HCHTech
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 4,156
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA - USA
Wow, what a day. Got a call first thing this morning from a small maintenance company client. They use an HP Pagewide 477dw as their main workhorse machine. They like it because it's fast (40ppm inket MFP, 55ppm scanning), holds a whole ream of paper in the drawer, and at $700, it's more affordable than color lasers with that speed. When turning it on this morning, there was a prompt on the printer's screen requesting a firmware upgrade. Unfortunately, they accepted the option, and then went about their day. When they tried to print something an hour later, it didn't work. Documents just stack up in the queue. Remoting in, I could ping the printer, but not access it's web interface. A power cycle didn't help, and a power disconnection didn't help either. The printer would boot up without errors, but the touchscreen was unresponsive.
Once onsite, I tried a longer power drain, then tried to do a factory reset - but it wouldn't offer the special menu for that after holding in the power button on bootup for at least 30 sec. Nothing I could do changed anything. Printer was running but unresponsive. Clearly bricked. Lack of the dev. menu also means we can't force-downgrade the firmware via USB either.
HP no longer sells this printer, or anything like it in that price range. The owner found a demo model at an office supply store 40 miles away, so went off to grab it. Time passes and he returns, I go back to set it up, but the universe is against them today I guess. The new printer booted up to an error message:
"Printing functionality is disabled. Please contact HP. Error code: 0xc6fd0013" Some googling shows this is a stuck printhead. No access without taking it apart. "Did you ask them to show you it worked before you bought it?" "No." Did you at least get some discount for it being a floor model? 10%! Wow - $70 whole dollars!
On the off chance HP knew something google didn't, I opened a support chat. w/r/t the first printer's firmware bricking: "we are aware of the problem and have pulled that firmware from distribution. We'll send you an email once a fix is announced" No ETA of course. Wonderful. I can't imagine what the fix might be since the printer is inaccessible. No web interface, no response to touchscreen, no nothing.
w/r/t the 2nd printer's problem; "That is a mechanical problem. We can schedule an onsite tech, but first, since this was a demo model, you have to "validate" the warranty. Please send us a copy of the receipt". So I do that, and the chat goes silent for several minutes. "Well? Did you get the receipt?" "Yes, but I have to email it to warranty service in an internal ticket and they have to do the actual validation." "How long does that take?" "It shouldn't be more than 48 hours.". Man, I love printers. Mr. owner goes BACK out to the local office store and buys the only MFP they have in stock, a $200 Officejet. I install it and get out of there with just over $450 in time on the invoice. Not what I was planning on doing this afternoon for sure.
Once onsite, I tried a longer power drain, then tried to do a factory reset - but it wouldn't offer the special menu for that after holding in the power button on bootup for at least 30 sec. Nothing I could do changed anything. Printer was running but unresponsive. Clearly bricked. Lack of the dev. menu also means we can't force-downgrade the firmware via USB either.
HP no longer sells this printer, or anything like it in that price range. The owner found a demo model at an office supply store 40 miles away, so went off to grab it. Time passes and he returns, I go back to set it up, but the universe is against them today I guess. The new printer booted up to an error message:
"Printing functionality is disabled. Please contact HP. Error code: 0xc6fd0013" Some googling shows this is a stuck printhead. No access without taking it apart. "Did you ask them to show you it worked before you bought it?" "No." Did you at least get some discount for it being a floor model? 10%! Wow - $70 whole dollars!
On the off chance HP knew something google didn't, I opened a support chat. w/r/t the first printer's firmware bricking: "we are aware of the problem and have pulled that firmware from distribution. We'll send you an email once a fix is announced" No ETA of course. Wonderful. I can't imagine what the fix might be since the printer is inaccessible. No web interface, no response to touchscreen, no nothing.
w/r/t the 2nd printer's problem; "That is a mechanical problem. We can schedule an onsite tech, but first, since this was a demo model, you have to "validate" the warranty. Please send us a copy of the receipt". So I do that, and the chat goes silent for several minutes. "Well? Did you get the receipt?" "Yes, but I have to email it to warranty service in an internal ticket and they have to do the actual validation." "How long does that take?" "It shouldn't be more than 48 hours.". Man, I love printers. Mr. owner goes BACK out to the local office store and buys the only MFP they have in stock, a $200 Officejet. I install it and get out of there with just over $450 in time on the invoice. Not what I was planning on doing this afternoon for sure.
