Super NVRAM reset for HP LaserJet Pro M102W

[hvolt]

On my M102W the ready LED is blinking endlessly and the printer does not react to anything. So I would like to do an NVRAM reset to get it back to life again (hopefully).

Could you provide me the instructions for an NVRAM reset please?

Many thanks in advance.

Edit: Stating that the printer would "not react to anything" was not quite correct: The power button still works 😉

[John_Getzke]

I had the NVRAM Reset steps at one point, but have misplaced them.  I think it is something like press and hold the resume button while booting the printer for a while.  All the lights will light up and then it will reboot.

I normally have better luck going through the HP Toolbox on a USB connection and kicking off the reset from the printer admin window.  You can do the same thing over the network without the HP Toolbox software if you are already connected to the printer with a network connection.

Here are the steps to that process if you want to explore them:

1. Install the Full Software package from support.hp.com

2. Install the printer over USB

3. Launch the HP Print Assistant App

4. Navigate to Print tab > HP Toolbox

5. Navigate to the System Tab > Save and Restore

6. Click the button to restore the defaults

[hvolt]

Thanks John,

problem is the printer is neither accessible via USB nor WLAN. My problems are similar as described here. 

What I tried was holding the "Resume/Cancel" button for about 20 seconds during and also after powering up - but to no avail. So I hope there is something more to try in order to hard reset the printer.

[John_Getzke]

If the printer cannot boot correctly then you have a bigger problem than what a NVRAM reset can do.   There may be physical damage to the printer which needs to be serviced in order to correct.  

The link you provided described a scenario where the M102 had a blinking light.  Blinking lights tied to bad print jobs can be cleared by removing the power from the printer for 60 seconds.  Print jobs are store in RAM will clear itself out once the printer looses power for a while. 

To test if your printer can boot correctly:

1. Tap the wireless button on your printers control panel to disable WiFi

2. Disconnect any USB cables on the printer.

3. Power down the printer by pressing and holding the power button

4. Remove the power cable from the printer

5. Let the printer rest without power for 60 seconds

6. Reconnect the power cable and boot the printer without USB or network connections

Light codes can be looked up here:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-laserjet-pro-m102-printer-series/9365392/document/c05206084

Please confirm which light code you are seeing on your M102.

The only thing a NVRAM reset would accomplish in this scenario is to reset the network connection, but network connections do not impact USB connections on the printer.  Even if the printer was stuck on something, you should at least see a USB connection in the Device Manager when you plug in the printer to the PC.

[hvolt]

I executed the proposed steps with the following results:

After hitting the power button the Wireless and Ready LEDs briefly (about 1 second) light up together, then the Attention and Ready lights are blinking 3 times synchronously. After that (only) the Ready light keeps on blinking. Tapping the Wireless button does not show any effect (LED remains off).

Up to the point where just the Ready light is blinking the boot process appears to be normal. Powering down using the power button also works as normal.

[John_Getzke]

Thanks for the details.

It sounds like your printer is correctly booted and resting in the ready state.  Now it is time to figure out what else could be going wrong.

The first thing we need to do is confirm that the printer can communicate with the PC over a USB cable.

Here is the process to test USB connections with a Windows 10 machine:

1. Power on the printer and wait for it to return to the ready state

2. Open the Device Manager on your Win10 machine

3. Plug the printer into the Win10 machine, the Device Manager should automatically refresh itself

4. Unplug the printer from the Win10 machine, the Device Manger should automatically refresh itself 

If there is no movement in the Device Manager when you plug and unplug the printer then check the USB cable connections on both ends.  it might be loose on the back of the printer or on the Win10 machine.  If there is no hardware connection then the Win10 machine will not be able to talk to the printer or complete the software installation either.

If there is movement in Device manager then try to complete a reinstall of the software from the most recent software package on support.hp.com for your OS and printer model.  Confirm any error messages that are encountered during this process for us for more clues.

[hvolt]

Ok, I see movement in the device manager when connecting/disconnecting the USB cable from the printer but cannot spot a new device.

I disconnected the printer and installed the basic driver from LJM101-M106_UWL_UWL_Basicx64_44.3.2667.exe. I followed the instructions and got to the point where I am prompted to connect the USB cable. Connecting the cable lead no further so I acknowledged to proceed with the installation without connection. The following attempt to setup manually did not succeed - I can't get past the prompt to connect the USB cable.

[John_Getzke]

Movement in the Device manager confirms there is a hardware connection between the Printer and PC.  We can rule out issues with the USB cable and USB ports involved.  Another test to ensure the printer is not the problem would be to install it temporarily on a 2nd PC.  If it works on the 2nd PC then you know the issue is isolated to the 1st PC and can proceed with the next steps.

The device might be showing up as some other device when you plug it in.  This could confuse the Installation wizard and lead it to think the printer is not actually connected.  I would check the Printers and USB areas of Device Managers for more clues.  If you find out what your PC is seeing as the incoming printer device then you can try to uninstall that device from Device Manager and try the software installation wizard again.

Corruption in the Device Manager can happen when a competing driver takes over the installation process.  For example, if you have Universal Print Drivers on your PC from previous attempts or other scenarios.  Windows might try to install using those file and then register the device as some kind of PnP (plug and play) device instead of a full printer device.  An extra step to avoid this scenario is to go into the Print Server Properties area of the PC and manually remove any competing HP print drivers that are installed.

To access Print Server Properties:

1. Open the Printers & Scanners area

2. Click on Print Server Properties

3. Click on the Drivers Tab

4. Review and remove any competing HP printer drivers

44.3.2276 is the most current software version as of the date of this post.

[hvolt]

In the meanwhile I tried on three different PCs with two different USB cables. One PC had never seen any printer before. The result remained the same 😞

But at least I believe I spotted the printer in the device manager. It appears under USB controllers. It is not named but instead  the USB plug symbol is followed by "no printer connected". Opening the properties of that device the events "Device started", "Device configured (usbprint.inf)" and "Device not migrated" are shown on the events tab.

The information section showed:

Device USBPRINT\UnknownPrinter\6&21d14f75&0&USB001 was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match.

Last Device Instance Id: USB\VID_07C0&PID_1586\00003DE2
Class GUID: {36fc9e60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000}
Location Path:
Migration Rank: 0xF000FFFFFFFFF132
Present: false
Status: 0xC0000719

[hvolt]

Hi John,

I appeciate your help very much.

After having no success with executing the recommended steps on multiple PCs I am back to a point where I would like to perform an NVRAM reset - it can't get worse compared to the current state of the printer...

It would be very nice if you or someone else could PM me the instructions for the NVRAM reset.