HP Laserjet 3005n display panel is blank

[Gman58]

Hi, can someone help me with a display panel problem? I have this HP Laserjet 3005n that is not showing any text or anything in the display panel. Also the Ready light, Data light, and Attention light are on solid. Usually they would cycle when the printer is booted up. Has anyone had this problem and corrected it?

[Big Al]

We have a lot of 3005's here. The formatter is famous for going bad. The formatter board is not supported well in the center of the board. Vibration can cause one or more of the Ball-grid connections on the processor chip to break away from the printed circuit board. We use a 500 watt heat gun and a laser pointer thermometer to heat the chip to about 400 degrees farenheit then let it cool without moving the board. This is a temporary fix, in a printer that is used a lot it may last ninety days, for home use probably a lot longer. One of the jobs of the formatter is to drive the display board and buttons, the other is to drive the laser. Sometimes the memory DIMM comes unseated or goes bad. Replacement formatter boards that have been refurbished use an ROHS soldering technique and these last a lot longer. The problems with these formatter boards are the reasons competent refurb shops will not sell the 3005. If you want to try heating the chip get back to me here and I will give you a few more tips on "Big Al's Bake Shoppe" as my coworkers call it. It is also possible, but unlikely that the display panel is bad.

Al

[Gman58]

Thanks Al, I will have to let you know if I need any more info on this 3005 printer. I have to go through channels to get the funding to fix the printers here. I do appreciate your help in figuring out the problem though. Thanks,

Gman58

[Big Al]

If you have a 3005 formatter board you can borrow from another printer that will tell you quickly what the problem is. Over the years I cannot remember a single case where it was the display assembly that was bad. If you do buy another formatter make sure it is an ROHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substance) (Eco-speak for lead free) formatter board because they hold up a lot better. It is also possible that the DIMM board is bad. Did you reseat it or better yet swap it into another printer? They do go bad occasionally but not nearly as frequently as the formatter board. The new formatter will not come with the memory DIMM. We have had good results with the HP 3015 printer, the replacement for the 3005.
Al

[mwm242]

My 3005d has about 220,000 pages printed, and reading this post has me wondering if this is a problem I should be concerned about. How much use do they normally get before this part goes bad, and is there a way to add support for the board to help prevent this from happening? Not sure if this is hijacking or should be on a seperate thread, if so I apologize.

[Big Al]

If you look at the formatter board you will see a section that hangs down. Right at the junction of this section and the part that goes back there is an empty hole. You could put something non-conductive in
that hole like a nylon cap screw, some nylon washers and a nylon nut to press on the sheet metal to hopefully dampen out the vibration. I have considered this but never tried it. These are kind of a maintence hog with the formatter
going out, the nylon gear that drives the fuser rumbling and the poor life span of the fuser bushings and teflon heater sleeve. We just pull the formatter and heat the processor chip up to about 400 to 420 degrees farenheit and let
it air cool without moving the board. I use some binder clips to keep the board up off the workbench. Keep the laser pointer thermometer away from the heat gun, pull the heat gun off and quickly check the chip temperature. The tin-lead
solder melts at exactly 361 degrees F. so you need to heat the top of the chip up enough to get the ball grid solder joints up to the melting point. This is a temporary fix, usually lasting about three to four month with daily use. If the
people with the check book don't want to replace the printer then look for formatters that have the processor changed out with and ROHS chip. You may have a later version of the formatter board with the ROHS processor chip. I have only seen one or two of these fail vs. a high failure rate on the tin-lead soldered chip.
Al
PS I had one today with a lighted screen but no data on it, reseated the memory DIMM on the formatter and it started working well.
Al

[mwm242]

You may have a later version of the formatter board with the ROHS processor chip. I have only seen one or two of these fail vs. a high failure rate on the tin-lead soldered chip.
Al
How would I be able to tell which chip it has? And how much use before these typically wear out? I have about 220,000 pages on mine, about 50,000 a year, but I have no idea if that is a high, low or medium amount of usage.

Also I remember several years ago a tech came out and replaced something under warranty, but I have no idea what it was other than I remember it was an issue that had become known not too long prior and they were doing a lot of the repairs.

[Big Al]

You must have the ROHS chip or it would surely have failed by now. Chances are HP fixed it under warranty with the later model formatter. Sorry, I cannot remember how to tell if it is the ROHS chip.
Al

[cs_steve]

You can't really depend on it lasting a certain page count, the reliability of these formatters really varies from machine to machine. Some folks are still running the original formatter boards and have never had any problems; others have replaced with newer-style boards & chips and have failures every few years or so. The newer chips may be more reliable but we still see them fail quite a bit.

We have replacement formatters here: http://www.printertechs.com/shop/hp-laserjet-p3005-formatter-board-q7848-61006

If you're looking to upgrade the printer to something more reliable, we normally recommend either the newer version P3015 series, or the LaserJet 4250 series.
http://www.printertechs.com/shop/hp-laserjet-p3015dn-ce528a-refurbished
http://www.printertechs.com/shop/hp-laserjet-4250n-refurbished