M281cdw offline after firmware update

[skhall]

In the last two weeks I've had 5 clients report to me that their M281cdw printers would no longer print, along with an M251 and a CM1415fnw. Copies and scans continue to work, but whenever they try to print the job goes into the queue and sits there forever. These are separate networks, separate clients, different configurations, different ISPs, and different routers. All but one is wired. All of them require the ability to print out of their printers.

Checking control panel the devices are offline. The device will randomly go online (such as when HP Smart is opened to scan) but as soon as you try to print to them they go offline again. Each device uses a static IP address and WSD is disabled. The only other thing these M281cdw printers all have in common is that they're running the 20211109 firmware - which was automatically installed on each of them shortly before the problem began.  The on-printer diagnostics page and other pages will print, but sending a print job from a computer fails.

Nevertheless, I've removed and reinstalled the drivers. I've reset the printer settings. I've reassigned the network options and recreated the ports. I've tried clean installs on other computers. I've gone through the troubleshooting steps in c05087973 on multiple devices on multiple printers. On one of the printers the client even replaced all the toner ($400). No joy.

Quite simply: these printers no longer print.

There are several symptoms that suggest that the networking capabilities are damaged. For example, on the setting details page I notice that the DNS shows as "not specified." There is no longer a place to assign the DNS, so I suspect that the new version may have broken some of the native IPv4 functionality. In addition, having the printer check for updates on-device does not work, nor does the ability to have it test it's own network access. All fail with network-related errors.

I'd love to revert to the previous firmware version, but that won't work since the installer tries to send the firmware across the network as a print job...so it literally just sits in the print queue along with everything else.

I'm sure other people are experiencing this problem as well, since every single client I have with this printer started having problems at around the same time. Has anyone found a fix or a workaround?

Right now I'm shopping for printers to recommend from a different vendor. 

[jrboudreaux]

From the Win10 setting, go into the Devices and Printers, Find your printer, then click Printer Properties.  Now select the Ports tab at the top.  My M281CDW was set to the IP6...  port.  I selected the LAN ip address I assigned my printer as the Port, i.e. 192.169.1.xxx Standard TCP/IP port.  Seems to work short term.

[skhall]

We're already using static IPv4 addresses on the Ports tab on each device.  

[Repairatrooper]

If you have the old firmware installer, open the file with 7Zip and extract the .FUL2 from it and copy to a USB drive. Insert the drive in the USB slot of the printer and wait a couple of minutes, printer should prompt to update firmware and will install the old firmware without questioning you.

[skhall]

The firmware updates up to now have all been automatically installed and the product website only lists the current firmware. Is there another authoritative place to obtain the older firmware?

[skhall]

A new update has been released that claims that it resolves the problem. Since it will require installation through a USB stick I'll have to go onsite to try it out. Grrrr.

[skhall]

There isn't a .FUL2 file within the installation package. 

[jhj71]

Did the USB attempt work?  If so, how do I do it?  Mostly PC illiterate......

[jhj71]

Also, the print feature works on other PCs on the same LAN.  Why not on mine?  Maybe a combo of Microsoft updates and firmwaare updates (mine is current, apparently unfortunately).

[skhall · Accepted solution]

I'm afraid not.

The new firmware packages don't have the requisite FUL2 files inside, or they're not created in a fashion that allows you to simply unzip the installer to get at the file. 

I was able to install the firmware however by performing a factory reset on the printer while it was using an ethernet cable. When it came back up it was initially on the defective firmware, but about 20 minutes later it restarted on its own to install the newer firmware.

I successfully used this method on 4 of the 5 client networks where there was a problem and all four installed the update and were able to print again...after reconfiguring the static IP assignments post-firmware-upgrade. 

The fifth needed a printer too urgently so bought another printer (Epson ET) and literally threw away their HP M281 over this issue. I can't say I blame them.

Note that none of these printers would allow installing the firmware update unless the network settings were reset. There are other conditions as well: Your network must be using DHCP (common but not guaranteed) and the DNS has to be the same as the gateway (also not guaranteed). If you are using this on a corporate network the likelihood of the first is reduced but the likelihood of the second is about cut in half. For one of these devices I actually had to connect it to the guest network in order to install the update since the corp network did not meet these criteria.