CP4525 Control Panel Blank/Blue

[uandit]

HP Color Printer CP4525 where the control panel is completely blank. It looks dark blue. We reboot, and nothing comes up on the panel although it sounds like the printer is booting up and calibrating. The printer is owned by an acquaintance and is not under warranty with HP. Any idea where to start? Thanks.

[ptjeff1]

The first thing to test is to make sure the memory is good, also remove the Jetdirect card if there is one installed, if there is a firmware dimm that would also need to be checked.

[uandit]

Thank you for the quick response. The printer is still at their home. I may have to pick it up and bring it to my office if it requires several troubleshooting trial/error steps. The customer wanted to know offhand if a certain part would need to be replaced or send it to a printer repair shop. I may not have access to it until this evening or tomorrow evening.

Also, what is the best way to test printer memory?

[Big Al]

The first thing I would try is reseating the formatter and any DIMM or Firmware cards on the formatter. The formatter drives the
display panel. Only way I know to test the DIMM is to swap it with a known good one.

Please let us know what you find. If the humidity in the room is below 40% wear a static strap and keep the printer plugged in
so it will stay grounded.

Al

[uandit]

Thank you both. I will try that as soon as I get access to the printer again. Will keep you updated. Thanks again!

[uandit]

Hi guys. I went back to the site with the printer to troubleshoot some more based on your suggestions. I removed the formatter board and there is no DIMM or hard drive installed. I reseated the formatter and no positive results (still blue screen). I tried reseating carefully several more times and same result. I inspected the formatter board and there don't seem to be any blown capacitors or physical damage to it.

Also, I was able to successfully print a engine test print job with the colored lines.

Since there is no DIMM, no hard drive, and the engine test print job printed successfully, does this all point to needing to replace the formatter board? Thank you in advance.

[Big Al]

Either one could be the culprit. The only way to be sure would be to swap the parts into a known good machine or use the good machine's parts to test the bad one.

Al

[redcow]

Don't forget the DC Controller, it has its' fingers in almost everything.

[uandit]

Hi guys, thank you for your patience. I haven't been able to get back to this issue 'til today. I don't have spare parts or other printers (if it was a PC it would be a different story) :) I was pointed to several articles about "baking" the formatter board: preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake board for 8 minutes. Has anyone tried this?

Also, if this doesn't work and I advise the customer to cough up abt. $500 to replace the formatter board, is there any recalibration or steps needed subsquent to installing the new formatter board? I read an article about replacing formatter board for a different HP and it showed the possibility of the printer being downgraded...

"The first time the printer is powered up after installing a
Formatter or DC Controller board, you must follow the
procedure given below – otherwise, you risk downgrading
the printer. For example, your P4515 could become a
P4015, or your P4015N could become a P4015 without
network capability."

Thank you.

[Big Al]

There were a lot of P3005 early serial number formatters that had issues with the processor chip losing connection(s) with the PCB. We have heated them and the success rate was very high, over 90%. We use a 500 watt heat gun and a hand held thermometer with a laser pointer. I position the heat gun about 1/4" above the chip for about one and a half minutes then pull the heat gun asside and quickly measure the temperature. The top of the chip has to be about 375 degrees for the solder to melt. Tin-lead solder melts at exactly 351 degrees farenheit. Then I leave the board alone until it is back to room temperature. Unfortunately this is a temporary fix, maybe lasting three to six months, then it needs it again. The later printer serial numbers had ROHS solder which does not contain any lead. These seldom fail but the few that did had to be heated to about 390 to 400 degrees to melt the solder. Refurb boards usually have the tin-lead chip removed and replaced with an ROHS chip.

In this case the customer might be better off to have the local HP printer shop come and look at it. They usually have a test printer at the shop where they can determine exactly what is wrong. The alternate would be to ship to someone like Printer Techs and have them go over it. Another stradigey (as Bugs Bunny would say) would be to buy a used or reconditioned unit and use the existing one for spares. Then you could also determine what the problem was and decide where to go from there. My two cents for today, hope it helps.

Al