Has HP solved the P2015 formatter problem.

[DCO]

Sirs,

    At my company we have over 100 P2015s. Many are dying due to the well known formatter issue. These units are no longer under warrenty. We've decided to buy about 50 formatters to repair these, but before we do - will the new formatters be the re-engineered boards? (I hear they've discovered the circuit that caused the problem).

      Thanks,

                 DCO

[DexterM]

Hi DCO,

I suggest you post the same question in the HP Business Support Forums. Most of the users there are quite knowledgeable about Laserjets, and they should be able to help you.

HP Business Support Forums

[Hoser57 · Accepted solution]

This may sound crazy but our p-2015dn had the same problem until i  baked the formatter board as suggest on another forum.  I removed the board from the nonfunctional printer, remover the plastic tape/liner on right, then preheated the oven to 350f, placed the board upside down on three balls of aluminum foil on a cookie sheet, let bake for 8 minutes exactly, removed and let cool then installed and now have a working printer again!!!!!  Try this  with a bad formatter board - what have you got to lose.  May be a weak solider joint in the manufacturing process. But i worked for me.

[DCO]

Yes indeed,

       I also did the "Betty Crocker" technique....worked great.

    DCO

[Brian64]

I am on my fourth HP2015dn printer. All died just before or just after warranty expired, all with a bad formatter board. That is not some unlucky random chance! Spare me. I got 100% in my college statistics class. The odds of that are astronomical, unless the product is defective. 

So I baked the formatter board. And it worked, for about two weeks. So I baked it again. And it worked for another week. The problem is common and well documented. HP went to a more "green" soldering process that resulted in bad chip connections on the formatter board. Kudos for going green, but what about testing the product before shipping? How about repairing your reputation by making it right to the buyers of your clearly defective product? This is ridiculous. I am the techie guru for my group of acquaintances, and a lot of people ask me what products to buy. I used to recommend HP printers. Not any more. This is just not right. How can I buy, or recommend a product from this company again? 

[JamesVoss]

David,

I agree. It's a bit pathetic! I would never buy another HP Product again.

[diaperdad]

If they solved the problem, but dont give a free formatter, or network card, but just shy of spending a lot of cash,  A suggestion:

Cook the board. we did and it works nicely.

380 F....5 minutes. Let it sit overnight

We fix out of warranty printers, and the latest batch all have the same problem.

we are getting quite good in the kitchen.

[al_]

my company has seveal p2015 printers..

my marketing manager brought to my attention an inoperative formatter bd..he checked hp forum (this site) and showed me some reports on heating the board to solve the problem..he asked how I might accomplish this..I remarked that it may NOT be necessary to heat the whole bd..just r4eheat the bga..

I used a hot air  rework setup with a one inch shroud on the nozzle..I set the temp to 450 f degrees  and placed the board bga under the shroud with a nominal 1/16 inch gap..I then turned on the hot air and moved the board about 1 inch around the bga to preheat the area..about 30 seconds..then I placed the bga under the shroud and ramped up my temp to about 175 f degrees and prewarmed the bga..about 30 seconds .. then I raised the prewarm higher to 300 f and let it stay for about 30 seconds..then I again raised the temp to  450f and let it ramp up to 450 and held it there for about one minute..then I shut off the hot air, and kept  the nozzle over the bga to let the cooling nozzle also cool the bga..until the temp fell to under 170 f..then I let the board cool off on the bench until cool enough to handle..

Then the board was reinstalled into the printer..The printer was turned on..and the led start sequence occurred (the start sequence took about 10 seconds to initiate )  a print test was initiated and the page printed ..correctly ..perhaps this technique will work for you..

[mmates]

I have a P2015 and have baked mine for about 4 times in the last 4 years.  About a year ago, I decided to try something different by turning off the printer in between print jobs to extend the life of the board before it needed to be baked again.  Well although it appeared to work better, it was causing me problems I wasn't aware of.  When I connected the printer to a newer computer with Win 7 x64, it would sometimes print error pages instead.  I was convinced it was a driver issue.  Previously, I knew it was time to bake the board when the computer would not recognize the printer anymore.  So, I decided to bake it again to see if the printer worked better in Win 7 x64 and so far it has been flawless.

Thought I'd update this post:  I finally broke down and bought a new printer.  I now don't believe my earlier post is accurate.  It seems the only time this P2015d printer works is soon after I turn it on.  If I try to print to it after its been on for a while and/or sleeping, I get error codes printed only.  If anyone has a fix for that, I would be grateful.  If not, this P2015d will be going to the dump.

[KGoods]

Just wanted to thank whoever suggested baking the board. My boss has this printer and it would only show the paper jam light when turned on. It had been displying problems for a week or two.

I made some standoffs out of foil (4, one for each mounting pad) Put the board on the standoffs on a broiler pan component side up and preheated the oven to 380f. Placed it in the oven for 8 minutes then opened the door, gently slid out the rack and left it like that for 20 minutes or so. 

I didn't remove the Black shield from the memory card slot and it melted a little, almost like shrink tubing, but it's fine. Put it all back together and it's working perfect. For how long is anybodys guess but for now it's working better than ever. 

Good trick to know. Probably could have rescued a couple other cards (video) this way.