1990s the heated roller was replaced by a sleeve of Teflon around a ceramic heater, making the ultimate thin-walled hot roller. The heater is powerful and the sleeve takes very little to heat up so the this fuser is "instant on". It is surprisingly robust as well, Teflon-like materials adhere to one another better than they adhere to aluminium so there is no definite sacrifice in longevity.

There could be a potential issue with control. A hot roller with thick metalwork all comes to roughly the same temperature because of the conductivity and thermal capacity of the metal. The metal of the hot roller conducts heat much better than does the paper media passing through the fuser nip-point. A single thermistor can represent the temperature across the whole upper roller.

Fusers with thin Teflon sleeve or coated foil could develop rather different temperatures across the 220 mm (just over 8.5inch) span across the fuser. This is particularly true if the material being fed through the printer is not a standard size. A single measuring point doesn't represent the distribution of heat across the whole fuser well. This is both a penalty but potentially an advantage of using a fuser sleeve.

When printing envelopes or postcards the fact that the entire fuser width heats up is no help, it just means the edges of the fuser run hotter than necessary overheating the margins of the heater element and the pressure roller. A particular focus of mechanical and thermal stress at the margins creates "edgewear". The pressure roller is a firm but elastic rubber. The ceramic heater bar is far less elastic and reinforced by a strong steel bar. The medium itself has a thickness, in the case of 80gsm paper it is about 0.1mm, and envelope about two or three times that because of the seams. The rotation of the fuser forces the paper in, but it is under considerable pressure at the margins. Mechanically the sleeve and the glass coat on the ceramic heater are under some stress, so is the pressure roller although in it's case the greater stress might be the area at the edges where the fuser is not being cooled by the paper passing through.

European Patent Application EP 0 977 097 A3 by Michael Martin of HP covers Sensing print media size to temperature control a multi-heating element fixing device.

A fixing device control system controls multiple heating elements included in the fuser so that the duty cycle of the power applied to multiple heating elements results in an optimal temperature profile over the length of the fuser. Multiple thermistors are used in a feedback control circuit to regulate the temperature profile of the fuser

The P4014 printers do know about media size because as well as the size set for the tray they have two sensors at either side just after the registration station.

The actual fuser used in the LaserJet P4014 series is somewhat simplified from the ideal but has two thermistors, one near the middle and one near the margin. It appears that if the margin is too cool it will give "50.8" but more likely it will overheat and give "50.9".

The HP Color LaserJetCP5520 has something like the full implementation of the idea in the patent with two heaters, one for the middle of the page and another doing the edges and four thermistors, one in the middle of the heater, another nearby detecting the temperature of the sleeve and one at either end of the heater.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "50.8 FUSER ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 13,300 results; once more implying a popular topic.

I'm disappointed in this. There were just a couple of pages of scarcely relevant stuff before the repeat the search with the omitted results included message. Perhaps I need to change my search strategy. I'll give the current method a couple more goes.

HP do themselves no favours. They know why they are fitting sub-thermistors in fusers (or if they don't Canon do) and why they merit a different error. However so far as I can tell they do not explain, either in the service manual of on their web sites.

50.9: Fuser Error.

50.9 Fuser Error - High Fuser Temperature but from the secondary thermistor.

Secondary thermistors are used to assess the distribution of heat across a sleeve based fuser. Thermal distribution is simple if a fuser uses an aluminium heated roller - the conductivity of the metal will allow one thermal sensor (thermistor) to do the job. The powerful heater and thin sleeve of an "instant-on" fuser behave differently, especially with unusual shaped media are in use. For instance if the printer is working on envelopes or postcards then the edges of the fuser may well get too hot. That is the kind of thing "50.9" seems designed to detect.

Printertechs say this error can be caused by substituting an M600 series fuser (RM1-8395) in the P4014.If that is so HP have reintroduced the issue with the LaserJet 4200 / 4300 / 4250 /4300 where there was an issue with users getting confused about precisely what printer they had, ordering fusers that would physically fit but then getting 50.5 Fuser Error meaning "wrong fuser". Furthermore the P4014 doesn't actually give the right error message. When they devised the P4014 firmware they wouldn't know they were going to introduce a similar series with a wrong fuser that would fit. (Perhaps the M600 series do give 50.5 when you try a P4014 fuser in them).

However if the fuser is not wrong

This is one of those messages that may clear up if the printer is allowed to cool down. Turn the printer off off and leave it for 20 minutes.

Error 50 generally points to the need for a new fuser. For ordering details see above.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "50.9 FUSER ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 13,300 results; once more implying a popular topic.

51.xy LASER SCANNER ERROR

51.xy Laser Scanner Error. Sometimes this may be "51.xy" PRINTER ERROR FOR HELP PRESS ? alternates with TO CONTINUE TURN OFF THEN ON". The error is generated by a fault in the laser scanner. With luck, it may prove to be a temporary error message; turn the power off and then on. If the error recurs, run thediagnostics menu laser scanner motor component test and listen for the motor noise. If the test fails or the error persists HP say to check connectors J86 and J93 on the DC controller.

According the the service manuals the P4014 series printers don't have "52 error" in their repertoire, and those faults seem to have been subsumed under this heading. Historically "51" was the laser and "52" was the polygon mirror motor but they are associated and the likely answer to both is to replace the whole assembly.

About the Laser Scanner

The laser scanner is the item that gives laser-printers their name. The laser itself is a semiconductor infra-red device not unlike those in DVD players. One key difference is that in the P4010 series (and M600) the laser is dual beam.

The laser is made to scan using a disk whose circumference is made up of several mirrors. (To be a bit trite, it is similar to a mirrored disco ball but there are only a couple of laser-lamps and just six mirror facets). The polygon mirror is mounted on a motor shaft and rotates rapidly.

The laser scanner has to work very quickly. Set to do 1200dpi at full speed it would need to scan 13200 lines in less than a second, but those dual beams presumably halve that to 6600. The service manual shows the mirror as 6 sided so one rotation provides 6 scan lines but that still leaves the motor needing to spin 1100 times in a second - or 66,000 rpm.

The laser diode(s) are mounted to one side of the mirror and focussed through a colimation lense. Semiconductor laser beams are not naturally collimated. The beam emerges from a cleaved facet of a chip so a copuple of lenses provide colimation and focus. After reflection from the polygon mirror the beam is re-focussed by a lense before being aimed down at the drum by one or more mirrors.

The laser scanner unit looks like a fairly simple black box but contains some fairly subtle engineering.

Error 51 Details

The "51.X Error" can be followed by one or two digits:

• 51.10 means beam detect malfunction
• 51.20 means laser error.

Mono laser printers are likely to go to error only when they are asked to actually print something. Colour printers need to calibrate as they start up (they print on the belt to do this) so they could give this error or its partner the "52 error" during the initial self test.

The P4014 is a mono printer so it should say either "51.20" or "51.2K". Just in case you land on this page but have an error on a colour printer the code "51.2C" would mean "laser error cyan". The subcodes for colours are the letters C=Cyan, M=Magenta, Y=Yellow, K=Black an 0=No colour.

Beam detect is an opto-detector at one end of the laser travel across the exit mirror. The purpose is to get precise timing and confirm that the laser mechanism is working. Some printers have a flag on the shutter that will get in the way of the beam if the cartridge fails to open it.

Laser beam error may be feedback from the laser-diode control board. Laser diodes are not quite straightforward, they have a half-life about 20,000 hours in the same way that LEDs do, but this is compensated by a backfacet diode detecting the light and working a feedback circuit. Laser output is also quite sensitive to heat and the electrical input needs to be adjusted for this as well. The circuit board on the back of the laser unit deals with keeping the laser in trim.

Laser scanning provides a bit of a mechanical challenge. OKI and Kyocera chose to abandon it for solid-state LED arrays many years ago and Brother seem to be joining them. Packing thousands of LEDs into an 8 inch strip poses its own challenges. However laser scanning is supposed to be reported by a 52 Error.

Laser diodes will ultimately fail but we know of HP 4L printers from 1993 still operating and they are over 20 years old - so it is possible for lasers and scanners to last a long time.

Remedies

Beam detect errors seem likely to be a fault with the laser-diode itself or its drive circuitry on the board mounted on the back of the scanner unit. The path from computer to page is: computer, driver,print-language, formatter, DC-Controller, laser-data cable, laser control board, laser-chip, polycom mirror, optics, drum. This fault can come anywhere from the DC-controller through to the optics. In some designs it could potentially be the laser shutter.

It is difficult to verify operation of the laser in a printer, other than by getting it to print. The laser is buried deep inside the printer facing into the cartridge, protected by a safety switch and the shutter. The beam is invisible infra-red but could damage human eyes, hence the need for the shutter.

It would be possible to verify the data going to the laser with a high-speed oscilloscope or logic probe. The data signals are on twisted-pair wires because the signal is high frequency.

It would certainly be possible to meter the output of the laser using a photo-sensor but doing so on a printer requires changes in the works. A test-rig would probably be needed to test laser units out of circuit and there isn't sufficient volume of failed units to justify it.

If the cartridge is coming up all black or all white then one way to test what the laser is doing is to put a strip of brown tape over a bit of the cartridge laser window, just to see if the image changes across that stripe.

Components for the laser scanner do not seem to be available, just the complete unit. The dual-beam laser diode is presumably specially made for laser printers and there are several patents for circuitry to balance the beams. The laser unit on a printer is factory aligned, so it wouldn't be easy to fix without a factory jig. New laser units cost about £250 which is probably near the limit of what people are prepared to pay for spares for this printer. We think "refurbed" (good pull) scanners will generally be about £70.

Laser scanner units are sold as units but some points are repairable.

Engineers quite commonly open the laser unit and clean the optics. We don't thing dirty optics will give a "51 error" - rather it will give inadequate contrast and light print,

If the laser unit is opened it is worth testing the polygon mirror unit to see that it rotates freely. If it does not there is an issue. It is possible to dismantle polygon mirror assemblies, they are usually held by a couple of E-rings. Lift the polygon mirror and it's shaft out of the bushing, clean both shaft and bushing with alcohol (isopropyl or IPA) and then re-lubricate the bushing with a couple of drops of machine oil. This will often get more life from a scanner however we think that goes somewhat beyond the remit of the average technician. Faults with the scanner should also give a"52 error"; not 51 which we are dealing with here.

Other things to look for are dirty optics. Don't touch the mirrors and lenses in the laser assembly with fingers, use a cotton bud or suchlike and wipe them gently with IPA. Sometimes the mirrors are surprisingly dirty. Note that the mirrors are silvered on the outside of the glass to give them maximum reflectivity but that does make them vulnerable to scratches.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "51 ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 1070 results; implying a little known topic.

After that there a couple more irrelevances and the repeat the search message. The search turned up one gem in the marketpoint blog which is good.

52.XY ERROR

52 Error is impossible on the P4014 series according to the service manual which has no entry for it. The 52 group of scanner errors could have been subsumed under "51 error" since they are both related to the laser scanner unit.

Error messages may relate to hardware but what the printer specifically says is determined by the printer firmware. So it is possible that "52 Error" might appear.

You certainly can get "Error 52" on other printers. Where 51 errors relate to the laser 52 errors relate to the polygon mirror motor or scanner motor (since MFP printers have a scanner on top of them scanner motor has become an ambiguous phrase). Hopefully the problem might prove temporary; turn the power off, wait, and then turn it on. With old valve TVs the trick was to hit them not too hard, just hard enough. I can't recommend thumping a laser printer but if you want to try it take the cartridge out first. Taking the laser unit out and lubricating the polygon motor would be better and is discussed further below.

There are some subcodes for this error.

• 52.1 Scanner start error
• 52.2 Scanner rotation error

With colour printers one trick is to swap the laser scanner units around to see if the fault moves with them.

A common finding with 52.1 errors is that the polygon mirror no longer rotates freely. Polygon mirror assemblies are usually held in place by a couple of E-rings. Lift the polygon mirror and it's shaft out of the bushing, clean both shaft and bushing with alcohol (isopropyl or IPA) and then re-lubricate the bushing with a couple of drops of machine oil. This will often get more life from a scanner however obviously it is something of a last resort.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "52 ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 2,930 results. This is slightly worrying, I get nearly 3 times a many codes for "52" which isn't supposed to exist as for "51" which the service manual says does. So all I can do is research the issue. I'm not expecting a high degree of relevance.

It is difficult for search engines to prove an absence - in this case we think the P4014 series machines don't have a "52 error". The problem is a lack of any definitive information about errors in general. People seem to have been copying one-another’s summaries for years.

53.XY.ZZ ERROR

53.XY.ZZ CHECK RAM DIMM SLOT - A memory doesn't work. The formatter has some Flash- ROM, a couple of RAM chips and a DIMM slot.

• X is the type 0=ROM 1= RAM.
• Y is memory location 0=Internal 1=DIMM slot.
• ZZ is one of
  • 00=Unsupported Memory
  • 01=Unrecognised Memory
  • 02=Unsupported Memory Size
  • 03=Failed RAM Test
  • 04=Exceeded Maximum RAM Size
  • 05=Invalid DIMM Speed

Turn the power off and either remove or reseat any DIMM. We would recommend removing the DIMM at first, just to check what happens.

Remember that if you remove the DIMM on a permanent basis the computer drivers need to be informed, if they are set to expect more RAM than is present there are likely to be errors in the "20" series.

The service manual doesn't actually list the "ZZ" bit of the message but does give the message form that suggests it exists.

Remedies

Memory isn't repairable, but it doesn't fail all that much. If a memory does seem to have failed reseating it usually works.

Obviously there is nothing to be done with the Flash and RAM built onto the formatter - that is going to require a replacement. Reflowing the solder on memory pins might work but doing it with a soldering iron requires a steady hand. Pick and place machines can do it but nobody is going to stop a factory production line to fix one board. There are reflow machines (Cooper tools make them) but they cost thousands are generally used in manufacturers triage centres. Some formatter boards for other models have been successfully recovered by giving them 8 minutes in an oven at 180 centigrade then cooling down without vibration. HP clearly do not recommend this, and we haven't tried it with a P4014 board - it might damage plastics and capacitors so remove anything that looks delicate. However we have a customer who successfully did it with a DesignJet formatter. Put it this way, a dead formatter is no good to anyone; lightly cooking it may work.

Removable memory can be tested using memtest86 (on many Knoppix distributions) if you can find a notebook computer with the right socket.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "XX ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 62 results which was a bit disappointing. So I tried P4015 "53.XY Error" but that through away the quotes giving About 35,900 results which looked quite high quality but weren't all on target. P4015 "53.XY.ZZ" which is what it says in the manual gave About 667 results which seemed of interest. Google's results listings are very sensitive to what precisely is asked. No actual printer user would be likely to type this of course, but my interest here is whether anyone had penetrated the meaning of the codes more deeply than the service manual does - particularly that "ZZ" suffix .

My search did find printertechs and mj-printers showing a list of subcodes. I didn't feel totally confident that they applied to the P4014. So this needs a bit more research.

54.XX ERROR

54 Error .

HP say in the P4014 service manual:

This message is typically related to a sensor issue. To continue turn off then on. Follow the instructions displayed on the product control panel.

The "54 Error" has been used a bit inconsistently. On some printers the message "54.1 REMOVE SEALING TAPE" warns that the toner cartridge tape is still in place. and on others "54.4 PRINTER ERROR" says there is a problem with line voltage -rather than giving the notorious 50.2 error which suggests the fuser has failed. Colour printers seem to use the code for toner sensors. However those error don't seem to apply to the P4014 series.

Error 54 in the P4014 series seems to mean a sensor has been found misbehaving. The sensor locations are shown briefly here.

At a guess the "XX" subcode is the position of the sensor that is mis-indicating. In the circuits they have three digit numbers to indicate which is which (PS101, PS102 etc) and in the diagnostics they are letters (N, B etc) which is a little bit confusing. Presumably these also map to the XX subcode.

Remedies

Examine and clean the sensor locations. Note any sensors that don't look straight and could be mis-seated. If the fault is persistent use diagnostic mode to identify the specific problem.

Next, a question. Did you just try to pull misfed paper out of the throat of the printer just above the cassette tray? (tray 2). If so, your paper feed and separation rollers are worn and now you may now have dislodged the paper detection flag PS102 (Pre-Feed Sense).

Web Research

Google suggests 120,000 results for 54 ERROR on its own, mostly stuff to do with Windows and Itunes. I tried querying Google with P4015 "54 ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 52 results; most of them pages already reviewed .

Search on "54 Error" gave less than a page of barely relevant stuff before the repeat the search with the omitted results included message. There is evidence that this error message is bugging a few people but very little relevant has been written about it. It seems to be a "catch all" for "a sensor is misbehaving" and with the P4014 series that would suggest working through the diagnostics.

55.XX.YY DC CONTROLLER ERROR ERROR

55 DC Controller Error implies that the DC controller has failed some self test or crashed. What HP refer to as a "DC controller" is also known as an engine controller on some printers. It is the processor that controls the motors, and high voltage units, reads the sensors and in this printer works the control panel. It does almost everything except format the page. Naturally that is left to the formatter which is generally regarded as a more powerful processor.

The DC controller board has a forest of wiring converging on it and it is naturally very busy when printing is in progress. In terms of implementation it is a microprocessor running firmware so in principle it could crash just like any other. It will have some sort of supervisory time-out interrupt, watchdog or heartbeat function (as does the formatter) but that isn't made explicit in a heartbeat light. Both formatter and DC controller probably exchange heartbeat clocks. Few if any details of how the DC controller works are released so we can't fully know what is going on.

The DC controller also gets information about the status of other components, such as clock signals from fans, motors and some power supply components. If one of these components fails it should show the correct error on the control panel and send the right signal to the formatter to be forwarded to the computer. Some of the conditions are pretty rare and unlikely to be seen when a printer is in beta-testing so they may not get correctly reported. This was certainly true of the fan errors in the LJ-P4014 (it reported the wrong fan) and fuser faults; the printer ignored jobs or went slowly.

Although most HP printers share the "55" DC controller error they don't all work in the same way. In some printers the formatter deals with the control panel so their manuals may tend to say something along the lines of "Internal communication problem" and "the DC Controller is not communicating with the formatter".

HP say about the "55 error":

Although HP don't mention it in the brief excerpt above both the DC controller and formatter depend on stable voltages from the power supply. A one-off error 55 would not suggest a power supply problem but a string of them might - a processor cannot perform correctly if the power supply is unstable. Meter the power rails on the DC controller. We might expect bad mains to also trigger 50.2 and 50.3 errors so if those are also in the error log that would be a hint.

Remedies

As suggested the DC controller is capable of crashing due to exceptional events not seen before and hopefully the fault will clear when the power is cycled. If it doesn't try an engine test. Remove any expansion memory and additional USB devices and see if the fault clears. It seems possible for this fault to be the formatter rather than the DC controller. As HP suggest, try removing the formatter and press the engine test button without it present. The engine test prints a rudimentary pattern of fine stripes but if it works it proves the DC controller and virtually all of the printer mechanisms work. Does the formatter heartbeat light behave normally?

If you have several printers the obvious move is to swap DC controllers and see if the fault moves with the item. Although there are a lot of cables to swap the plugs are mostly polarised and coloured to minimise the risk of error so it isn't actually a difficult job. Take precautions against static discharge.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "55 ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 300 results; implying a rare event.

56.XX ERROR

56 Error is an incorrect I/O request. Some sort of error in what is being communicated to the printer. Cycle the power.

HP say in their service manual ...

... before contacting a support outfit it's probably better to consider what you are trying to print. It looks as though this error gets triggered by incorrect use of a print language, or possibly by the language interpreter in the printer getting it wrong. The former problem is more likely as HP devised PCL and their implementation of PostScript seems to be generally well regarded - as are the Windows drivers. The issue is therefore likely to be an application phrasing it's requests wrongly or asking something impossible rather than a printer error. Do other jobs print correctly?

There used to be a "30 Error" which was a PostScript error however the P4014 doesn't have that

The service manuals also suggest it is possible to trigger "49 Error" by incorrect commands - although that seems to be as a result of knocking the printer software into an unexpected state. A "56 Error" seems to be a more controlled "no you don't" message.

Remedies

Whilst it might happen that "56 Error" could be printer firmware or flakey drivers it seems more likely that they are due to an application creating a problem. In all probability it is something homespun that isn't implemented quite correctly.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "56 ERROR" with and without quotes but got nothing of much interest. P4015 "56.XX ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 95 results looking a bit more relevant, but not exactly a popular topic.

57.XX ERROR

57 Error is one of the fans. The printer has four fans in its base model and the duplexer adds a fifth as it partly blocks the fuser vent area. Although they are nicely engineered fans they are a bit noisy and there are suggestions that as the printers get older, the axles and bushings get a bit eccentric and foam cushioning ages the machines get prone to rattling noises.

Laser printers almost invariably use heat to fuse the toner into the page. It takes a considerable amount of energy to raise 60 pages per minute to about 150 centigrade for fusing to take place. In operation the P4014 series use just under a kilowatt of electricity on average - so it is acting as a small fan heater. The fuser is not totally efficient at transferring all that energy into the paper so the fans are needed to extract it from the printer.

The P4015 and P4515 machines have a rather large cartridge full of special low-melting point polyester toner that is intended to save about 15% of the electric cost of running the fuser. However this toner does need to be kept cool even though the developer end of the cartridge is innevitably next to the fuser.

The fans feed clock signals back to the DC controller so it can detect them not moving properly. However there are suggestions that this doesn't always work as it should because the fuser can go to 50.3 and 50.9 overheat errors.

It is worth making sure that users are not blocking fan vents with things like ledger files piled against the machine. Yes it does make a handy bookend on a desk but it also needs about 150mm (6 inches) clearance on all sides for adequate ventilation.

Diagnosis

Find the fan that has stalled. (Some versions of the service manual are wrong on the fan numbering).

• 57.01 is Right Rear RK2-1992 FN102 (Manual says FN103)
• 57.03 is Right Front RK2-1989 FN103 (Manual says FN102)
• 57.04 is Left Rear RK2-1988 FN101
• 57.07 is Left Front RK2-1991 FN301
and
• 57.05 is the Duplex Fan.

It is usually easy to spot dead fans; with the printer off push a blade gently by hand and it turns reluctantly if at all. Fan failures are almost always related to the bearing although the resulting overload might conceivably fry the built-in drive circuit. One point to watch out for is the enjoyable sport of cleaning fans by blowing compressed air at it; as well as making a dust cloud the fast-spinning blades over-voltage the drive circuit and kill it. This could damage the DC controller as well. Use a brush instead.

We have tried to get the fan numbering above correct but HP getting it wrong is unhelpful. Furthermore they could correct the problem by updating the firmware - so the list above might become wrong (yuk). It means you can't trust a fan error on these printers; verify which specific fan has the problem (unplug them one at a time? ).

Remedies

Fans can often be cleaned up and repaired. Take the label off and there is a circlip underneath holding the hub of the fan and it's bushing onto the shaft. Clean and re-lubricate the shaft and bushing. Exactly how the bearing is done varies hugely and is a significant factor in fan life.

Failed fans are normally replaced; repair takes too long and is too often followed by another failure.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "57.01 ERROR" in quotes and got just About 38 results; almost all the familiar sites. I'll just pick out a few:

I then tried Google with P4015 "57.03 ERROR" in quotes and this time it said About 151 results; again the familiar sites.

Queries for 57.04 etc gave very similar results so that topic doesn't seem worthwhile pursuing. --

58.XX ERROR

58 Error on LaserJet P4014 series printers is the environment Sensor / air temperature sensor on FN101 out of range. In all probability the printer has been badly placed so the sensor has been driven too hot or cold. Otherwise ensure connector J63 is seated otherwise perhaps replace TH3 RK2-0359. However it's not a very likely fault, so it might be worth considering some other factors first.

HP's service manual says:

Remedies

The sensor is on a bracket on the main fan (FN101) at the left rear of the printer. (see here). The thermistor leads only go through the high-voltage power supply because it acts as an interconnect from the left to right side of the printer. The leads are actually heading into the DC-controller. The thermistor itself is a little bead- the rest of the assembly is just a metal bracket with plastic innards to support the thermistor in the airflow.

Measuring a thermistor gave 10.8 kilo-ohms at 23 centigrade changing very rapidly when I touched it with my finger to stabilise at 8.86 kilo-ohms. It is this change that the DC controller is measuring using an A to D converter.

Note 1 that if the printer was recently moved from cold conditions in a warehouse (or indeed a position next to a hot radiator) then the sensor could have been driven out of range.

Note 2 that what is being measured is an analogue quantity. If the printer is not plugged directly into a wall-socket but into an extension lead, anti-surge plug or UPS then the mains voltage might conceivably be sufficiently wrong to trigger this sort of error alongside the fuser errors 50.2 and 50.3 - so if those errors are being logged as well that might suggest the real problem is either the mains feed or the power supply board.

Note 3 that in the past "58 error" has been associated with memory sensors (for cartridges and suchlike) so if your printer isn't a LJ-P4014 series then look at a general errors page on the problem or try to find the service manual for your specific machine.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "58.2 ERROR" in quotes (because I think that is what the printer says) and got a suggestion of 6 results all of them familiar (and very old) lists.

Out of interest I tried P4015 "58 ERROR" (still with the error in quotes and got 10 results but the new ones weren't relevant. Trying a few other formulations was no better

Remarks

We rather suspect that this error is there because it has to be possible for the environment sensor to fail or be driven out of range so it is intellectually possible and the designers took it into account. It probably doesn't happen much.

The environment thermistor is TH3, the other two thermistors are on the fuser. The idea seems to be that the printer measures the environment temperature at startup and then estimates what the timing will be for bringing the fuser up to operating temperature. It then gives the fuser an adequate time and then measures it's temperature. If the fuser has achieved the correct temperature the printer goes to READY but if it is too cool it goes to 50.2 or 50.8 and if it is too hot it goes to 50.3 or 50.9.

Air temperature has an impact on the performance of the OPC and the transferability of toner from developer to OPC so the printer may be making adjustments for this. Colour laser printers have a more elaborate environment sensor incorporating a humidity gauge and seem to do more with the information.

59.XY ERROR

59 Error means a motor is in trouble. The sub code says which motor, and possibly what kind of trouble. X is the motor. Unfortunately the service manual for the P4014 series doesn't give any help about Y but it usually applies to motors driving colour cartridges.

A 59.XY ERROR is often another temporary problem that might clear when power is cycled. It is also likely to relate to whatever happened last - loading paper into a tray, putting a new cartridge in or changing the fuser - things that might cause a motor to stall.

• 59.00 Feed Motor - M101 - RL1-1657 - connector J91
• 59.20 Fuser Motor - RM1-5051 - M299 - connector J89
• 59.40 Drum Motor - RL1-1659 - M102 - connector J87. Before doing anything else check for a jammed cartridge!
and
• 60.02 Tray 2 Lifter Motor RM1-4585 (There are several possible lifter motors if the printer has accessory trays, see the next section)

HP say: ...

This service manual doesn't mention what the "Y" part of the subcode means, or if it is implemented. However on other printers this part of the code applies to colour cartridges and since this is a mono printer it presumably doesn't apply.

Some printer error codes make a distinction between motor startup failure (stalls) and motor rotation errors (too slow). Sometimes it would be helpful to do this and presumably the P4014 software could do it - but doesn't.

The feed motor, fuser motor and drum motor are all 24 volt brushless DC (BLDC) "outrunner" types with a magnet assembly driven round fixed coils. This gives high torque in a confined space. The motors have the motor-drivers built onto them so there is no need for them cluttering up the DC controller or any intermediate board.

Each motor has three signals, except the fuser (or fixing) motor which gets four because it is reversible :

• Feed Motor: /MMFG, /MMDEC, /MMACC
• Drum Motor: /DMFG, /DMDEC, DMACC
• Fixing Motor: /DMFG, /DMDEC, /DMACC, FMREV

These motors just get 24 Volts and then logic propositions. "ACC" and "DEC" probably mean Accelerate and Decelerate and FG seems to be an open collector (floating) clock output. The prefix "/" means the proposition is active low.

Amateur electronics enthusiasts are quite keen to use these motors for projects; they work along the following lines. The printer supplies 24 Volts continually to all motors; except that if the lid is open the switch cuts the supply. The DC controller gives an /ACC command to run the motor by pulling that line logic-low (ie grounding it). To stop the command is given to /DEC. The actual motor speed is controlled by a local crystal oscillator.

Most engineers won't want to test motors out of circuit, it is too much trouble. In the case of the P4014 series it is also unnecessary as the printer has adiagnostics menu which will trigger any of the motors to run for ten seconds.

Remedies

The drum motor in particular seems capable of being jammed by a badly refurbished cartridge where it is either too full of low quality toner or the scraper blade has jammed against the drum. Before blaming the motor it is worth trying another cartridge. It is difficult to push cartridges round by hand using the drive cog on the drum but just possible. If the cartridge won't turn it may be defective - and this kind of fault is more common with refills.

It seems the drum motor can also split its drive cog. For details see the drum-motor page RL1-1659. It is unusual to find actual damage being done to a printer by a bad cartridge - horrible mess of toner leaked through a seal does happen, splitting a cog is nasty.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with the feed-motor P4015 "59.00 ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 52 results; implying a trivial topic. A look through the results suggested very little worthwhile and relevant to the P4014 series. Perhaps the feed motor doesn't jam much, other than overloading the tray it is difficult to see how it would and that would more likely give error 13.

Another query with P4015 "59.20 ERROR" in quotes for the fuser motor got just 2 results; very near a Googlewhack and neither result very good. Going for just "59.20" increased the count to 6,800 results but decreased the relevance

I tried querying Google with P4015 "59.40 ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 441 results; implying the drum-motor problem is not unknown as a topic.

After this there were several entries that have been looked at several times containing little or no relevant information. I get the impression that drum motor problems happen quite a bit because there seem to be Chinese manufacturers making the drive cog as a spare, however perhaps that doesn't actually give a "59.40 Error".

In the service manual HP recommend testing whether the drum moves by putting a mark on a cog, or on one end then trying to print a configuration page. If the drum is turning the mark will move to arbitrary positions. If the drum does not appear to turn then either the cartridge is jamming it or the motor is failing to turn.

60.X ERROR

60 Error from a LaserJet P4014 series printer is a problem with a tray lift mechanism. X is the tray, in a printer with no accessory trays it is 2.

The error message is often preceded by grinding or even banging noises as the lift motor fails to engage properly and the paper tray rises a bit and then crashes back.

The problem is most likely to be caused by stray paper caught somewhere like the bottom of the tray or in the media stack sensors (in the top of the cassette housing). Examine the paper guides, they may be too tight so that the paper lift can't work. If the paper backstop is set too far back paper might not be able to activate the media stack sensor. Try removing the paper from the afflicted tray and use just a few sheets. See if the motor can be heard lifting the tray. The paper level indicator should move on the front of the tray as the motor works.

HP's service manual says:

The P4014 series cassette tray holds up to 500 sheets of paper, and that will weigh 2.5 kilos. Cheaper printers have a spring lift which pushes up to a couple of hundred pages up towards the pickup roller. Spring loading doesn't work at all well with bigger trays, there is too much pressure when the tray is nearly empty and too little when it is full. SPrings were used on the LaserJet 4100 but it was sometimes remarked that it wore the pickup and feed rollers excessively.

The motorised tray keeps pressure on the pickup and feed rollers nearly constant. As sheets get used the media stack sensor intermittently signals to the DC controller which turns on the lift motor.The DC controller monitors how long it has run the paper-lift motor and if it does not operate the media stack sensor in time (about 12 seconds) this message pops up. It may be accompanied by a nasty grinding noise if the lift cog isn't engaging properly.

The lift mechanism is fairly simple. When the tray is pushed home a cog about half way along on the right hand side engages with that on the lift motor. The lift motor is positioned by a pivot and a spring giving it a bit of freedom of movement for engaging and disengaging. First suspicion if the the 60.X Error continually happens but the motor can be heard whining rather fast is that the spring is off. Reach into the cassette drawer enclosure and test that the motor cog is spring loaded upwards.

The lift mechanism has been is use since the LaserJet 4200 was introduced in 2002 so HP clearly regard it as a reliable solution. The same error can therefore happen on the LarJet 4200, 4300, 4250, 4350, P4014, P4015 and P4515. With a different mechanism the same error is seen with the 9000 series.

Remedies

Most tray-lift problems start with a grinding noise followed by the error. The simple answer is usually take some paper out of the cassette tray and try again, making sure the tray goes fully home into the body of the printer.

Sometimes the problem will be self-evident as a stripped tooth or cracked cog. HP have not made the cogs available so the only direct replacements are a new motor or a new tray.

The lift motor is a little DC motor with a worm-gear and some reduction gearing cogs. HP say to replace it but equally you could try looking inside to see what might be wrong. Unfortunately the printer needs to come partly to bits to get it out of there; but that will be required to replace it as well.

The motor is intended to run from just under 24 volts but it should function out of circuit with 12 volts so it can be tested on a workbench.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "60.2 ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 96 results; not a very significant topic.

Web research suggests the "60 error" is not that common. When it does happen the problem is likely to be a paper jam in the cassette itself caused by careless loading of the tray or inappropriate positioning of the guides. If there is actual damage to the cogs on the cassette tray the whole thing will usually have to be replaced. Damage to the motor means partly stripping the printer to get at it but for a technical task it is fairly straight forward.

62 ERROR

62 NO SYSTEM error is almost bound to be rather bad news with the P4014 series printers as the flash-chips holding the firmware are soldered to the motherboard. Try turning it off, waiting, then turning back on again. (No particular reason, but sometimes it helps). Otherwise the printer OS is corrupt.

HP has used "62" to mean something like "memory error, defective formatter" for a long time, ever since the LaseJet 2.

Quite how the error gets generated we don't know and probably varies with the details of the printer. The control panel is attached to the DC controller so perhaps the message is generated there on failing to get a heartbeat from the formatter. Perhaps the message explicitly comes from the formatter's bootstrap process. It probably varies with printer. Miss the memory out of a LaserJet 4100 and it doesn't say anything, presumably the formatter can't start at all so there is nothing to say.

If you get a "62 error" it might be worth testing the DC controller using the "engine test" button.

Remedies

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "62 NO SYSTEM" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 382 results; implying a topic with some slight relevance.

Not a great deal of information out there, for instance is it possible to access the firmware filesystem and get it going that way, or reload the chips. In the absence of that information it looks like a new formatter will be needed.

There used to be several formatter errors:

• 60 Formatter or memory
• 61 Formatter or memory error again
• 62 Memory Error or Defective Formatter board - SIMM slot or font cartridge
• 63 Defective formatter board
• 64 Scan buffer error
• 65 Defective formatter board

The LJ-P4014 series don't seem to generate 61, 63 or 64 and 65 has been re-purposed.

65.XY.ZZ OUTPUT DEVICE DISCONNECTED

65 Error means something was suddenly disconnected from the printer. If you took the envelope feeder off the front, or stapler stacker off the top put it back, the printer was intending to use it. If you disconnected a tray from underneath how did you achieve that?

The printer isn't intentionally hot-pluggable and doesn't expect things to come and go whilst it is turned on. The likely output device is the stacker or stapler. Turn the printer off, plug the accessory back in and see if things now work normally.

If the error persists or is intermittent either:

• an accessory is sufficiently mis-seated to break the connection
• or one of the connectors has failed, probably due to rough treatment.
• or the internal connection to the DC controller needs re-seating.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "OUTPUT DEVICE DISCONNECTED" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 47 results and since I'd already seen most of these I didn't persue matters much further.

We think this error is probably self-explanatory and unlikely to lead to many misunderstandings. It therefore doesn't get much mention.

It is possibly worth mentioning that error "65" has had other uses. It used to be one of several formatter errors on the LaserJet 3 and 4, but that isn't how it is used on the P4014 series.

66.XY.ZZ INPUT DEVICE FAILURE

66 Error means "an External paper handling controller found a problem" - probably one of the accessories. Messages can be:

• 66.XY.ZZ INPUT DEVICE FAILURE
• 66.XY.ZZ OUTPUT DEVICE FAILURE
or
• 66.XY.ZZ SERVICE ERROR For help press ?
  alternating with
  66.XY.ZZ SERVICE ERROR Check cables and turn off then on
  

HP say about this problem: ...

For some reason the P4014 service manual doesn't tell us what the subcodes mean for this printer.

The 66 Error has always referred to external paper handling devices on HP machines but we can't just suppose that error codes for the P4014 series will apply to them or vice versa.

However other manuals such as that for the Laserjet 5100 suggest that

• the first X is the device number in the chain
• the Y is the device type with 1 being input, 2 being output and 3 being a stapler stacker
• ZZ is device specific error.

Peripheral devices for input and output communicate with the DC controller over a stackable peripheral bus. We haven't seen anything definitive from HP, but its an I2C bus with low power microprocessors in each peripheral. Examining the innards of an accessory shows the active part is an M38503 - one of Renesas Technology's 8 bit CISC 740 family computer chips. Pin proposition names are OPSOUT, OPSIN and OPSCLK.

Remedies

As usual start by turning the printer off, check that all the accessories seem to be correctly seated, then turn it back on again. With luck the fault should de-materialise.

If there are a lot of peripheral accessories then unplug them all and add them back one at a time. Add them back until the error either isn't there or re-appears.

Examine the connector closely and use contact cleaner if there is doubt. However that is probably more relevant to "65 Error" where a device disconnected."66 errors" imply the device is communicating just fine, but the local microprocessor is saying it has an error condition.

Depending on the specific message that device may need reseating or some closer examination. Obviously the specifics depend on the device. Trays have a motor for paper lift and a clutch and solenoid for paper drive, together with size switches at the back of the tray and a photo-interrupter. The Duplexer has a feed motor, a reversing motor and three photo-interrupters.

Accessories are quite expensive and people won't want to junk them, even if they can just buy another. (Actually, the accessories for the LaserJet Enterprise M601 are mostly backwards compatible with the P4014 so new devices are available ). HP have put some moderately helpful diagrams in the service manual for each accessory, but there isn't a supply of new parts in every instance.

Most of the accessories including the motors and solenoids in the trays can be tested from the diagnostics menu.

Web Research

Because there are several possible error messages there are quite a few possible questions:

I tried querying Google with 66.XY.ZZ INPUT DEVICE FAILURE in quotes and got a suggestion of About 1,180,000 results results; implying a popular topic.

Non of this was very helpful. I tried a few other tacks such as P4015 "66" "INPUT DEVICE FAILURE" and various attempts to follow up 66 with subcodes P4015 "66.01" but basically got offered much the same stuff.

HP Error 66 means one of the accessories is reporting a device failure. At the moment we don't have the information to say which, but it can probably be easily discovered by unplugging them then adding them back. Most of the accessories contain a couple of motors or actuators and a couple opf photo-interrupters so there isn't a great deal to go wrong, on the other hand they aren't commonplace so technicians won't usually be very familiar with their habits.

68.X PERMANENT STORAGE ERROR

68 Error essentially means the hard disk, NVRAM or flash pen has a problem.

The "X" part of the code identifies the device in other printers. The service manual for the P4014 series doesn't say what it means for this specific machine but normally 0=onboard NVRAM, 1=removable disk. Since the P4014 has three USB slots and an EIO there may be other sub-codes.

If there are several flash pens installed in the printer it might prove wise to remove them one at a time then replace them, noting which gives the error. Remove any that don't have a problem before re-initialising any.

Older printers used the same message to indicate a full NVRAM , the normal cure with older printers was to:

• Print the configuration page so that settings can be re-entered.
• Hold down Cancel Job whilst turning the power on to clear the NVRAM (temporarily removing the network card would prevent the NVRAM clear also resetting its network parameters - that isn't possible with the P4014 etc).
• Re-enter anything that changed from the configuration page.

68.0 PERMANENT STORAGE ERROR could be bad news because "one or more printer settings has been reset to its factory default." so there could be a hunt to decide which setting changed. (There is a problem that printers don't make an electronic copy of their settings unless you record what is seen through the web interface.

Messages in the same group are 68.X PERMANENT STORAGE error - can be PERMANENT STORAGE FULL, PERMANENT STORAGE WRITE FAIL, STORAGE ERROR SETTINGS CHANGED

The HP service manual for the P4014 series says: ...

Printer Memory

Printers can use a surprising amount of memory and it is not unusual for large, fast machines to be fitted with a hard disk. The memory is used to store jobs that have yet to be printed, but also to do things like storing jobs until a specific user is present (the P4015 and P4515 have numeric keypads to make this easier. There obviously is a problem if users send jobs but then go on holiday and don't retrieve them. A mere 20GB hard disk will hold an enormous amount of print but it does depend on what it holds: text is small, a pre-rasterised version of what will print is huge.

Fonts and that are printed regularly can also be held in the printer, rather than in a server. (For instance, it may allow the office to fall-back to paperwork if the system is down). Another possibility is to hold the rasterised version of pages so that a 50 copies of a 50 page report with heavy graphics is not delayed by re-rasterising the pages for each copy.

Diagnostics

The messages given by the printer are pretty self explanatory.

Remedies

The usual "fix" for PERMANENT STORAGE FULL is to use HP Web Jetadmin software to get a filemanager view and then delete files that aren't needed any more.

68.X PERMANENT STORAGE WRITE FAIL might suggest first trying turning the power off and re-seating the EIO connectors. If that doesn't work it may be necessary to re-initialise the disk and if that fails it will need replacing.

Web Research

Google might obviously respond differently depending on the specific message used for search. I tried querying Google with P4015 "68.X PERMANENT STORAGE ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 266 results; a minor topic.

69.X ERROR

69 Error is probably something wrong in hardware. Error 49 tends to be the trap for software problems; Error 79 seems to be expansion hardware related.

Error 69 used to be a problem with the duplexer

For the P4014 HP just say in the service manual: ...

The advice isn't much use; no hint as to what is wrong.

The Duplexer should be covered in Error 66 but nothing explicitly says it is. As a possible diagnostic, try taking any accessories off the printer and see if it ceases going to error.

Web Research

I tried querying Google with P4015 "69.X ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 117 results. Unfortunately they were almost all things I've already seen and not relevant. If there is an error 69 you may as well do what they say and "contact an HP-authorized service or support provider" -

For instance, amongst the responses:

Other than that it might be the duplexer we hit a complete blank with what "69 Error" means.

Errors 70, 71 and 72 don't seem to exist in the P4014 series, which don't have the SIMMs, MIO cards and font cards that used to trigger them. The next error is 79 which is "Critical Hardware Error". Error messages above 68 are usually rather obtuse indicators of something wrong in hardware. Take all the peripheral devices away and see if the bare-bones printer will work.

Printers like the P4014 contain at least two microprocessors; the DC controller and the Formatter. In most printers it is the formatter that talks to the control panel but in this the connection is into the DC controller. It might be worth running anengine test using the hidden button in the right hand side of the machine.

79.XXXX ERROR

79 Error is said to be a "critical hardware error" which sounds bad. In practice it probably just means the firmware crashed and that could be an odd combination of events the software engineering team didn't forsee, so the printer might recover by just turning it off, waiting ten seconds and then turning it on again. But before you turn it off note down the "XXXX" part of the number. The number is either the address or an error-trap where the problem occurred.

If the address is unstable that suggests bad memory is causing random events. If the address is constant something has gone definitely and continually wrong and in principle HP could say what; in practice they probably won't because printer software is proprietary.

The problem sounds like it's could cost either a new DC controller or formatter. Unfortunately HP don't give a clue which. This is what the Service manual says: ...

Remedies

So basically HP say strip things down to a minimum then build up again.

If the error persists try printing from a different program. If the error occurs with applications that used to work try turning off, removing expansion DIMMs and the EIO devices and see what clears down the error.

If the printer driver has recently been changed (or the PCs causing the problem are new) then the problem might relate to that.

Given the lack of direct information about what the error actually is it might be worth trying anengine test using the hidden button in the right hand side. In fact, if other measures have not worked, it might be an idea to try it out both with the formatter in and out of the printer. An engine test doesn't need the formatter.

If the engine test does work then the problem relates to the formatter - and is likely to be either:

• A newly added DIMM is getting passed by memory test but it then giving an error. Take out anything that has been recently added (use static protection)
• Some sensor wrong but not reported properly in firmware, try working through the diagnostics.
• Bad content in NVRAM, that should have been caught by "68 error" but perhaps in specific circumstances that doesn't happen. Try printing a configuration page (to preserve user settings) then resetting NVRAM.
• Flash based firmware has gone corrupt, you could try downloading the latest firmware (with the P4014 series later revisions of firmware usually are better.
• Bad power -plug the printer straight into the wall, not into an extension or UPS. Try metering the 5 Volt and 3.3 Volt rails on the Intermediate board between the DC controller and formatter.

It all seems very like the"49 error" - we don't know what the distinction between them is.

Web Research

If HP won't say directly what a problem is then others on the Web will have researched what is going on as their customers and sites experience it. With error messages there is, of course, a right answer and the "wisdom of crowds" might not reveal it.

I tried querying Google with P4015 "79 ERROR" in quotes and got a suggestion of About 4770 results; once more implying a popular topic.

The "49 error" happened a great deal with the P4014 series because there were issues in the firmware. Judging by the pages seen the "79 error" seems less common. The problem is addressed in the same way: strip the printer down to a minimal configuration with no add-ons and hope the message disappears. If it doesn't try the NVRAM reset and cold reset. If nothing clears the message up then either try"baking" the formatter ( bare formatter board, 180 centigrade, 6 minutes) or just buy another.

HP's EIO bus is a redesigned PCI bus using an AMP 80 way connector--Access denied MENUS LOCKED the system administrator has prevented you doing whatever you just tried.--ACTION NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR TRAY X - Duplexing is not available when the tray size is set to ANY SIZE or ANY CUSTOM.Press Menu, move to Paper Handling, select the tray and change the settings to something other than ANY SIZE or ANY CUSTOM.BAD DUPLEXER CONNECTION - The optional duplexer is not properly connected to the product. Printers with a duplexer come with a right-angled IEC power lead because the duplexer partly overlaps the power outlet. Forcing a straight power lead into use in a duplex printer is likely to give this error.BAD ENVELOPE FEEDER CONNECTION The optional envelope feeder is not connected properly to the product. Turn the power off, reseat the envelope feeder carefully, turn the printer back on.BAD OPTIONAL TRAY CONNECTION An optional tray is not connected correctly. Remove the product from the tray, and reinstall it. Then, turn the product off and then on.Canceling... The printer is canceling a job. The message continues while the job is stopped, the paper path is cleared, and any remaining incoming data on the active data channel is received and discarded. No user action is necessary.CANNOT DUPLEX CLOSE REAR DOOR The rear door must be closed to duplex. Close the rear door.Checking paper path - or Checking printer - The printer is checking for possible jams or paper that was not cleared from the paper path. No user action is necessary unless the printer finds something wrong.CHOSEN PERSONALITY NOT AVAILABLE - a print language that the printer does not support was sent. The print job is canceled. Either use a different printer driver, or if you know the printer can support an obscure print language add it. Print a configuration page to see the print languages currently supported by the printer.CLEANING DISK <X> % COMPLETE - The storage device is being sanitized or cleaned. Do not turn off. Print functions are not available. The printer automatically turns off then on when finished. No user action is necessary.CLEANING PAGE ERROR Open rear bin - You have attempted to create or process a cleaning page when a duplexer is present and the rear door is closed. Open the rear output bin to begin creating or processing the cleaning page.Cleaning... - The product is performing an automatic cleaning. No action is necessary.Clearing event log. - The product is clearing the event log. No action is necessary.Clearing paper path. - The product jammed or was turned on and paper was detected in a wrong location. The product is automatically attempting to eject the pages. Wait for the product to finish trying to clear the pages. If it cannot, a jam message will appear on the control panel display.CLOSE TOP COVER - The top cover open switch is signaling that the cover is open. Inspect the top cover open switch (SW101) to determine if the switch is correctly installed.Verify that the connection to connector J78 on the DC controller PCA is firmly seated.From the DIAGNOSTICS menu, run the manual sensor test and see if the component “L” status changes when the top cover is opened and closed.If the status does not change, replace the switch (SW101).CODE CRC ERROR SEND FULL RFU ON PORT An error occurred during a firmware upgrade. Contact an HP-authorized service or support provider.Defects Ruler:

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 catalogue. Sales pages on this Web site use cookies to store user information. We also use Google Analytics to track site usage patterns.