Color LaserJet Pro MFP-M281fdw shows 49 Service Error after firmware update from 20th October

[JoopR]

Too bad we don't have Costco here in the Netherlands. I've send an e-mail to the HP service center here. Hopefully I get a positive reaction back. Dread to think I've lost all that money.

[MilesCo3]

I thought about doing this as well but thankfully Costco took the printer back even though it was 2.5 years over the warranty period. 

[katherine73]

If the replacement of the formatter board that I ordered today works out, then everyone's printer should be fixable. Unfortunately, they run about $80 for a good used one, so there may be some out of pocket expense. Even though I know everyone is angry at HP (and rightfully so), it still beats spending $600+ for a new printer.

If it does work out, then I will share the formatter part number and instructions on how to replace it. It's not difficult to pull the side panel and remove the board (only requires a phillips screwdriver and spudger too), but you need to be carefully with all the ribbon cables going to the board.

[astaib]

Exactly same problem, same day here in France.

I cannot believe that nothing is doable to unbrick our printer.

The question is why did they blocked them???

[Sakalili]

I have tried everything ( Hard/ Soft) reset, disconnect everything , used a different computer, reset my router, removing HP cartridges, and list goes on. I even contacted HP and gave me some vague solutions that people tried over the forums and said that she will email me instructions then disconnected the call. I have a case open but no activity from HP's side. I am 100% sure that someone from HP  messed up and uploaded a bad file that bricks the motherboard on the printer. There is no way that you can do a factory recovery since the computer does not detect anything through the USB. I am not sure what to do but it has been couple of days of regretting buying an HP product.

This is a link to my previous post:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-Setup-Software-Drivers/HPLaserJet-pro-MFP-m281fdw-printer-stuc... 

[Pabba]

It's quite a popular model so I'm guessing there could be thousands of devices bricked as a result of this bad update. If the update was fully tested by the development team before being rolled out into production then this could have easily been avoided.

[JoopR]

Yeah, I was wondering how many printers would be (or wil get) affected. Still no official reaction from HP as far as I know.

[katherine73]

From my testing. the formatter board isn't 'active' long enough to perform a firmware update over USB. When the 49 error code comes up, it's only up long enough to recognize the printer, but not long enough to do an actual push a firmware update prior to the printer restarting. I've even tried to interrupt the rest process by inserting a USB memory stick (needs to be FAT file system formatted.) If you plug the memory stick in at the right time, the touchscreen UI (for printing off the USB memory stick) will indeed come up. However, once it gets the point in the start-up process where the 49 error code occurs, it will jump out of the touchscreen UI and display the 49 error code message before rebooting. The USB memory stick might delay things by 1-2 seconds at most, but it's still not close to being enough time to initiate a firmware update.

Without the right diagnostic tools and internal knowledge for how the formatter board works (which I'm sure HP won't share outside of their engineering team), I doubt there will be an easy way to recover.  I'm still going to go ahead with replacing the formatter board with a known-working, used replacement based on an older thread I read on this. Another user hit a similar problem in the past, and HP told them the formatter board needed to be replaced as they couldn't provide a way to recover it.

Otherwise, if anyway does get a hold of a support person at HP, please bring this thread to their attention. It's not just one printer that has this issue, it's many, many of them that have been bricked due to the buggy firmware update. We need HP's support team to escalate the ticket to the printer engineering team responsible for firmware. Otherwise, the L1-L2 support folks won't be able to help or resolve this issue without throwing hardware at the problem, and since everyone's printer is out of warranty, they're not going to do that without charging you for parts.

[JoopR]

I have been looking at our Chinese friends and found this one:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001948680756.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.dc4661d7uwRS7A&mp=1

I'm going to have to open my printer first to see if it's actually the same board as offered there. Hopefully it won't be neccesary to do this myself but if HP doesn't help in any way....

[katherine73]

T6B86-60001 is indeed the correct part number (I can verify it after disassembling my printer.) While I saw the Ali Express listing(s) for the replacement M281 formatter board, I was worried it wouldn't come with the right firmware already flashed on it (plus shipping would be longer than buying locally.) Since I don't have the right tooling or know-how to manually flash it, I didn't want to chance it. Instead I opted to get a used board from a nearby parts recycler (off Ebay). In addition, they guarantee the part if there's a problem with it (rather than having to deal with shipping back to China.)