laserjet 1300 fatal error

[bAIRdFORCE1]

i bought a "new" in the box Laserjet 1300 from a thrift store when i turn it on it shows "ready" light, runs, all gears appear to be turning, does that for approx. 1 minute, then stops and shows fatal error, turn it off and back on, same thing, any help?  secondary fatal error talks about the motor, motor runs for the minute before the error.

[davidzuts]

Can we assume you have the service manual or have gotten information to tell you the secondary message tells you the printer has a motor error.  If that is the case this series was prone to an error with the cable going to the laser/scanner assembly not seated correctly.  Most times with the power off, remove the left side cover and reseat both ribbon connectors, the small one at the top and the big one at the bottom.  If that does not fix the problem, please report back the light pattern when you press the big button when all 3 lights are on solid.  The pattern will change and just tell us what lights are on with the button pressed and whether any of them are blinking. 

[bAIRdFORCE1]

thank you, and yes i have the manual, currently the second light is the small green ready and the small orange below it with the large button not lit, i will reseat the cables and get back, thanks again.

[bAIRdFORCE1]

ok, i reseated the connections, when i turn it on it goes big green small green orange a couple times then a solid small green light only for roughly one minute , it is running during this minute, then it shuts down with all three lights solid come on.  when i press the large button it goes off and the smaller green and orange light are solid.

[bAIRdFORCE1]

i dont know if it makes a difference but when it is running and i had the print solenoid side cover off if i manually depressed the solenoid it feeds a sheet of paper all the way through w/o an error and keeps running until that minute is up.

[davidzuts · Accepted solution]

That is the motor error but it could be the main board, but first I would remove the top cover and make sure the ribbon connector going to the laser/scanner assembly is fully seated.  I know that the laser/scanner cable can give the faulty motor error.  You will also want to check the other cable that goes to the laser/scanner assembly to make sure it is connected correctly at both ends.  It is also possible the formatter is bad.

[bAIRdFORCE1]

Thank you, sure enough i popped off the top cover and the ribbon cable was barely connected, turned it on no fatal error.  it now has a solid orange, lol. the toner cartridge has come out and put back numerous time recently do you think that could be the problem?  thanks again for you

[davidzuts]

Does the motor still turn when you plug in the printer or open and close the toner door.  If not, then the issue is probably the cover open switch.  Recheck with the top cover again since you may have disloged.  If the motor turns then the issue will be the toner cartridge itself or the contacts inside the toner cartridge cavity that mate with the metal contacts on the toner cartridge.  It has been a long time since I worked on one of these.  Sometimes there are little like paper clip spring loaded contacts that can be bent to one side preventing good contact with the toner contacts.  Make sure everything looks right in the cavity.  Check pages 148 and 149 in the service manual.

[bAIRdFORCE1]

hello sir, the motor did run, i checked the contacts and made sure seemed right like you suggested, turned on solid went away and a blinking orange took its place, in all the times it has run even the minute itd run before fatal error, ive never seen the fan run, would it have run in that time period?

[davidzuts]

I do not know what to tell you.  There is no non-fatal error of the yellow light on solid.  Only a blinking yellow light which indicates a door open or toner cartridge issues.  I know on your model even without the toner the motor will turn when you open and close the front door.  The only other solid yellow light error is when you first get all 3 lights blinking at the same time which is an accessory error and pressing the big button would give you the actual error which in this case would be the LIO interface has issues.  That is the part that plugs into the left side to provide for I believe a parallel port output.  I do not know if the fan goes on right away or takes a while.  Only other thing I can suggest is to perform an engine test.  If the engine test works, then the formatter has an issue.  Engine test procedure is attached.