I/O problem - 4600 clears but always shows "off line"

[DallasG]

Have had and used the 4600dn printer from brand new with no problems for 12 years!  Now, it seems to not want to communicate to other computers over the cat5 connection. It comes up with an "off line" status in the windows printer menu. Every once in a while I can get it to print a small amount of text but if any graphics are sent it immediately chokes and changes the status to "off line". Of coarse, nothing will print. Sometimes it comes up with an "X error" box in the windows "devices and printers" menu box with no description of the error.  Sometimes the cat5 card (p/n J6057a) is lit and other times it is not. Resetting the router and trying other things does not get it to start working. Every once in a while a comm error would occur (#49.1606 - Svc Error) but cycling the power on the printer would always clear it. That hasn't happened in quite some time. Any clues?  I'm guessing that the I/O card (J6057a) is the culprit or the mother board (C9743-60004 ?) that it plugs into. All of the printer's menu printouts work just fine.  The other thing that it does on initial power up is to do a short flash of the green data led - something that I don't remember seeing before. Any help would be greatly appreciated!   (it has a new Black and Yellow cartridge - I also have a new Cyan, Magenta, and Black cartridge. My distributor won't take back one of them since it is more than 30 days ago that it was purchased. I have a few days to return the other two!   The printer has never had anything but HP toner / supplies in it. If it's not repairable for a reasonable price (or that the boards aren't available), anyone interested in the toner?)

[davidzuts · Accepted solution]

This is a common issue. The 615N network card had issues and develops issues over the years. Basically it develops cold solder joints on the main processor of the card. You can fix the card yourself using the following instructions. With the power off remove the card from the printer. Now remove the plastic back piece (2 torx 10 screws). Now take a baking pan and put the card only face up in the pan propped up so the bottom of the card does not touch the pan. Now preheat a good oven to 350F (177C) and when the oven is ready, place the pan with the card in the oven for 8 minutes. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes. Put the back piece back on the card, insert in the eio slot of the printer and turn the printer on and odds are the printer will now work ok. I have repaired over 50 of these cards over the years and a good 95% come back to life.

[DallasG]

While I didn't do exactly that, I did something similar since I work in electronics as well. Your suggestion was in line with what I was going to try when I got into the office this morning if I had no reply to this. I figured it was the I/O card giving me the fits. Anyway, I took a Weller Princess heater (that can melt solder - we use it for surface mount repair as well). Took the nozzle off and went over the entire board, taking my time moving across to heat it all up w/o moving the components with any of it's air. I could watch the solder melt around the leaded chips but the bga chip was a little iffy. I figured that if this didn't work then I would take it home tonight to put it into the oven since I don't have one at our business. Anyway, that worked just great and I thought you would like to know as well (which you already do). It's probably a lead free board which is why it has problems since it's the early days of that (I still prefer leaded stuff but it's not really avaialble anymore).

Thanks for the suggestion / fix.