Corrupt firmware notice for M451dn - Solved

[lloyd1982]

I have reviewd a number of posts regarding the sudden appearance of "Firmware Corrupt Ready 2 Download" and the "freezing" of the M451dn printer, as well as a number of other models. There are a lot of suggestions on how to resolve this issue and none of them work. At least none that I could find. Logic board replacement was the number one suggestion followed by "get another printer - yours is bricked."

I spoke with a tech at HP and finally he suggested it was apprent the logic board was the issue and had to be replaced.

Having been a Mac user since 1984 and repaired  a number of Macs and printers, I felt this was not the right answer. The alert appeared when I changed a black toner cart.(All 4 are HP brand.)

Today, I tried some options and one worked. I turned the printer off, kept the USB connection, and restarted the printer while holding the button on the lower left part of the built-in control panel. After much whirring and flashing "Error Code 51," the toner cart initialization began, a cleaner page pushed through, then a three page document that was still in the queue printed. The printer has returned to normal and will print through either the ethernet or USB.

Not new to this Forum, but logging in was difficult and I had to use a different screen user name.

[lloyd1982]

Well, I thought I had found a solution. But apparently the process I posted only worked once. A power drop brought back the dreaded "Firmware Corrupt Ready 2 Download" and disconnect from the Mac.

Some help posts suggest things to do while turning the printer on, but none seem to work as a fixed solution. What puzzles me is that this seems to be a sort of a universal issue and yet no one from HP can come up with a solution.

In November, when I was faced with the first experience with this issue, I ordered a refurbished printer of the same model. After all, I had over $400.00 in new toner. The solution to the first experience was a surprise and the printer was to be delivered the next day. Never opened the box but now, it seems that my only option is to use the back up.

Really a sad experience with HP. This will be the third time I have had to trash an HP laser printer because of a failure of HP tech to respond to dozens, probably hundreds, of process issues where a failed technical solution to a software issue left users high and dry.

[lloyd1982 · Accepted solution]

I give up!

Days of posting, days of working. Days of waiting. Nothing from the "community" and nothing from HP.

So, I decided to look to my original accidental solution.

I had a new Cyan cart since I like to slowly build HP toner backup product. (Why pay about $500.00 for instant toner when you can buy a new printer, delivered free, for less?)

Turned printer off.

Removed Ethernet connection.

Removed existing Cyan cart with about 10% life left.

Installed Cyan.

Started printer.

Lots of whirring. Finished. Settled down. Still showing error.

Turned off.

Restarted with lower left button depressed.

Lots of whirring. Began to initialize new cartridge.

It lives!!

Ready.

Printed one page print job. No problem.

I will attempt to copy and post in original thread.

[lloyd1982]

FOLLOW UP:

It apparently does not matter which toner cart is changed. My accidental solution followed the install of a black cart. My purposal try used Cyan only because it was the only extra cart I had on hand.

[lloyd1982]

A month later. Return with more information. Not sure it is of great value, but it does relate to the "mystery" addition of the 3020 printer.

First, I must admit that changing out the Magenta and Yellow carts has brought back the Firmware error notice. The "on" light for the printer is off. Trying all the tricks with buttons and on-off that come to mind. So far, no luck.

In spite of the failure to establish a usable connection with the printer, the printer HP Laser Jet 3020 seems to be "live," running Driver Version 19.13. The printer shows a green online, with status being Idle.

First tried to delete printer. Removed from Printers & Scanners System Preferences window. Turned on the real printer. Printer starts showing the firmware error, followed immediately by "Fatal Error 51!  -  Call HP Support" immediately, followed by removing the firmware message and the adding of the 3020 printer. One time online. Offline another time.

I guess the path I followed was simply blind luck. So sad that HP simply abandons customers when problems like this arise. This printer took the place of the HP Color LaserJet 2605dn. That printer did a fine job when it worked. Slowly, the printer began to break area by area. Color carts loading, having to remove carts with pliers, paper feed problems, release of carts parts breaking. So many things went wrong - someone in Europe put together a few well done films online but by the time the last thing went, the suggested home repair time estimate was about 8 hours. The current printer was offered at a discount. Trashed the 2605.

I'll keep messing around with this. Got it to work before. May get it to work again. But I really would like to know one thing: Where in the hell did the 3020 printer come from? One would think that if the connection to the Mac is hot enough to force install a printer, this should be enough to give HP a hint as to how to reconnect and return to the baseline.

I have been a supporter of HP for as long as they made printers for the Mac. Purchased dozens of them for my offices. Guess some other company deserves my support. And my apologies to those who may have tried this "solution." Which it is not!

[lloyd1982]

Back. -10-19.

Title "SOLVED" is misleading. Inconsistent with attempt to repeat after restart after adding new cartridge. For HP, a shame on their house.Our ops supply for new localized laser printers was changed from laser to Epson inkjet.  Our major shared is now high-speed, multi-function Toshiba.

The moderator should remove the "Solved" from this thread. Misleading and not true.HP should take more time to work out problems than rushing on to the next model, abandoning existing customers for more reviews of low-quality results.

[east2100]

Firmware Corrupt Ready 2 Download often points to a bad formatter needed to be replaced.

First thing to try is to resend firmware through LPT port if it exists then the USB port is the next.

The LPT port will always be there but USB will be 001 or 002 or 003...... you need to find it out and change from one to another.

What i always done is that running firmware update program first and look at the front panel if there's nothing change from "Firmware Corrupt Ready 2 Download" then get into printer property and change the connected port (find the one first which is not occupied by any other printer and change from one by one, it should have one that works.

After firmware update process finished if it still no work than the formatter needed to be replaced always is the last option.

I have seen many many times after seating idle and power off many days one day when power on it seems coming back to live and prints few pages but when the machine power on longer enough it will get hotter then it will break down again. It's the bad formatter and it has been seen too many times on many different models of HP printers in these years which is seldom happen in old day's HP printers.

[lloyd1982]

Thank you for your post. Everything has always seemed to be By Accident. Initially, there appeared to be some logic to the process, then none. I seldom post about anything since I hardly ever run into a problem that an bit of time to think it can't end up with a solution.

Some years ago when the best problem site for Macs was MacFixIt, I listed almost 10,000 posts, with the majority assisting others in areas such as Adobe Type Master function recovery, rebuilding PRAM pram settings to return printer functionality - including HP firmware and software restoration to the process of printing PS through special ink jet models - but my first priority was directed to those new to the Mac or the site, clarifying process and overcoming "guides" that were really efforts by a few to create havoc and bring down function by posting misleading steps that would only lead to disaster.

I will try all the procedures over again. When the first seemingly unrecoverable issue appeared I did purchase a replacement, refurbished printer from a reliable source. It waits downstairs. Since I had over $400.00 in cartridges, and this model printer consistently produced suburb prints, I thought I'd take that route.

Whatever happens, this is the last post I will make on the subject. If the printer returns to life, so be it. If the refurbished printer replaces the printer that replaced another HP failure, that will do. From now on, no matter which printer I end up with, I will never use a "factory approved" toner cartridge when I can end up with a garbage printer wasting $100.00 cartridges when I can easily trash one using a $38.00 copy.

Thanks again to those who have offered fixes across the net. My apology to anyone who relied on my posts.

The tragedy lies with HP - a name that once meant honor for those who founded what was once known as H-P. I've been hanging around this industry as user since 1983, when I was seriously looking for a replacement to $5,000.00 memory typewriters for my offices when long came 1984. In 1986, in a small but elegant restaurant in SF named Ciao, I spoke with Steve Jobs about a scanner thing and a laser printer and the future of hard drives, having been an early user of an internal partitionable dive for the Mac 512ke named HyperDrive. Some suggestions have guided my choices for years. I have reached the end of logic and honor. HP no longer has honor and no longer cares for customers.

Thanks again! So long.

ll

[lloyd1982]

I took the advise of a number of people and ordered a formatter board. Got it about two weeks ago. In the meantime, I had turned off the printer.

I downloaded the service manual for this series. Set aside some time to replace the board this week. This afternoon, I turned the printer on - and, as was suggested, the printer began to initialize, and ran through to the end of full set-up. Was going to try one more time before shutting down and replacing board.

There may be a [distant] possibility that by shutting down and unplugging, any static charge finally disapated. The turing-on may well have given the boost necessary to effect a clean start.

At least I have a replacement board in case this happens again (like simply installing a new color cart) and down time offers no recovery.