HP Color Laser jet Pro MFP M281CDW- "Supply Problem"

[Joe204]

Not going to download a file from Google Drive and install it. I wouldn’t recommend anyone else do this, either. Sorry. HP service reps, please post a safe link to the previous firmware file. 

[jrla]

Brown_Man and Atdallas, you guys ROCK!!  Thanks to the step-by-step direction and the file provided, I was able to restore to the previous version.  And now I'm back in business!

Be sure to connect your printer to your computer by USB cable when you update.  Doing it by wi-fi did not seem to work.

I'm sorry to see that HP has now removed the link to the previous version in Brown_Man's post.

This is very bad practice on HP's part to deliberately brick the printer.

[jcouture22]

Omg I hooked up via usb and now my printer will not turn back on!!

[CrookedFirmware]

DO NOT UPDATE YOUR FIRMWARE if you use 3rd party toner.  HP is trying to force you to buy their overpriced toner with this underhanded move.  What's worse is that a fix that was once available has now been removed from the HP FTP for download (older firmware).  

[CrookedFirmware]

This is the LAST HP printer I will ever buy.  Your firmware deliberately disables 3rd party toner in an attempt to force the purchase of your expensive overpriced toner.

[AsBadAsComcast]

HP removed the link!  HP WHAT'S THE LINK TO THE SOFTWARE THAT EVERYONE NOW NEEDS TO DOWNGRADE TO!!!!!

Edit:  This will also be my very, very LAST HP product.  As the IT HW Manager for my company, that means a little bit more than if it was just my own life that has outlawed HP everything.  It's the worst customer service imaginable!

[CrookedFirmware]

We will likely need to start another class action lawsuit if they refuse to restore the download link.  In 2016 HP did the SAME THING and lost a class action suit for doing the exact  same thing.

The filename we need is one of these.  Once HP learned that customers were able to revert firmware and make their 3rd party toners usable again, they quickly took it down.

I've not been able to find a mirror, but I'm sure someone has this somewhere:

HP_LaserJet_Pro_M280_M281_Printer_series_20200612

file may end in .exe/.dmg

[atdallas]

The same happened for me too, and it was piling up in the printer queue and suddenly start saying programming in printer display and worked, later I delete others from the printer queue. I believe that has something to do with wifi, maybe file too big.

I am attaching the driver here since I lost the link because maybe HP intentionally removes the old driver because the same link shows now a new driver.

For companies like HP, this is a really bad business practice to break intentionally customer printer because the customer is using their right to save money and using after-market toners.  I do not see the attachment option only URL 😞

[CrookedFirmware]

Guys, at last there is another way.  HP blocked the ability to use the previous firmware executable file HP_LaserJet_Pro_M280_M281_Printer_series_20200612.exe, but you can do the downgrade using FTP if you follow these steps. Note, this solutions has only been confirmed to work on my HP Laser Jet MFP M281dfw.  It may work on similar models, but I cannot confirm.  You printer needs to be connected to your network for this method.

First, enable FTP printer on your printer via the web interface, make note of your printer's IP address.

Download the previous firmware here: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software/pfirmware/HP_LaserJet_Pro_M280_M281_Printer_series_20190419...

You can check the folder for other firmware if you have a different mode:

https://www.mmnt.net/db/0/3/ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software/pfirmware/

open a command prompt and change directory to where to saved the above file, and then connect to your printer's IP address using the windows FTP command, just press enter for login and password and enter the "put" command, will go something like this:

d:\downloads>ftp 192.168.1.100
Connected to 192.168.1.100
220 Service ready for new user.
500 Command unrecognized or unimplemented
User (192.168.1.100:(none)):
331 Enter password.
Password:
230 HP FTP Print Server Version 3.0.
ftp> put
Local file HP_LaserJet_Pro_M280_M281_Printer_series_20190419.rfu
Remote file HP_LaserJet_Pro_M280_M281_Printer_series_20190419.rfu
200 Port command successful.
150 Open BINARY mode data connection.
226-Ready
226 Ready
ftp: 20881748 bytes sent in 10.47Seconds 1994.44Kbytes/sec.
ftp> bye

If done properly, your printer will take about 5 minutes to install the firmware and you will be able to use your 3rd party toners again.

** DON"T FORGET THIS! - On your printer menu, disable check for new firmware, and make sure auto-install is not selected **

[atdallas]

I have it and happy to send, since I am not sure where I can load it and provide link. Love to help.