Laser Jet Pro MFP M278-M281fdw 79 Service Error message with restarting

[mlm0912]

I have Laser Jet Pro MFP M278-M281fdw printer and today the machine started displaying a 79 Service Error message and shows "turn off and then on."  Printer is on my home network and no wires are connected to the printer.  There are three computers with connections to the printer, one desktop and two laptops.  I have searched issue online and tried the following:

1. Turned off and then on again.

2. Unplugged machine and turned on again.

3. Unplugged machine from surge protector and directly to wall and tuned on again.

4. unplugged router and reset then turned on printer.

5. Searched for any outstanding print jobs on all computers and there are none.

6. Turned off all computers and restarted printer.

7. Removed printer from my desktop computer and laptop completely while laptops were powered off and restarted the printer.

8. Factory reset by holding thumb on touch pad while printer is starting.  I can complete getting printer on network, then error 79 message loop starts all over again.

   Nothing has worked so far.  The printer boots up as normal, displays as normal for about 1 minute, the the error message appears and the printer reboots repeating this cycle over and over again.  Printer is only about two years old and in good shape.  Loaded 4 new cartridges about one month ago and added the printer wirelessly to a new Lenovo laptop three days ago.  All was fine until today.  I would appreciate any help.  Thank you.

[mlm0912 · Accepted solution]

I think I found the solution to my own issue.  Here is what I did to resolve the problem after trying several other remedies:

1. Did the factory reset on printer holding thumb on touch pad while printer is starting up. 
2. Did "restore defaults" from printer touch pad and did not put printer on wifi network.
3. Downloaded the firmware package for the printer.  Installed the firmware directly to the printer via USB cable.
4. Downloaded and ran other setup software from HP and set up printer wirelessly.

   So far, printer has been working fine wirelessly via my desktop for two days now and not getting error message and restarts. 

    I am guessing now maybe the printer automatically downloaded corrupt firmware somehow which may have caused the problems.  I turned off the automatic update option on the printer touchpad so I will be notified before any updates next time, so I can be aware if any issues come with an update again.

[dairtel]

I have the same printer. After I acknowledged an update , I  encountered the same problem. I can support your suspicions about an update being the cause.

I was not able to progress to step 2 in your solution. In the 40% of startups when printer recognized thumb on touchpad, I invariable got blocked by error 79 restart.  Sometimes, when printer recognized thumb, it would initialize storage and proceed to menu. Other times within that 40 % proceeded directly. There was no consistency other than all paths lead to a error 79 reset loop within 0-45 seconds after menu first shown.

How did you stabilize the printer so that you could proceed?

[mlm0912]

  I would recommend the following steps for you:

1. Remove the printer and any software (and any wired) connections from any/all computers that may connect with it. 

2. Do the reset with thumb on touch pad.  Once done wifi should be off on the printer.  If not,  turn off printer wifi or router so that printer is not connected to wifi.   While off wifi and reset,  this stabilized the menu in my case and stopped the restart error message cycle.

3.  Go into the settings menu (which hopefully is stable now) and do a set to defaults.

4.  Stay in settings and set all sleep/off settings to their maximum times - I believe it was 1 HR for sleep and 8 HR for off.

5. Do the firmware download from HP and then send/upload to the printer via USB cable.  Make sure printer is not connected to any wifi.  When I tried to do this firmware load by wifi, it failed and problem started again.

6. If you make it this far, I would wait a couple of hours at least, and make sure printer is stable.  If so, then you can proceed with loading the printer and any software back on any computer(s).  In my case, all was good afterward and has been working for two days now.

   I hope this helps and works for you.  Let me know.  

[dairtel]

Oh, wow!  That sounds great but it is now Friday night and I and heading into a date/election eve.

I may try your solution by disabling printer at the router. If that fails, I will retry powering off all computers. If even that fails, read the instructions (<grin>) and do as you write.

What I hear you suggesting is the buggy code is in the wifi.  Hmm... makes sense its timing in the startup  process.

Thank YOU.  Awesome

[mlm0912]

Let me know if it works out for you.  I believe the issue was some combination of wifi connection, printer connection and sleep/off timing being corrupt after a firmware update.  Good Luck.

[dairtel]

I have my printer functioning albeit for only 10 minutes now.   Here are the steps I took:

1. I powered down the router (thanks for this suggestion!). This was done first thing in morning when computers were either off or sleeping so I do not know how this works if computers are active because I do not know whether computer-printer communication is possible using cached IP addresses. My guess is no and that the router must be in the middle of any computer-printer communication. Thus, I think shutting off the router is sufficient to block all wireless communication.

2. I set setup >> network setup >> network services >> IPV6 to OFF. Off is my previous setting. On is the default (a poor default IHMO). The update changed my setting to On. Fixed: IPV6 is now off.  I think this may be the cure for what you suspect is the wifi and printer connection. 

3. I set setup >> system setup >> laserjet updates >> manage updates to prompt before install. Again, the update changed the settings.

4. I powered down the printer, powered up the router and let it stabilize, then powered up the printer and printed a test page over IP4 wireless. Flawless.

I did not replace the firmware. I believe the IPV6 setting alone fixed the printer. I have now also reviewed the sleep and wifi direct settings (now off).

Thanks again for your help. 

[mlm0912]

You are welcome.  Glad all my 3 days of trial and error process was of help and happy your printer is back online.  My printer is still working as normal now after 4 days, I am happy to say.  Pleasure chatting with you and take care.

[ATL_SMS]

I have the same issue with the same printer. I managed to go to Factory reset and figured out that most probably the firmware 20201025 is causing the issue but could not find anywhere on the HP site older version of the FW for downgrade.

Can you point to a link for downloading the previous version which worked as a charm

[mlm0912]

Sorry, but I do not know where to download that particular old version of firmware.  I can tell you the firmware I loaded onto my printer was downloaded on 11/4 from the HP site and has been working fine on my printer now for 5 days.  Version was 20200612 and that is currently on my machine.  I would hope your printer would be good also with the current firmware, if you followed same steps as I did.  My original problems seemed to stem from some corrupted mashup  of wifi connection and then printer connection of any kind, whether by computer or my iphone or ipad.  I hope this helps.