M1212nf MFP stuck in initializing loop

[Hammer297]

Have a M1212nf MFP laser printer and recently wanted to hook it up to our network so could print to it from any computer.  Using a Windows 11 laptop, I installed the full feature software and driver package from HP's website.  Now the printer is stuck in initializing loop.  Have a feeling it has to do with firmware being updated.  During the installation process, it went through a firmware update as well with no errors.  But now printer will not boot. 

Before hooking it up to the network, printer was working fine hooked up to a desktop via usb cable.  After doing some searching, found several other topics about this and have tried those suggestions and still no luck.  Probably wasting my time posting this. 

Seen some mention could be a bad formatter board which I don't think is the case.  When I hook it back up to desktop with usb cable and the printer going through the loop, the desktop will make the new device sound over and over which means it is trying to communicate with the printer.  If the formatter board was bad, would that still happen?  Or is it possible just the network port is bad and would that cause the loop?  I can get a formatter board for about $30 bucks but hate to just throw money at it when not sure if it would fix it. 

Have a feeling that this has to do with the firmware update.  Typically i don't do firmware updates because of this reason but didn't realize that was going to happen.  Is there anyway a firmware update can be reversed? 

[Valsimot]

Did you use it for receiving faxes. Sometimes a defective fax modem can cause this issue, then you can remove side cover and unplug fax cable from formatter.

[Hammer297]

Never used the printer for faxes at all.