My Officejt 5232 printer lost (internally) its serial number

[cvi38]

My OfficetJet 5232 printer lost its MAC address and serial number. In HP Smart, it displays "B8-DB-AD-BA-DB-AD" (something like "bad") as its MAC address and "00000000010" as serial number. That is still the same after all types of resets (including semi full reset and OOBE reset after entering the service menu by typing keys Home-Back-Home-Home).

As a result, it doesn't accept any longer its InstantInk cartridges. Try to register it as a new printer (with this "bad" serial number) doesn't work either.  It is still working with standard ink cartridges.

I contacted HP support and they told me that they cannot help with such problems for an out-of-warranty printer.

Does anybody know a utility that could reset it the the serial number displayed on its label?

[Elohi_NR]

Hi @cvi38,

Welcome to the HP Support Community. 

I'd be happy to help you! 

Excellent description and a great diagnosis. It is greatly appreciated.           

This might require one-on-one interaction to fix the issue via remote assistance, and this printer might need service.

we have limited support boundaries in the support community as of now. I would request you to contact our HP Support Engineers who should be able to sort this out. 

For that to happen, we will give you additional instructions/information via Private Message.

Please check your inbox on the forums page for the private message.

If the information I've provided was helpful, give us some reinforcement by clicking the Accepted Solution button, that'll help us and others see that we've got the answers!

[cvi38]

Thanks @Elohi_NR for your answer.

Unfortunately, as my printer is out of warranty, the answer from Phone/WhatsApp support was that they cannot help. They spent anyway some time with me trying to help, but with no possible resolution, as they never saw such a printer "losing" its internal serial number.